What is Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder?
             You have probably heard and may even have used the term hyperactivity. The notion is a modern one: there were no hyperactive children 50 to 60 years ago. Today, if anything, the term is applied too often and too widely. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) estimates that all teachers have in their classrooms at least one child with ADHD (Simmons, RG. 1993). Actually, hyperactivity is not one particular condition: it is "a set of behaviors" such as excessive restlessness and short attention span that are quantitatively and qualitatively different from those children of the same sex, mental age, and socioeconomic status (Gutskey, T.R. 1991). Today most psychologists agree that the main problem for children labeled hyperactive is directing and maintaining attention, not simply controlling their physical activity. The American Psychiatric Association has established a diagnostic category called attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to identify children with this problem.
             Professionals who diagnose ADHD use the diagnostic criteria set forth by the American Psychiatric Association (1994) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: the fourth edition of this manual, known as the DSM-IV, was released in May 1994 (Soar, R.S. & Soar, R.M. 1994).
             The primary features associated with the disability are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. A child with ADHD is usually described as having a short attention span and as being distractible. In actuality, distractibility and inattentiveness are not synonymous.
             Distractibility refers to the short attention span and the ease with which some children can be pulled off task. Attention, on the other hand, is a process that has dif...