What is "ADHD" ?

ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. In all of us, the frontal lobe, or front part, of the brain is responsible for our executive functions. In those of us who have ADHD, executive functions are affected.

There are a lot of the things that people associate with ADHD, such as forgetfulness, procrastination, cluttered rooms and book bags, and attention that skips around to different topics. The attention doesn’t return to the topic at hand. If someone has a diagnosis of ADHD, it’s likely that they’re not doing these things on purpose. They do it because the frontal lobe of their brain doesn’t carry out executive functions as well.

A person with ADHD may struggle with inhibition (Brown, 2013). Think of inhibition as our ability to hold back actions that we want to take or words we want to say. Inhibition is also the ability to hold back from experiencing all of the intensity that a feeling can have. Inhibition is the ability to slow down how much we feel in that moment.

Having ADHD can also impact a child or adult’s time management skills (Brown, 2013). These are skills that involve coming up with a realistic game plan for getting something done. This includes starting it, prioritizing big steps, ignoring details that don’t matter, and finishing the overall project.

Those are just some of the executive functions that ADHD affects.

The strategies that are used for treating children, teens, and adults who have ADHD are different according to the life stage that they’re in. You can also take into consideration that the use of strategies occur in different areas within a person’s life. This can include their home life as a child with self-care routines, as a roommate with divided house chores, as someone who is trying to make new friends, or as an employee or student with responsibilities and deadlines.

The role of occupational therapy is not to replace the use of medication. It’s to provide strategies so that the child can complete their self-care routines and smoothly transition between activities. It could also be for young adults to have a chance at fully attaining the education that their curriculum offers.

Written by Jeannie Tso

References:

Brown, T. E. (2013). A New Understanding of ADHD in Children and Adults: Executive Function Impairments. New York: Routledge.