My career ambition is to work with children with behavioural difficulties...
Some children have a mental disorder called ADHD
syndrome which causes difficulties concentrating, memorizing, speaking, coordinating their movements or being able to stay still. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder
is suffered by several thousands of children worldwide.
It is very difficult to take care of a child
with ADHD because he requires complete attention and a lot of patience. One
needs a real capacity to listen to a child with ADHD, who often rejects authority.
It is also very difficult to play with a hyperactive child. The number of diagnoses
of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has ballooned over the past decades. Before the early 1990s, fewer than 5% of school-age kids were thought
to have ADHD syndrome. Earlier this year, data from the Centre for Disease
Control and Prevention showed that 11% of children aged 4 to 17 had been
diagnosed with ADHD. Moreover this disease affects more boys than girls: 12.4%
of boys aged 3 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD against 4.7% of girls.
There are treatments which can help improve behaviour
but do not solve the problem. Ritalin, for example, can help a child to concentrate
and be calmer. But we have to be very cautious with these treatments because
they can lead to new problems; Ritalin can cause seizures, heart failure,
emotional problems, and suicidal thoughts as well. Many adolescents have become
addicted. Nowadays, the side-effects are well known and can be better managed.
In some schools, there are special classes or activities which can help children with ADHD live
as normally as possible.
This year, I supervised, with other volunteers,
a group of 6 to10 year olds during one week. We had two ADHD boys in the group.
It was not easy to interest them during the activities because they were not
able to keep up their level of concentration for long. They could not sit still
at all, made a lot of noise, and were sometimes violent. They needed our constant
and undivided attention. However, I enjoyed playing with them: I had to find
solutions and strategies to get them interested in the activities. What was
difficult to deal with is the way they monopolized our attention though there
were other children present. Because of their behaviour they were often
rejected by the other children during the games and, sadly, even by some of the
volunteers...
A friend’s son, Nolan, now aged 8, was
diagnosed as an ADHD-child when he was 5. He moves around a lot, shouts all the
time, and seeks attention from others constantly. He takes Ritalin, even
though this treatment can have negative effects on him. His mother told
me it allows him to be calmer, especially in class. Usually he can only concentrate for
about five minutes on a particular activity, but with Ritalin he can
concentrate longer. He does a lot of sport, including tennis, climbing, and
judo, which also allows him to control his hyperactivity.
I asked his mother what the biggest difficulty
with an ADHD child is. She answered that it was others’ prejudices: people don’t
understand this kind of behaviour. For example, when she is in the tram with
her son, Nolan can’t keep quiet, he speaks very loudly and she often gets
criticised about her son’s behaviour. People think she is incapable of raising her son
properly... A child like Nolan requires a lot of patience and his mother always has
to look after him to avoid him getting hurt. But despite his hyperactivity, he
is a lovable boy with good intentions and I like him a lot.
I would like to be a teacher for children who
have behavioural or psychological difficulties, including ADHD children, helping
them to the best of my abilities to live a decent life.
Article by Mathilde K.
