How Does ADHD Affect Cognitive Development?

This research will focus on young students with Attention Deficit Hypertension Disorder (ADHD). This disorder can be detrimental to a young child social and academic growth. Peer involvement is a very essential ingredient to growing socially and academically which is a part of cognitive development. Throughout this paper I will identify ways to help students with ADHD successfully succeed.

Is it too late? Many parents, teachers, and friends wonder is it too late to gain control of this life changing disorder known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The answer is no. It is not too late to gain control of ADHD. ADHD could take on other characteristic such as “poor sustained attention and vigilance and diminished rule-governed behavior.” (Gottlieb, Shoaf & Risa,2006, pg.53) There are many practices which could be used in order to help the child with ADHD. One important part of growing could be affected by ADHD and it is cognitive development. As mentioned by a textbook, cognitive development is the structure of processing thought and how knowledge is gain and understood through interaction according to (Vaughn, Bos, Schumm, 2003, pg.55). Cognitive development is learned and is build upon throughout life. Studies have shown how the area of a social and academic aspect of cognitive development can be interrupted by ADHD. The disorder can pose a barrier between behaving expectantly and behaving against what is expected. Research has given many practices which could be used to help a student with ADHD.

There are many reading ( I don’t think you need to state anything about your readings or books, just quote them if you use it) of how to control this disorder and readings of how to suppress this disorder. Depending on the child the method used to help the child may differ. David Gottlieb, Ph. D. Thomas Shoaf, M.D. and Risa Graff, M.A. (put the year in here) took part in writing “Why is My Child ADHD not better yet?” This book addresses many traits which may be exhibited from a child with ADHD. It discusses how to teach a child to control certain behaviors as well as how long it may take to break those behaviors.( How, you could talk about how it breaks it down) Another reading which I( you cannot use the word “I” in your paper) will refer back to is a textbook titled “Teaching Exceptional, Diverse, and At-Risk Students in the General Education Classroom 3rd. Edition” ( no ” in the title) by Sharon Vaughn, Candace S. Bos, Jeanne Shay Schumm. This reading describes many types on disorders including ADHD. It also breaks down the definition of this disorder and gives examples of how children with ADHD may behave when surrounded by peers. There is a few more reading I may refer to but these are the two which address more realistic traits and realistic ways of helping children without the use of medicines.

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The first part of treating the disorder is to build cognitive strategies, which helps to recognize that there is an extreme problem with behavior. This should be a family involvement. Not only should the child know when ADHD is in control but the family needs to also know when not to add more stress to the child. The world family in this instance refers to anyone involved with this child. The family should also define what is not acceptable and what actions should take place after such behaviors are observed. As mentioned in the first part of this paragraph; the first step is to make the child aware of their behavior during all types of emotional experiences. For example the child needs to know how they act when ADHD takes control of them. The child needs to learn how this feels so that once it happens they will know how to control it rather than it (ADHD) controlling them (child). There are many ways to teach the child how to realize what type of behavior they are displaying. As mentioned in “Why is my child’s ADHA not better yet?”( you do not need the title of the book since you stated early, you only need this (Gottlieb, Shoaf & Risa,2006, pg.53) the authors state ways to help the child visually see or hear a description of their behavior. First practice was to use picture cards which show different mood or which displays different emotions. Another way was to use color word phrases such as “red hot” meaning very mad (Gottlieb, Shoaf & Risa,2006, pg.55). The main idea behind this is for self recognition. This teaches the child how to label their emotions. Being able to know there is a behavioral problem before the problem and knowing what kind of emotion is being displayed is needed in order to make corrections.

The first step to helping a child with ADHD is to accept that the child has a disorder. Most parents refuses to accept the disorder which creates more problems. Instead of trying to correct and replace negative behavior with right and positive behavior, the parent tries reinforcement or punishments which makes the child decrease or eliminate that action or reaction completely. That is not the outcome needed in order for that child to progress. Parents could start assisting their child with ADHD in everything, just to see when the child acts out, before the child enters a public setting. This way the parent could help the child replace that negative action or reaction with a positive action or reaction. Parents could try to sit and talk with the child find out what bothers them and how could it be fixed. This way the child has already faced whatever bothers them ahead of time.

Self recognition of ADHD behavioral problems is followed by self corrections. Before making correction the family needs to explain how the reward of self correction works. Once the child continues to display such acceptable behavior then the rewarding such slowly subside. While correcting unacceptable or unexpected behavior more time and patience will be needed from the family. Once the family sees the child getting frustrated they should let the child known in a discrete way what type of behavior they are displaying. This is just to let the child know what type of behavior they are displaying. This is not to discourage the child. Once the child sees what type of mood they are exhibiting then show child things they could do in order to display a behavior much different than the current behavior. Teaching the child how to self recognize and self correct are cognitive strategies that will be needed in order to hold a respectful social interaction with peers.

Once this is set in place the child will be able to recognize when they are beginning to get upset and before any unacceptable behavior is brought forth the child would administer self correction. This will keep the child from being outcast by peers, and will help the child concentrate on tasks at hand. By controlling a behavior before it is recognized by others will build self confidence. The hyperactivity part of ADHD describes the behavior of the student with this disorder. It represents the child’s fidgeting or squirming, difficult time remaining on task, difficult playing quietly, talking too much, and but not limited to interrupting other students conversation. The child will feel a sense of self control over the disorder. One of the key ingredients in academic success for young students is peer involvement. Being accepted and not ignored during school hours. Peer involvement includes group discussion during class, social time during lunch, teamwork during physical education and most of all the personal time during recess. A student with ADHD will struggle to fit in with peers if they do not have cognitive strategies of controlling their ADHD. Control of this disorder means being able to communicate with others without getting overly excited, remaining on task during assignments, remaining alert, and focusing while the teacher is teaching (Vaughn, Bos, Schumm, 2003, pg.55) Having control of the disorder will reduce peer rejection, increase attention spans, and increase classroom involvement. This will increase the child’s chances of succeeding academically.

The beginning of this paper mentioned that researchers have studied how the social and academic part of cognitive development is affected by ADHD. The reading mentioned many ways of gaining control of the disorder. A couple of practices were mentioned learning how early elementary students with ADHD interact socially among peers. The way students interact socially will forever go through changes and more research will be researched. It is known that social interaction is critical to how students learn certain lifelong traits. Students need traits like understanding that others have feeling, being independent, and having self confidence. All these traits are necessary to succeed in life. Students now mature early, so it is important to install in them the correct way to social interact. It is like any other student not one student will be exactly like another student. Students with ADHD and students without need the knowledge of how to treat others and how to accept others. Students with ADHD should not struggle with being accepted by peers. It will take a group effort to help students with ADHD because it is a important make students feel accepted especially while in a school setting