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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › What ADHD actually is
Two people with the same diagnosis can look nothing alike: one talkative and always moving, the other quiet and away inside their own head. Other conditions often ride along with it, which changes the picture again. When you read about it, take what fits and leave what does not, rather than deciding you must be the wrong sort of case.
The creation of the heavens and earth, and the diversity of your languages and colours. There truly are signs in this for those who know (Quran 30:22). Difference between people is presented there as a sign, not as a fault in the design.
الروم
وَمِنۡ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ خَلۡقُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَٱخۡتِلَٰفُ أَلۡسِنَتِكُمۡ وَأَلۡوَٰنِكُمۡۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَأٓيَٰتࣲ لِّلۡعَٰلِمِينَ
Another of His signs is the creation of the heavens and earth, and the diversity of your languages and colours. There truly are signs in this for those who know
Qur’an 30:22read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A review of the genetics of ADHD reports that twin and family studies make it substantially heritable, while being clear that it is genetically heterogeneous rather than traceable to one cause. A separate review finds ADHD and autism co-occur very frequently and share heritable factors, so overlapping traits are expected rather than anomalous. Both work at the level of groups, and neither tells you which particular mix you have.
Sharp SI, McQuillin A, Gurling HM. (2009). Genetics of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).. Neuropharmacology doi
Rommelse NN, Franke B, Geurts HM, Hartman CA, Buitelaar JK. (2010). Shared heritability of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.. European child & adolescent psychiatry doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Many small inherited influences combine differently in each person, so the same underlying difficulty comes out in different shapes.
Set jobs at the level the child can manage now, then build up. A task pitched at their age that ends in a row every week mainly teaches them they are hopeless at chores.
A child who is tall for their age gets treated as older, and with ADHD their self-management may be running years behind. Pitch what you expect to the skills in front of you rather than to the height.
Telling parents that their child's self-management is running behind their age usually brings relief rather than alarm. It names something they had already noticed and had been blaming somebody for.