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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › What ADHD actually is
The parts of these tests that are timed, or that ask you to hold numbers in your head, are exactly the parts untreated ADHD drags down, and they pull the overall figure with them. Ask what the testing conditions were and get them written into the report. Where a placement decision rests on a score obtained on an off day, that decision is worth challenging.
Give full measure and weight, according to justice (Quran 6:152). Measuring a person fairly is a matter of justice, and that includes the conditions you measure them under.
الأنعام
وَلَا تَقۡرَبُواْ مَالَ ٱلۡيَتِيمِ إِلَّا بِٱلَّتِي هِيَ أَحۡسَنُ حَتَّىٰ يَبۡلُغَ أَشُدَّهُۥۚ وَأَوۡفُواْ ٱلۡكَيۡلَ وَٱلۡمِيزَانَ بِٱلۡقِسۡطِۖ لَا نُكَلِّفُ نَفۡسًا إِلَّا وُسۡعَهَاۖ وَإِذَا قُلۡتُمۡ فَٱعۡدِلُواْ وَلَوۡ كَانَ ذَا قُرۡبَىٰۖ وَبِعَهۡدِ ٱللَّهِ أَوۡفُواْۚ ذَٰلِكُمۡ وَصَّىٰكُم بِهِۦ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَذَكَّرُونَ
Stay well away from the property of orphans, except with the best [intentions], until they come of age; give full measure and weight, according to justice’- We do not burden any soul with more than it can bear- ‘ when you speak, be just, even if it concerns a relative; keep any promises you make in God’s name. This is what He commands you to do, so that you may take heed’
Qur’an 6:152read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A meta-analysis of imaging studies examined what stimulant medication actually does to brain function in ADHD, an area far less understood than its effect on symptoms. It supports the idea that the brain is doing something different on and off medication. It did not measure test scores, so treat the point about test conditions as reasoning rather than a finding.
Rubia K, Alegria AA, Cubillo AI, Smith AB, Brammer MJ, Radua J. (2014). Effects of stimulants on brain function in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.. Biological psychiatry doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A test measures how someone performed under those conditions, and the conditions matter more here than for most people.
Some families make it a house rule that driving happens only on a day the medication has been taken. It works because it ties a privilege to safety rather than to obedience.
Plenty of people with ADHD do far better in hands-on work than in another four years of sitting in a classroom. Wanting a trade is a reasonable read of your own mind, not giving up.
Plenty of adults with ADHD grew up being called lazy, difficult or naughty, and some were punished in ways nobody would allow now. That history usually needs saying out loud, because it left a belief behind.