ADHD Symptoms in Children
Return to Your Child’s ADHD Is an Iceberg

Your Child’s ADHD Is an Iceberg

Attention deficit disorder is multi-faceted, far-reaching, and largely hidden. What caregivers and educators see poking above the surface are just a fraction of ADHD symptoms. This is critical to keep in mind, and to guide your daily teaching and learning tactics.

6 Comments: Your Child’s ADHD Is an Iceberg

Jump to Add Your Comment

  1. In what way is counseling helping you as an adult? Is it gaining an understanding and acceptance of your ADHD or related conditions? If yes, why does understanding help? How do you use your self understanding? I get frustrated by articles that tell you about areas of difficulty, but do not provide real life examples, so your comment made me want more detail in the same way the articles frequently do. If you feel you can share more details, I would find it very helpful. Thank you.

  2. Growing up, the only form of treatment I was given for my ADHD was medication. Now I’m in counseling, which is great, and I’ve learned so much about my ADHD this year. I wish I had known in my late teens and early 20s more about ADHD and its impact on behavior.

  3. Hi Penny, I am pretty sure I have told you this before….but what a wonderful, short, encompassing, article. I just sent it on to a parent I am trying to help. And, it will go to the top of my bookmarked sites.
    One quick thought, due to my work on a child behavior site. We get a LOT of questions about pooping, peeing in pants. Many times it is due (I feel) to adhd related issues. Numbers 7,8, and 9 on your list or just the good ole spontaneity of adhd.
    Wonder if you have any/many discussions about this issue. And, it is usually with undiagnosed or unmediated elementary school kids.

    Anyway, loved your article. Keep it coming. gotta buy your book.

    1. Thanks for your kind words! Took me many, many years to recognize all of this. As for your question, you may want to read about encopresis — I think it’s slightly common, but not necessarily an inattention thing. There are many biological possibilities for both, but I think sensory issues are often also at play with that struggle.

      Penny
      ADDitude Community Moderator, Parenting ADHD Trainer & Author, Mom to teen w/ ADHD, LDs, and autism

      1. Hi Penny,
        Yes, I am well aware of encopresis. Here is a link I use a lot. Its very understandable and actually written for kids, but I think is mainly for parents to use with the kids. Since it is from Australia and done in the early 80’s you may not have seen it. I still think its one of the best around. The link is …
        http://www.dulwichcentre.com.au/beating-sneaky-poo-1.pdf

      2. I was acquainted with the WWK3 and thought it was enough to help bring up my nephew. Thank you for beating-sneaky-poo-1.pdf, this in many ways explained the situation I was in. It turns out that not only endurance and patience with my nephew, it is also important to know how to act when poop and piss in diapers. My sister and I tried to seat the child on the toilet and loudly pour water from a large cup into a basin. The jet at the same time was such that the sound of the water that flows is the maximum. The cup was held at a height of one and a half meters. It sometimes worked and sometimes not. After that, I turned to Google and found in posts from Canada that it was good to hold the hands of the child in a basin with water at room temperature. Water cools the acupressure points in the palms of a child and this helps strengthen the signal to the bladder. This was supposed to provoke urination. The cooling of the child’s hands, plus the sound of pouring water, together with increased the number of incidents of urination provoked. However, this did not resolve the issue – the pampers were sometimes wet anyway. Google helped again. Quite by chance, I found a description of the unsuccessful demonstration of Pavlov’s experience in acquired reflexes to Sechenov. The salivation of the dog on the light and sound signal after a long workout. So the signal went off (the light came on and the bell rang), but the dog didn’t saliva. There was a confusion of the professor in front of the students. Then it turned out that as soon as the dog peed, the experience could be reproduced correctly. It inspired me as a student, and I began to measure the time between the release of the child’s bladder. My guess was justified. If you put a child on the toilet, when 75-80% of the time through which he usually pees passed, then success is guaranteed. So we solved our problem and the child began to urinate when we sat him on the toilet. Less than one month later, the full success of the diapers came to be dry. Only once every two weeks the child urinated in the diapers at night. I think that if you limit the drinking of liquid, and sit on the toilet of the child for about 2-3 hours a.m. then we will achieve results with time.

Leave a Reply