Children who are inattentive have a hard time
keeping their minds on any one thing and may get bored with a task after only a
few minutes. If they are doing something they really enjoy, they have no trouble
paying attention. But focusing deliberate, conscious attention to organizing and
completing a task or learning something new is difficult.
Homework is particularly hard for these children. They will forget to write down
an assignment, or leave it at school. They will forget to bring a book home, or
bring the wrong one. The homework, if finally finished, is full of errors and
erasures. Homework is often accompanied by frustration for both parent and
child.
The DSM-IV-TR gives these signs of inattention:
Often becoming easily distracted by irrelevant sights and sounds
Often failing to pay attention to details and making careless mistakes
Rarely following instructions carefully and completely losing or forgetting
things like toys, or pencils, books, and tools needed for a task
Often skipping from one uncompleted activity to another.
Children diagnosed with the Predominantly Inattentive Type of ADHD are seldom
impulsive or hyperactive, yet they have significant problems paying attention.
They appear to be daydreaming, "spacey," easily confused, slow moving, and
lethargic. They may have difficulty processing information as quickly and
accurately as other children. When the teacher gives oral or even written
instructions, this child has a hard time understanding what he or she is
supposed to do and makes frequent mistakes. Yet the child may sit quietly,
unobtrusively, and even appear to be working but not fully attending to or
understanding the task and the instructions.
These children don't show significant problems with impulsivity and overactivity
in the classroom, on the school ground, or at home. They may get along better
with other children than the more impulsive and hyperactive types of ADHD, and
they may not have the same sorts of social problems so common with the combined
type of ADHD. So often their problems with inattention are overlooked. But they
need help just as much as children with other types of ADHD, who cause more
obvious problems in the classroom.
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