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Antonio Guevara

Dr. Sharity Nelson

English 1302-104

30 September 2021

Attention Disorders

American culture has gone through a lot of changes over the past few year but till this

day parents want what is best for their children. ADD & ADHD have become increasingly

diagnosed in younger children. Although not a lot of people now a days are not informed about

the side effects, or results of the medication and other information the two disorders are still well

known. No one knows why children get these disorders but it can be hereditary in some cases. If

a child does not get diagnosed when he or she is very young later on they will have trouble in

school and social lives in their teens and adulthood. Medication does help a lot with these

disorders but it all depends on the dosage of each prescription. Some families cannot afford the

medication since it is very expensive without insurance. This paper will go over how people cope

and are affected with ADD and ADHD.

In an article explaining what ADHD is it states that, “Attention deficit/hyperactivity

disorder(ADHD) is a chronic, debilitating disorder which may impact upon many aspects of an

individual’s life, including academic difficulties’, social skills problems, and strained parent-

child relationships.” (Harpin, 1). Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) often begins in childhood

and can continue into adulthood. ADD can affect one’s self-esteem, relationships, and also will

make it difficult at school and work. ADD can come with different symptoms. These symptoms

are inattention, distractibility, and poor working memory. Most people struggle with it in their

childhood but some grow out of it. However, some children continue to live with ADHD into
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their adulthood it is proven to be true in an article saying, “Although considered a disorder of

childhood, (ADHD) can persist into adulthood, with the severity of adult symptoms being

corelated with those observed during childhood. Worldwide prevalence of ADHD in adults has

been estimated to range from 3.4% to 4.4%.” (Sarkis, 2). This evidence helps the case of

adulthood ADHD since it stated numbers proving it to be true.

Children with ADHD experience social difficulties. In an article that talks about social

functioning in ADHD it states that, “It is estimated that approximately 50-60% of ADHD

children experience rejection by their peers, whereas only 13-16% of children in elementary

school classrooms are rejected.” Study shows that most children with ADHD become loners and

very antisocial. It also carries on throughout their teens and adulthood. The article states,

“Specific play behaviors have been linked with resulting rejection in ADHD children and include

being: bossy, intrusive, inflexible, controlling, annoying, explosive, argumentative, easily

frustrated, inattentive during organized sports/games, and violating the rules of the game.”

(Carpenter, 3). Also, in the classroom kids are most likely to not participate or start going off

task. ADHD also affects learning by inhibiting the child’s ability to hold focus. Not paying

attention in class makes it very hard to remember what the teacher or professor was saying

regarding lessons, assignments and due dates.

There are several varieties of medication to treat people with ADD/ADHD. In an article

about medicating for ADD/ADHD twenty college students were interviewed about their past and

present experiences with taking medications for Attention Deficit Disorder. In the late 1930s a

man named Bradley discovered a stimulant medication. The article states that, “When Bradley

discovered the paradoxical effect that stimulant medication clamed hyperactive behavior in

children in the late 1930s, he lay the groundwork for the increasing discussion, diagnosis and
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treatment of hyperactivity in the United States.” (Davis-Berman, Pestello, 1). This was a ground

breaking discovery for the ADD/ADHD community because back then there was no medication

to treat the disorders so the disorder will keep being a problem for the patients with it. Nowadays

there is medicine that treat ADD/ADHD and it is very affective in children. If children don’t get

medicated in the early stages of their disorder then they will grow up to have a lot of problems in

their social life and academically.

Sadly, in today’s society there are cases of discrimination. Discrimination has been going

on for quite some time in the U.S. because of people having a different color of their skin or their

cultural background. However, believe it or not people with ADHD and ADD also get

discriminated. In an article about ADD/ADHD in the workplace and discrimination it says, “As a

result, the DDA proscribes less favorable treatment only when it occurs because of the fact that

the person has ADHD.” (ARNOLD et al, 18). It is sad to see that also people with ADD/ADHD

get discriminated in some occasions just because they have a disorder. They are still human just

as the rest of the population on this planet. However, there is a law that protects people with

ADHD if they do get discriminated it is called the Rehabilitation Act, Section 504. The act does

not allow discrimination in the workplace against qualified employees who have a physical or

mental impairment. It is good that the government protect people with ADHD because everyone

should be treated equally in the workplace.

Present time college students go through a lot of stress because of all the work they have

to complete for their classes. There is an article about first year college students with ADHD or

LD. The article studies the ways first year college students with ADHD, LD, ADHD+LD, and

compare peers differ in engagement, core self evaluation, preparation for high school, and

goals/expectations. The author starts off by saying, “Two of the most common disabilities
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reported by college students are attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning

disabilities (LD). For example, a recent nationally representative survey of first-year college

students indicated that 5% had been diagnosed with ADHD and 2.9% had been identified with

LD.” (DuPaul et al, 1). This evidence supports the authors’ claim on how many students are

diagnosed with ADHD and LD. Surprisingly, there are multiple articles stating how there are a

big number of students in college who are diagnosed with ADHD and LD, and a lot of people do

not notice. There is another article that talks about students with ADHD and how they approach

tasks and plan. The article states, “Problems with organization and adopting a thoughtful

reflective approach toward tasks are symptomatic of ADHD. Because of problems with

impulsivity, students with ADHD rarely take the time to plan an activity. They seldom analyze a

task to determine the behaviors needed to complete the task, and also may be unable to

effectively combine the behaviors needed to accomplish a task.” (Johnson et al, 2). This passage

shows how students with ADHD approach tasks differently than others. For younger students,

their teachers sometimes do not know how to handle kids with ADHD and so they end up

struggling to help them. An article on reading strategies for students with ADD and ADHD

states, “Teachers need to pick and choose from a variety of strategies and accommodations to

meet the individual needs of all students—those with disabilities and those without.” (Ostoits, 1).

This happens to be true because some teachers are not prepared to teach students with ADD and

ADHD. Sometimes they are either not trained well or they were not trained at all. However,

there are teachers who do really well teaching those with the disorder.

Throughout this paper the research identifies that ADD and ADHD is a real problem and

a lot of people need to know about it. The research in this paper was to educate the reader more

on how people with ADD and ADHD struggle in school, at work, and also in their social lives.
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People with the disorder have problems in their life and there are some who do not. In

conclusion, this research was conducted to help the reader know the struggles of ADD and

ADHD.
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Works Cited

Carpenter Rich E, et al. “Social Functioning Difficulties in Adhd: Association with Pdd Risk.”

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 14, no. 3, 2009, pp. 329–44.,

doi:10.1177/1359104508100890.

Harpin, V. A. “The Effect of Adhd on the Life of an Individual, Their Family, and Community

from Preschool to Adult Life.” Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 90, 2005, p. 7.

Sarkis E. “Addressing Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in the Workplace.”

Postgraduate Medicine, vol. 126, no. 5, 2014, pp. 25–30., doi:10.3810/pgm.2014.09.2797.

Davis-Berman, Jennifer L, and Frances G Pestello. “Medicating for Add/Adhd: Personal and

Social Issues.” International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, vol. 8, no. 3, 2010,

pp. 482–492., doi:10.1007/s11469-008-9167-z.

ARNOLD, Bruce, et al. “It Just Doesn't Add Up : Adhd / Add, the Workplace and

Discrimination.” Melbourne University Law Review, vol. 34, no. 2, 2010, pp. 359–391.

DuPaul GJ, et al. “First-Year College Students with Adhd and/or Ld.” Journal of Learning

Disabilities, vol. 50, no. 3, 2017, pp. 238–251., doi:10.1177/0022219415617164.

Ostoits, Jean. “Reading Strategies for Students with Add and Adhd in the Inclusive Classroom.”

Preventing School Failure, vol. 43, no. 3, 1999, pp. 129–32.