We just knew that at age two, the only way to keep Trevor at the table was to let him walk on top of it. The only thing that would keep him sitting for more that five minutes was a toy or movie about airplanes. The ADD child "can sit for hours with an activity of his choice but has difficultly sticking with chores or school work for more than a few minutes" (Ingersoll and Goldstein, 12). .
The family is not to blame for a child having or developing ADD. I know not to blame my mom for the way she raised him, and gave into everything that he wanted even when telling me that I could not have it. ADD is not the result of environment, but is a neurobiological condition that affects the levels of dopamine in the brain (Quinn, 2). It was thought for a while that serotonin levels played a part in ADD, but later discovered that was not the case. Research "links the frontal lobes, particularly the prefrontal cortex and limbic systems, to motivation, attention, activity and emotional responsiveness" (Quinn, 3) which cause the symptoms found in deficit children and adults. Scientists in Denmark found, using a CT scan, that every ADHD child tested had less blood flow to those frontal lobes than in the normal brain (Ingersoll and Goldstein, 34).
ADD is not the only attention disorder. ADHD, which is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is another. In many studies comparing the two attention disorders, children who met the criteria for ADD without hyperactivity were very "behaviorally different from those children with the hyperactivity component" (Quinn, 7). Children without the hyperactivity have less serious conduct problems, they are less impulsive, and less rejected, but also more withdrawn.
Even though in the case that I am most familiar with the signs of ADD did not seem to start until age two, research says that it starts in infantry. As an infant, one is not completely diagnosed as having ADD, but many psychologists believe that the child is "at risk" of having it later on.
