In the contemporary world, science plays a vital role in the treatment of human beings, disregarding the complexity of the disease or dysfunction. The progress in the development of medications and treatments has resulted into significant results in helping people overcome their everyday difficulties. Psychology is one of the areas that has a lot more to offer children today than it did fifty years ago.  Evidently, many learning disabilities that we recognize today were not diagnosable back in 1950’s. The discovery of Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children is a vivid example of the development of diagnostics in medicine and psychology. In my research paper, I will distinguish the meaning and consequences of Attention Deficit Disorder, ways of treatment of the disease, and demonstrate the effect of various treatments on children through real examples. I am going to pay much attention to identifying the positive outcomes in the treatment of the disorder, when the mixture of medication and therapy was exercised. My goal is to prove that professional psychotherapy combined with proper medications is a key to success in fighting Attention Deficit Disorder.

Firstly, let us clearly realize what exactly Attention Deficit Disorder is and why it has a negative impact on children and adults. According to most scholars, ADD is simply an inability to stay focused on a particular subject or activity. In other words, it is an illness that prevents children from paying proper attention to important things. Though the disease is still not well-researched, we do know that it interferes with a person’s capability to sort out information. Most of such cases are treated with medication, which is not always as successful as desired. The problem of identifying this illness rests in the difficulty of seeing the distinction between a child’s normal behavior and growing process, and the negative consequences of Attention Deficit Disorder. The common symptoms of the disease might be hyperactivity, excessive talking, and constant distraction. Today, the only way to identify ADD is to take a child to a medical center and proceed with special tests.

However, many questions arise in diagnosing Attention Deficit Disorder. Not everyone recognizes it as a learning disability. Some groups believe it is just a child’s disposition or lack of parenting, but when that disposition severely impacts a child’s ability to learn and function in normal settings, it is a true disservice not to address it as a disability.  It is the equivalent of taking away eye glasses from a child who needs them to function properly. Nonetheless, just because it looks like ADHD doesn’t mean it is, so getting a thorough assessment and diagnosis is important (Diagnosis ADD &ADHD, 2008). The tests that are used to identify Attention Deficit Disorder in children differ from the ones exercised on adults, mostly due to the age difference. The common evaluations conducted to reveal ADD in a child include observation of a kid, interview with his/her parents and teacher, general physical and psychological examination that may include IQ test and various social analysis, combined with a scrupulous inspection of medical records. In essence, there are certain criteria that most of the doctors follow to precisely spot Attention Deficit Disorder in children. They include the following steps: evaluating the seriousness of the symptoms and seeing its negative impact on educational and learning process, family life and relationships with other people; discovering the exact time when the symptoms started to appear; realizing the length of the sustainability of the symptoms; and indentifying the areas where the signs of ADD occur most often.