What is ADHD?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common mental illness diagnosed among children. There are symptoms such as fidgeting, irritability, anxiety, depression, short attention span and many others. It is first suspected that ADHD is correlated with the birth month and birth date of children around the age 5. However, this so-called study does not account other related factors such as the length of school experience, all lengths of diagnosis and the various intensity of the ADHD diagnosis or treatments.
Some states in the United States of America have a September 1 cutoff where a child should be already 5 years of age before entering kindergarten to be eligible for enrollment in kindergarten public schools. This rule makes children who are born close to the cutoff day of September 1 of the year the youngest of their grade cohort and those who did not make the cutoff day of September 1 are the oldest of the preceding grade cohort. This results in a variation of ages within children in the same grade cohort and putting them in the same classes.
In school, children are observed by their teachers and outstanding behavior of some children may stand out more than others. This would give suggestions of ADHD diagnosis among teachers which might lead medical suggestions of kindergarten teachers to their parents. Children, who are younger in their grade cohort and who are born just before the September 1 cutoff, are more likely to be mistaken as ADHD positive patients than children born after the September 1 cutoff.
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An initial study gathered the information of students in one grade cohort with students that have age variations among their young peers. Research suggests that the younger ones are more likely to get ADHD diagnosis. However, this research is biased towards the lack of statistical and medical information gathered. Thus, the results gathered were quite unusual.
There was a study done that gathered children who finished at least 1 year of elementary school. This study also considered the diagnosis of the children’s parents, the cutoff dates of their entry to school, and the location of the families in different states. It is found that there is no correlation between the birth month of children and ADHD diagnosis.
“The results of this study suggest that a child’s age relative to the ages of classmates could affect the likelihood that the child will receive a diagnosis of and treatment for ADHD.”, according to Anupam Jena, M.D. This shows that a physician should always consider all underlying data given to them as their reference of the overall report and status of a pediatric patient.
Other factors, whether medical or not, should be considered in the diagnosis of ADHD. The history of a child’s medical records should be one of the many details considered in a diagnosis. The age of children should also be considered as much as his or her medical history to accurately diagnosis a child of his or her medical conditions.
