ADD Treatment and Research Center

The core symptoms of ADHD are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.  By definition, these symptoms are present prior to 7 years of age, in a variety of contexts, and cause clinically significant levels of impairment in one's life.  It was first believed that children grew out of ADHD in adolescence.  Then, research indicated that ADHD symptoms continued into adulthood in about 1/3 of individuals.  The current prevailing thinking is that most children diagnosed with ADHD will have some symptoms in adulthood.   For children, the symptoms can have a devastating effect on academic performance, social relationships, and self esteem.  As the affected individual progresses through adolescence, difficulties with impulse control and low frustration tolerance can combine with raging hormones and spiral one into depression or serious acting out behaviors.   Typical adolescent shyness and insecurities can turn into clinical depression or anxiety, further compounding the problem.  Some will choose to self-medicate their oversensitivity with drugs or alcohol.  As teens begin to drive, those with ADHD are involved in more accidents, and receive more traffic violations.  Inattention and multitasking can lead to bad decisions on the road and with peers.

Adults with ADHD continue to struggle without treatment. Divorce rates are higher; job stability is less; and there are more frequent moves.  As losses increase, self-esteem gets lower and lower in these individuals.  For some, addictions become the best escape.  For others, problems with depression and anxiety continue to grow. 

The good news is that AD/HD is a treatable condition with accurate diagnosis and treatment.  Don't let your kids struggle another day! 

Dyslexia - the term dyslexia means "problem reading."   The prefix "dys" refers to "bad" or "faulty" implying a deficit, but not an inability to read.  Alexia is an inability to read.  In the DMS-IV, the official diagnosis for dyslexia would be "Reading disorder."  Children with dyslexia are of normal intelligence, but have trouble learning to read.  They do not perceive the word correctly, or do not process the phonetic sounds of the language in the same way as other children.  Because of this, they often take only part of the word, such as the first couple of letters, and try to come up with a word that starts with those sounds.  For example, a child asked to read the word "spell" may say "spoil."  Even though those words are not really similar to those who can read, a dyslexic child will see the similarities in the first letters, and also in the shape of the word. 

Testing for dyslexia includes evaluation of intellectual functioning and reading.  If the scores are significantly different between the individual's IQ and reading scores, the diagnosis of Reading Disorder (dyslexia) will be made.  There are many types, or classifications, of dyslexia including adquired dyslexia, developmental dyslexia, spelling or word-form dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, suface dyslexia, and deep dyslexia.