ADHD / ADD

“ADHD potentially impacts anything that requires planning and coordination, from laying out a long term project all the way to how someone speaks and listens in conversations.”

Speech Therapy for Children with ADHD

ADHD is a disorder that affects concentration and attention span but can also affect how impulsive and active the person is. Young people at times are all inattentive, easily distracted or impulsive. However, an individual may have ADHD if these behaviours occur more frequently and are more severe than considered normal among individuals of the same age.

ADHD is three to four times more common in males than females, and is more commonly diagnosed in children who have a familial history of ADHD.

Symptoms of Attention Dysregulation and Hyperactivity

• Difficulty switching or prioritizing attention
• Being easily distracted by background noises
• Frequently looking around
• Difficulty staying focused on one activity
• Inability to pay attention to details
• Fidgeting
• Difficulty remaining seated
• Frequently daydreaming/ spacing out
• Inability to understand or remember instructions

Symptoms that may Present in a Learning Environment

• Incomplete work
• Difficulty completing homework or forgetting to hand it in
• Difficulty being able to organize assignments/ projects
• Difficulty in handwriting, reading comprehension, spelling, math and sequencing
• Forgetting deadlines
• Touching, pushing and grabbing others or things impulsively

Along with inattentiveness and hyperactivity, ADHD has now been shown to be associated with aggression. Some common symptoms include:

• Frequent temper outbursts
• Stubbornness
• Low tolerance for frustration
• Problems with social skills

Children with ADHD often have trouble communicating. They may display difficulty with pragmatic language skills or the use of language in everyday conversation, basic language skills such as grammar or syntax, and higher level language skills such as difficulty communicating their ideas to others.

There is evidence that a greater percentage of children with ADHD are delayed in the onset of language compared to children without ADHD. However, most of these children never receive any treatment for these language problems. A possible reason for this is that their language/pragmatic problems might have been obscured by their inattentiveness and impulsiveness.

Speech and ADHD

Children with ADHD are at risk for articulation disorders, which will affect their ability to produce letter sounds that are appropriate for individuals of their age group.

Children with ADHD also commonly have differences in fluent and social quality when speaking. These individuals show an increased volume and variability in pitch when talking, along with other patterns, such as an increased number of vocal pauses and will produce more vocal repetitions or words fillers

Communication and ADHD

• Child is more likely to get off-topic when speaking
• They may struggle to find the right words and struggle putting their thoughts together in conversation
• They will have difficulty managing rapidly spoken language and will often miss details in conversation and stories
• Will struggle paying attention in conversation or managing large clumps of conversation at once

Pragmatics and ADHD

• Child has difficulty with conversational manners, such as not interrupting or talking excessively
• Child struggles to quickly organize thoughts
• May miss social cues

Speech Associates Speech-Language Pathologists help in treating children with ADHD by teaching new strategies to assist the individual in better following directions, planning and completion of tasks, and focusing on goals.

For more information contact our main office at: 416 800 4259 for a consultation with a speech-pathologist or email us at: info@speechassociates.ca