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Volumes of texts and research have been written about ADHD. To fully understand the characteristics, core features, etiology, and developmental challenges, one needs to have a universal working knowledge of the terminology used in educational, psychosocial, and medical research. What follows are key terms predominantly used when describing and discussing ADHD and the implications as they relate to these children. While the definitions are succinct for the purposes of brevity, they are by no means exclusive. 1. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder as defined by the American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Ed. [Please note: this writer has received written permission to publish the DSM-IV Criteria For ADHD as a table from the American Psychiatric Association in Washington, DC. In essence, The essential feature of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that is more frequent and severe than is typically observed in individual at a comparable level of development. . . Some hyperactive-impulsive or inattentive symptoms that cause impairment must have been present before age 7, although many individuals are diagnosed after the symptoms have been present for a number of years . . . Some impairment from the symptoms must be present in at least two settings (e.g., at home and at school or work). . . There must be clear evidence of interference with developmentally appropriate social, academic, or occupational functioning. . . The disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Schizophrenia, or other Psychotic Disorder, and is not better accounted for by another mental disorder (e.g., a Mood Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Dissociative Disorder, or Personality Disorder). . . (Robin, 1998 p. 14 –15). 2. Co morbidity refers to the many faces of ADHD, points out that there is a coexisting condition with ADHD. An individual with ADHD might also have a learning disability, conduct disorder, substance abuse, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, just to name a few. These co morbidities make up the many faces, or subgroups of ADHD (Alexander-Roberts, 1995 p. 91). 3. Free Appropriate Public Education: The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990 provides all 50 states with funds for special education programs. As a result, states and local school systems must comply with rigorous procedural requirements set forth by IDEA: The statute and the United States (US) Department of Education regulations implementing it set forth requirements for identifying and evaluating “children with disabilities”, the components of a free appropriate public education, the process by which such an education is to be designed for individual children, and the procedures by which their parents and guardians may challenge the adequacy of the education offered them (Ordover & Boundy, 1996, p. 1). 4. Individualized Education Programs (IEPs): Under IDEA, school systems must design, at least annually, an IEP for each child determined to have a disability. An IEP must, among other things, set forth annual goals and instructional objectives for the student, describe the special education and related services the child is to receive, and specify the extent to which he or she will be integrated with non-disabled peers (Ordover & Boundy, 1996, p. 9). 5. Least Restrictive Environment: Under IDEA regulations for IEP implementation, sets forth that disabled students be integrated into mainstream settings to the “maximum extent” consistent with his or her needs. The statute compels states and schools to ensure that: to the ‘maximum extent appropriate’, children with disabilities, including children in public and private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled, and that special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular education environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot achieve satisfactorily (Ordover & Boundy, 1996, p. 15). 6. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a civil rights statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of a disability. The act states that: No otherwise qualified individual with handicaps in the United States…shall, soley by reason of his handicap, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefit of, or be subject to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance . . . (Ordover & Boundy, 1996 p. 3).
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