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Many parents worry at times about how their children behave. Often, misbehaving is simply part of growing up. But in some children, it is caused by a medical condition called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or ADHD for short).

Children with ADHD find it hard to concentrate, are overly active and act without thinking. If your child has ADHD, it's important to get treatment. Otherwise, ADHD may affect how your child develops and create problems at home and at school.

But with the right treatment, your child's behavior can improve dramatically.

• ADHD is a medical condition. Children with the disorder find it hard to pay attention, are overly active and act before they think.
• Not all children with behavior problems have ADHD. Their behavior may be just a phase or part of some other problem.
• The symptoms of ADHD tend to get better as children get older.
• Treatments for ADHD include drugs and talking treatments.
• Treatments can't cure ADHD, but they can help your child develop and learn normally.

You may hear ADHD called different things. Doctors used to call it attention deficit disorder or ADD for short. Children could have ADD on its own or with hyperactivity (being overly active). In 1987, this term was replaced with ADHD. But some doctors still use the old name.

You may also hear ADHD called hyperkinetic d isorder, or HKD for short. The term HKD is usually used when your child's symptoms are severe and your child has all three signs of ADHD: inattention, overactivity and impulsiveness. Doctors sometimes call this combined type ADHD.

If your child has ADHD, bear in mind that it's nobody's fault. Nothing you or your child has done has caused the condition.

You may feel as if your child is behaving badly on purpose. But being strict with a child who has ADHD is unlikely to make things better.

Many parents of children with ADHD offer this advice: "Don't try to cope with your child's problems on your own."

To understand what happens in ADHD, it's useful to know something about normal behavior. Our brain controls how we behave.

• Our brain enables us to react to what we see, hear and feel in the world around us.
• Millions of nerve cells send messages between our brain and our body.
• Chemicals called neurotransmitters help the messages travel from one nerve cell to another.
• For our brain to work properly and to tell us how to behave, we need to have just the right amount of these neurotransmitters.

The front part of the brain is called the frontal lobe. It sits just behind the forehead and is the brain's control center. It collects information from other parts of the brain and helps decide how we react to this information.^{1 2}

Doctors aren't sure exactly what goes wrong in ADHD. But they think that the behavior problems are linked to the way that the front part of the brain works.

• Studies suggest that this part of the brain works more slowly in children with ADHD than in other children.¹
• Children with ADHD may have an imbalance in the neurotransmitters in the front part of the brain. Some doctors believe they don't have enough of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Children with ADHD may also lack the neurotransmitter norepinephrine.
• Without enough dopamine, the front part of the brain cannot deal with and react to information in the way that it should.¹
• This is why some drug treatments for ADHD aim to increase the amount of dopamine in the brain. (See What treatments work for ADHD?)

A child with ADHD is unable to process information in the same way that other children are. This means that for a child with ADHD:

• The outside world rushes in with a flood of noise and images
• The child cannot decide what's important and gets confused

This is why the child finds it impossible to organize daily tasks and to see activities through to the finish.

For instance, a child without ADHD can sit happily in a room playing with a toy while the television is on, two adults talk and a car honks in the background. A child with ADHD will probably find this impossible. This child's brain is unable to deal with all the different sights and sounds, and decide which is important. The child gets confused and can't concentrate.

Unfortunately, there are no tests that show whether the front part of a child's brain is working normally. So doctors have to rely on what children, parents and teachers say in order to diagnose ADHD.

ADHD is nobody's fault. Nothing you or your child has done has caused it. Too much television, too much sugar or poor schools do not cause ADHD.³

The truth is, nobody knows exactly what causes ADHD. It is probably caused by a combination of many different things.

Many parents wonder if ADHD could be linked to what their child eats. There is not enough good research to be sure whether changing your child's diet can improve the symptoms of ADHD. But there is some evidence that children with ADHD may not be eating enough essential fatty acids.⁴ These are found in foods such as meat, fish and eggs. But studies have shown that changing what children eat does not improve their symptoms. There is also some evidence that, in a small number of children, ADHD may be linked to an allergy to food additives, such as artificial colors and preservatives.¹ To learn more, see Vitamin and mineral supplements, and special diets.

Although researchers don't know what causes ADHD, they have found certain risk factors for the condition. Risk factors are things that may make it more likely that a child will have the condition. But, so far, there is no solid evidence that these things actually cause ADHD. We know only that they seem to happen more often in children who have the condition. To learn more, see Risk factors for ADHD.