Outline the development of the field of ADHD as a recognized special need.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The field began with Dr. Still's formal description of ADHD in the early 1900s, attributing some children's unexplained misbehavior and impulsivity to an unknown medical condition; Interest in understanding and treating attentional problems continued through the twentieth century, with physicians and psychologists first studying children's hyperactivity but shifting their research in the 1970s to children's cognitive impulsivity. This led to exploration of the brain's role in ADHD, and work in that area dominates the field today. The language used to describe attentional problems has reflected the evolving thinking about their origins and characteristics. In the early part of the twentieth century, children were called hyperkinetic and were referred to as having minimal brain dysfunction. Later they were called hyperactive. From 1980 to today, the term has evolved from attention deficit disorder to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.