Because there are no clinical conditions for this disorder many children are misdiagnosed when they begin to act out in class. Many teachers are the first to “diagnose” children with this disorder which is part of the reason why the diagnosis is controversial. When a child is diagnosed with ADHD they are “automatically” placed on medication and often this can hurt the child if they do not have the disorder. Some experts believe that many children who are given this diagnosis are gifted and they go unnoticed because they do not test exactly the way that teachers think they should. they also act out in class when they are bored. Unfortunately, parents take their child to a pediatrician instead of a child psychiatrist and ADHD is often the first thing the pediatrician thinks of and immediately puts the child on one of the drugs for the condition. Brunilda Nazario states that physicians are not equipped to make this diagnosis because they cannot do a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation. This means that 3-5% of school-aged children who have been diagnosed with this disorder may have something entirely different. It is the assertion of this researcher that ADHD is a diagnosis that is misdiagnosed and parents should look further into the diagnosis before labeling their children with the disorder.
When researching this topic it is common to associate Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) with ADHD. The basic difference between the two is that with ADHD the child shows characteristics of being hyperactive. Most experts would agree that ADHD concerns the inability of a child to control their impulses and the inability to focus for long periods of time. Children with ADHD also lose their patience easily and are quickly tempered (Baldwin 4).