If you have a child that has been diagnosed with ADHD and have tried to do any research into the subject. I am quite sure you have felt some confusion when you see the terms ADD and ADHD and probably have found yourself wondering if there is a difference between ADHD and ADD?

To make things even more confusing trying to discover the answer to this question is going to depend a great deal on whom you ask. So, hopefully, this article will clear up the question for you once and for all.

Technically the initials ADD stands for “Attention Deficit Disorder” however, the term was originally used to describe people that had difficulty concentrating and staying focused on tasks to the point where it was interfering with their social, academic, and occupational life.

It also included people who had difficulty concentrating and were hyperactive as well. In other words when the term Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD was first coined it meant the same thing as ADHD does now.

In fact since the medical community now uses the term Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, they no longer acknowledge ADD as a correct medical term.

However, the term continues to be use by those who have been diagnosed with ADHD, but have little or no symptoms of hyperactivity.

In some cases, children who have mainly hyperactivity symptoms with few attention deficit problems often refer to themselves as hyperactive.

While there are a few people have symptoms of one of these conditions and not the other, in most cases people with ADHD have at least some of the symptoms of both Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity.

However, always classifying those who have attention deficit as “ADHD” may actually be causing more problems than it solves. Children who have very defined symptoms of hyperactivity or evenly divided symptoms of both hyperactivity and Attention deficit are easily spotted in any group.

Those who have no or few hyperactivity symptoms often have their condition go unnoticed, and this seems to be more and more the case as time goes by.

Instead of being able to identify those attention deficit symptoms as a sign of a condition that needs treatment these children are often labeled as “day dreamers” or “underachievers” and many parents and teachers alike think the child could perform better if they “really wanted to.”

Such simply is not the case, and trying to achieve something that is almost impossible with help only causes frustration and problems with self esteem for the child who is left to struggle with their condition on their own.

Oftentimes these children are never diagnosed and grow into adults still not realizing they have an actual condition that is treatable.

While no one can say for sure that making ADD a distinct condition will lead to more diagnosis’s of this form of ADHD it might just make people more aware that Attention Deficit Disorder can exists on it's own and needs to be treated even when there is no hyperactivity present.