struggling to cope with the difficulties of life with ADHD.
Hinshaw and his colleagues enrolled 228 girls aged 6 to 12 in day camps held from 1997 to 1999. About 140 of the girls had ADHD. The others were not suspected of having ADHD and were told the camps were for “enrichment.”
The girls with ADHD stopped talking medicine such as Ritalin for the six-week duration of the camps so researchers could observe their behavior.
Some of the girls with ADHD were overactive. Many others had problems following directions and getting organized.
Most striking was the social problems the girls with ADHD had, Hinshaw, says.
The overactive girls weren’t liked because they were aggressive and disruptive. The inattentive girls, meanwhile, became socially isolated.
“They were very poor at reading social cues,” Hinshaw says. “But they did it in a more passive, ‘clueless’ way.”
About 2 million U.S. children, or 3 percent to 5 percent, have ADHD. The condition can run in families – about 80 percent of the underpinnings of the disorder are due to genetics, previous research has found.
ADHD Into Womanhood
Years ago, doctors believed children outgrew ADHD. It’s now known that some do outgrow the hyperactivity, but the cognitive problems often last a lifetime.
When Nadeau was growing up, her brother had