Co-existing Behaviors

In one of my Introduction to Special Education courses, my professor talked about what we call co-morbidity. This simply means that an individual exhibits more than just ADHD symptoms and may have other behaviors or impairments as well.

Often times it entails other learning disabilities, emotional or behavioral disorders, and even substance abuse.

In order to help your child cope with or adapt to the symptoms associated with their specific disorder, it is important to develop certain educational and behavioral considerations as soon as possible. This could be anything from altering classroom structure, teacher direction, functional assessments or modifications.

As you can see in the below Venn Diagram, only about 30% of those diagnosed with ADHD exhibit those symptoms alone.