Most of us have heard of 'Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder' and invariably the one question that crosses our minds is "Does my child suffer from this disorder?"

      The hyperactive phase usually starts around the 3 rd year and goes on till children develop their individual personalities.Its around this year, that parents get exausted chasing imaginary villians  and flying  around the world with their kids, to the point that they want to drop dead in bed while the kids are just getting started. We wonder as to where these kids find their energy from, wonder if we can convert some of that energy to fuel our cars and wish we had two brains and 2 pairs of legs and hands. That is amount of energy that children can have.

        This normally tranlates to late nights, long hours and desperation for the parents, coupled with the ineveitable question 'Does my child suffer from ADHD?' And this question will definately pop up if our neighbour's child is an introvert. The answer is no. And in a 3 year old, there is no definitive way of making a diagnosis of ADHD. There a number of criteria which a child must satisfy to qualify for a diagnosis of ADHD, which is out of scope of this article and will be a separate article altogether, however, some of the symptoms of ADHD are, failure to pay attention for any length of time, unable to follow instructions, does not listen to when spoken directly, easily distractable, and very forgetful in daily activities.

        Just like how some kids are smart, some not so smart, some extroverts and some introverts, there will be kids with high energy levels enough to move mountains and some soft kids. High energy is a part of childhood and the brain's chance of utilizing this to learn as much as possible. High energy levels should not be confused with attention deficit, which is abnormal, where as high energy levels are perfectly normal.

        Maybe this is your chance to get back to being active in your life and losing a few pounds yourself! Welcome to the next phase for parenthood!