How to tell the difference in normal behavior, and ADHD

I was recently asked by a parent of an ADHD child, how I weed through Hailey’s behaviors to pinpoint AHDH. That is often a confusing thing for parents to do. Some of the things that ADHD children struggle with may also be a struggle for other children. It is true that gifted children may also act out at school, some children are very hyper, some children talk all of the time, and some children have behavior problems related to poor parenting or stubborn personalities. That is what make’s the battle for ADHD to be recognized by other parents so hard. It is hard at times to even describe what makes the behaviors so different. I am in no way an expert and I can only give my point of view from observing Hailey. Because there are so many things that ADHD children struggle with I will only address Four of them. These are the ones I here the most backtalk (good and bad) about. I hope this helps someone.
• Hyper Activity- Being hyper is not so much a concern for us, as some kids are hyper with or without ADHD. The problem comes from Hailey not being able to stop. She has what I call jumping fits. If we try to get her to slow down she will start to jump. She jumps in one spot. We can sit her down, but her legs are still jumping. So the difference for us in normal hyper activity, and ADHD hyper activity is the ability of the child to gain control and slow down.

• Disobedience- There are days when I would say that Hailey being disobedient is no different than any other child, and other days when I know that it is ADHD. I can tell because I can visually see how hard Hailey is working at being obedient. You can see how frustrated she is with herself when she “messes up”, and she will even show great remorse and try to make it right. That is when I know it’s ADHD. The other times she is just plain old defiant, and you can see it all over her.

• Talking- It is a well know fact that girls like to talk. That is normal and perfectly acceptable. However, when ADHD comes into play the talking is taken to a whole new level. What she has to say is more important than anything else. She is often so eager to talk that she will be talking all day even if no one is listening. She will say the same things over and over just to have something to say. She will ask questions just so she can answer them and be talking. On the days I like to call, “Talking Days”, Hailey will give us a play by play of her every move. There are other days that she just has a lot to say like most girls.

• Impulse Control- This is such a tricky one, and always has been for us. We were unable to tell the difference in how ADHD affected her impulse control when we started medication. I think the best way to describe it is that she has an inability to think before she acts. Even when you try to help her think it through it is very difficult for her. The medication does help, and she can rationally tell you why she should or should not do something. That doesn’t mean that she always makes the right choice while on medication, just like I don’t always make the right choice even though I can rationally think through what I am about to do.