Putting The Brakes On Hyperactivity

We help you draw the line between ADHD and hyperactivity, along with some tips to add some stillness in your parenting journey.

to many parents, their children can be classified into three categories: those that are content sitting quietly at the table colouring for hours, those that cannot sit still and make everywhere they go a playground, and those that fall somewhere in between. Most will also concur that the kids in the first category are a rare breed, with the second a more accurate profile of their little ones. How many times have you looked at your bouncing, hopping, and fidgeting ball of livewire and wondered where all that energy came from?

Tristan Teo, 28, is no stranger to such looks. For as long as he could remember, he had always been an energetic kid, with ‘energetic’ an understatement to some around him. “I could never sit still in primary school. In class, I would go from table to table disturbing my classmates, while during recess, you would always find me playing games on the court or running around the field,” he shares.

“It got so out of hand that my dad even drove me to the psychiatrist after school one day to have me checked.”

While Tristan's case may be deemed extreme, it reflects the general perception that hyperactivity is at best a mind-boggling and exasperating characteristic in kids, and at worst a mental problem in need of psychiatric intervention. The key thing for parents is to be able to differentiate between the two and respond accordingly.

ADHD Or Just Active?

When it comes to having a hyperactive child on your hands, the elephant in the room is whether your child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or not. The most commonly diagnosed mental disorder of children, ADHD goes beyond merely having an endless bundle of energy; it is a chronic medical condition that impairs a child’s ability to regulate their levels of activity, as well as their learning faculty and control over impulses and focused attention.