Toddlers: How Do You Know Your Child has ADHD?

by Jennifer Shakeel

Does Your Toddler have ADHD?

The first thing I want to address here is that no one will test your child when they are a toddler for ADHD. The reasoning… whether I agree with it or not, is that the testing that is done to diagnosis children with ADHD would not be accurate if done on children at that age. This doesn't mean that you, the parent, can't figure it out on your own. The first thing I want you to do if you are worried that your toddler may have ADHD is read another post I did on what ADHD, called Is ADHD Genetic.

Now, you need to know this. There are certain behavioral traits that if you pay attention to your child, you will pick up that will tell you that your child may have ADHD. I say may because there is a chance that what you are seeing is simply part of the growing process for your child. So you really are going to need to know your child, what is normal for them, what is normal in general at their age and what seems… obsessive to you.
From my personal experience, I can look back and tell you the fact that my 3 year old was anal about the way his toys were put away was a sign of ADHD. I would help him clean his room, put the toys in the toy box and his books on shelves… he would then go through all the toys in the toy box, take out each car and truck that he had and line them up against the wall around his room bumper to bumper… by size and type. That is not normal 3 year old behavior, and while it was normal for my son to do that… at 3 it was an early sign of ADHD. READ More on Toddlers: How Do You Know Your Child has ADHD?