My son was diagnosed as suffering from ADHD,(Attention Deficit hyperactive Disorder), when he was five.
A lot has been written and said about this illness, much of it inaccurate, and as a parent I can tell you it is a very real illness, with consequences that have a bearing on the whole family.

Many parents of an ADHD child, are left feeling that they are less than adequate, their families and friends think that they are just too "soft" and a "good kick up the backside" would cure the childs behaviour. I will explain what they mean.

A child with ADHD, looks, to those who don't know any better, perfectly normal except for their extreme behaviour. They have little or no control over impulsive behaviour i.e. If they see a chum of theirs across a busy road, they could run out to greet them without thinking about traffic or the danger. They cannot build normal relationships with their peers at school, paranoia is an everyday part of their lifes and so they think that everyone is against them. They have no attention span and this causes untold strife in a classroom environment, teachers, in the main, don't have the knowledge to deal with them, or the patience. A child with ADHD spends much of his schoolday outside the head teachers office or seperated from his classmates. This leads to all sorts of emotional outbursts including violent rages, attacks on fellow school mates, self harming, threats of suicide etc.(all this from an eleven year old).
On one occation I was called into the school dining room to see my son hurling chairs at his classmates, he was beside himself with grief and self loathing and an innocent remark from another boy had set all this off.

Marc is now on a "Record of needs", this is supposed to be an aid for him and his teachers in identifying how best to tackle Marcs problems, it may mean him going to a "Special" school where he will get more attention and where he won't be competing for the teachers attention.

There are various organisations where parents can get help and advice, but on the net the best one would be www.adders.org, this site is full of great stuff and it also has games for the kids to play.