With every good wish, Rick Dear Rick, In a recent column, you stated that girls may respond differently to ADD than boys do. As a special education teacher and the Mom of an ADD diagnosed girl, I was intrigued. Amanda in San Diego Dear Amanda, Most of the early ADD research was conducted exclusively with boys. I have long felt that this discrepancy is due to the manner in which boys and girls respond to school failure. Boys tend to act out, misbehave, become defiant or aggressive.
Girls tend to respond to failure by becoming withdrawn and passive.
They need assistance in setting realistic goals for themselves. They may also develop compulsive behaviors. ADD girls are at greater risk for adolescent depression than are ADD boys. ADHD students are generally energetic, fidgety, energetic, outgoing, talkative, distractible, impulsive, defiant, oppositional. BOTH diagnoses share some characteristics such as academic problems, poor sustained attention, memory deficits, language development difficulties.