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Two-Year-Old with ADHD?
Q: Can a two-year-old have ADHD? My son is out of control and my husband and I don't know what to do.
A: Yes, a two-year-old can have ADHD. However, there is a wide range of developmentally appropriate behavior for a child that age. Because medication for children that young is highly controversial, the most common recommendation is behavior modification. An excellent program and video for parents who have children with challenging behaviors is 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 by Thomas W. Phelan, Ph.D. The program tells you exactly how to handle difficult behavior as well as how to deal with encouraging positive behavior.
If you want to go further and have your child evaluated, contact Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorders at 1-800-233-4050 or go to their website at http://www.chadd.org to see if they have a group in your community where you can get a referral for help. CHADD will also send you free or inexpensive information about attention deficit disorders. Your pediatrician may also be able to help.
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For more than 20 years, Eileen Marzola has worked with children and adults with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders, and with their parents and teachers. She has been a regular education classroom teacher, a consultant teacher/resource teacher, an educational evaluator/diagnostician, and has also taught graduate students at the university level. Marzola is an adjunct assistant professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Hunter College of the City University of New York. She also maintains a private practice in the evaluation and teaching of children with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders.
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