Attention Deficit Disorder: Sign of the Modern Times

Jake is a gifted child. The youngest amongst a bunch of cousins in a fairly close knit family. At a very young age, he had a way with words and pictures. He used to read voraciously, and amaze his grandparents with his discussions. Doodling abilities from kindergaarten ,blossomed into full blown artistry by middle school, and his parents, recognising his inborn gifts, looked around and searched for someone qualified to guide him in his development in these areas.

Today Jake is in high school. And his parents are worried.

Jake has a problem of concentration. He still paints and sculpts. He reads. But he comes home from school, with not a clue about the homework assignments and whats going on in class. Mind you, he attends all his classes, can tell you what they did, but a month into the school semester, and his parents find out that he is not doing the required homework and his grades suffer.

There is a behavioural change to. The big rush after getting home from school, is to change into comfortable night clothes. An intermittently appearing stubble and huge amounts of time spent in the bathroom with the water flowing ,hints at problems in the time of adolescence. He leaves his cell phone in the car, and then searches for it a day later. The watch he got on his last birthday sits forlornly amidst the bedclothes, a defiant sign of its being redundant, in a world, where Jake's attention and concentration chnages so frequently, it doesnt matter, what , is scheduled when.

A year of tension, arguments, and no success.

Troubled discussions at home in Jake's absence, agonising on whether to consult the school counsellor or psychologist, the possibility of Jake being asked to attend remedial classes to improve grades in certain subjects, and timely scholastic activities .

Is this a new phenomenon ? Is this special to the children of this generation ? Did we have this in our childhood , say 40 years ago ? Is there a solution to this, that will not bring trauma to the childs mind ?