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Clinical Child Psychology: How Can


Parents Spot and Treat A Child with
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD)?
By Shakeena Lubin

By Diane Paul

16 February 2015

Identifying and treating attention deficit hyperactivity


disorder in children, what many parents dont know.

Amy Devitt, an English professor at the University of Kansas defines genre in a different
way than the usual definition we all may know. Devitt states (1993) that Genres develop, then,
because they respond appropriately to situations that writers encounter repeatedly (p. 576). She
also indicates that genre that determines situation as well as situation that determines genre. If
genre not only responds to but also constructs recurring situation, then genre must be a dynamic
rather than static concept. Genres construct and respond to situation; they are actions (p. 578).
Therefore, genre is not only a text type, but also can answer a repeated situated in a discourse
community. In this article I will further help you understand the genre of my specific discourse
community, and how this will help you better understand what Devitts definition of genre is.

Content
As part of my genre analysis paper I was assigned to look up three different text types
such as: articles, journal entries, and/or websites on my specific topic and compare and contrast
each article from one another. My topic is on ADHD in children and how parents or guardians
can spot the disorder and be able to help treat the child. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
is according to the Mayo Clinic (2013) a chronic condition that affects millions of children and
often persists into adulthood. ADHD includes a combination of problems, such as difficulty
sustaining attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior (p. Attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) in children). I chose my three articles based off of different psychology based
websites. All three articles that I found have the same format, each article has the title of the
article with a picture at the upper right side of the title, introduces the problem, shows the sign
and symptoms of the disorder, gives statistics, and concludes with ways of treating the child as
well as frequently asked questions. This type of format allows someone on the website to
identify first the signs and symptoms and later on how to treat this disorder. Each article has
bolded words and bullets point out the importance of a section in the article. The last relation that
all three articles have is subheadings leading into new paragraphs. This helps the readers
ADHD Among Children

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understand what exactly they are going to be reading and/or learning about next. Although, all
the articles are similar they also have many differences.

The first article that I have is from the Mental Health American Psychologist website, this
article gave the definition of ADHD and further named the two types of hyperactive
disorder. For each type it gives bullets of the signs and symptoms for each type of
disorder. Following the signs and symptoms the author names other disorders that go
hand in hand with ADHD. Ending the article the author states what causes ADHD and
what parents and guardians can do to help a child with ADHD.
The second article that I have is from the American Psychological Association website.
This website was shorter than the rest, but got to the point quickly. The first paragraph
tells what ADHD is, and gives the signs and symptoms of ADHD found in children. The
following paragraph gives names of the different medications that are used to treat
ADHD but have not had much success, the concluding of this article gives different
methods to parents on how to help the child, but also on thinking ahead, because the
disorder may get better or get worse.
The final article I have is from an ADHD website itself that psychologist have made. This
article differs from the other two in many ways. This article has a box that list different
myths about Attention Deficit Disorder, than further list the characteristics of ADHD and
how to recognize a child with the disorder. After listing signs and symptoms this article
shows the positive and negatives of ADHD, than further closes the article with tips on
how parents, guardians, and teachers can help the child. At the bottom of this article it has
different work cited pages that can further give more information on what was stated in
the article.

Goals
Going into my major in psychology I wanted to do my genre analysis paper on a smaller
sub topic in my discourse community. I decided on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder also
known as ADHD in children, and how parents, guardians, and/or teachers can find different ways
to help treat the c child. There are many questions that may arise when dealing with a child who
has ADHD. According to Mental Health America statistics show that Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common reasons children are referred for
mental health services. It affects as many as one in every 20 children (p. AD/HD and Kids).
This article doesnt have a specific lexis or group of people that it is addressed to, but any parent
or legal guardian with a child with this disorder would find these articles helpful. Psychology as
a whole has a very broad understanding, there isnt a specific audience that this subject would be
addressed to. The goals of these articles is to simply give information on ADHD showing the
signs and symptoms and how the parents can help the child with the disorder. There isnt any
prior knowledge of this article that is needed, not many know the signs and symptoms of ADHD,
but are aware of the disorder.

Conclusion

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Furthermore, according to Devitt (1993) she defines genre as In sum, genre is a dynamic
response to and construction of recurring situation, one that changes historically and in different
groups, that adapts and grows as the social context changes (p. 580). Focusing more on the
genre of my topic has allowed me to better understand the discourse community that I have
chosen, as well as understand how the format of the articles relate with the goals of the discourse
community. Understanding the genre as an audience can better help understand the discourse
community, as well as its short and long term goals.

Frequently Asked Questions


1. What other genre could be used in order to explain this discourse community?
2. How does the format of each article help with the main function of the article?
3. What other goals can be made from the main topic of this article?
4. Is there specific evidence in the article to explain the topic?
5. Does the definition of genre in the article go hand in hand with the article?

Supporting Sources
Devitt, Amy J. (1993). Generalizing About Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept.
College Composition and Communication (4th ed., Vol. 44, pp. 576-580). National Council of
Teachers of English.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. (2013, March 5).
Retrieved February 18, 2015, from www.mayoclinic.org/diseasesconditions/adhd/basics/definitions/con-20023647
AD/DH and Kids. Retrieved February 18, 2015, from
www.mentalhealthamerica.net/conditions/adhd-and-kids

ADHD Among Children

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