r as to whether or not a child will be afflicted by the characteristic behaviors of ADHD. It isnt unusual for affected children to be well within the normal intelligence range. Some of these ADHD children even display traits that indicate giftedness (Alexander-Roberts 2). When referring to African-American parents, insufficient and erroneous information may be the reason for an apparent misunderstanding of this disorder. Historically overlooked when it comes to receiving health related information and education, the availability and accuracy of information obtained by African- American parents could adversely affect their children. Not knowing the true reason for their childs behavior, or how to cope with such behavior, a large percentage of these parents simply just view their ADHD children as bad kids and the condition goes untreated (Bussing 233).When comparing African-American parents to their White counterparts, information accessibility and accuracy can differ greatly between these two cultures. This is apparent just by the way both of these ethnic groups talk about the disorder. White parents, recognizing the symptoms of ADHD because of readily accessible information, are far more likely to use medical terminology when referring to their childs condition and behaviors while African-American parents are not. Social functioning and academic performance appear to be areas of greatest concern to more White parents than African-American. Treatment seeking options seem to vary with ethnicity as well (Bussing 233).When it comes to a treatment course, more White parents look upon ADHD as a lifelong condition. White parents as opposed to African-American parents, are more likely to take advantage of treatment options that are available in the childs school. An African-American child may not be participating in school interventions simply because their parents did not know what their rights were or what was available to them throu...
