The identification of developmental disorders begins at school

By the amount of hours that they spent in school, teachers are often the first to detect a developmental delay or other pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) in children.

But that diagnosis is usually by pure intuition or trade, since, at least in Argentina, there are still no technologies to help to identify language delays, restrictive behavior, lack of attention, impulsivity or hyperactivity.

Sure it's not the job of the teacher to make a diagnosis, but to properly communicate with parents so they can understand the situation so the child could be evaluated by a professional team, and submit a report that can be useful for his treatment.

Games to identify hyperactive children

The experts came to establish 14 symptoms that determine whether or not a child has the disorder. Given the difficulty of this diagnosis, researchers from the University of Seville have developed software to record cases of attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity in children between 4 and 6 years.

"The problem is that right now, in Spain, all the children have the same treatment," says the head of this research, the psychology professor Juan Carlos Lopez.

The objective of the application is based on previous studies with animal models, which were developed along with the Department of Medicine of the University of Maryland.

Through some very simple exercises, researchers try to analyze whether the youngsters undergo a learning process using Pavlovian conditioned stimuli as predictors or otherwise, as an incentive or motivational stimuli.

To this effect, the program design is sensitive to the responses of the players on a tablet. Furthermore, associated with this process, researchers aim to differentiate the reasons that are causing attention deficit disorder, to provide specialist additional elements that allow them to choose the optimal treatment for each individual case.

Association of symptoms

Among the symptoms that determine whether or not a child has the disorder, the most common behaviors are:

• Flapping
• Delay or lack of spoken language
• Lack of symbolic play
• Inappropriate use of toys (rotate, align, throwing ...)
• No relation to peers and shows low empathy
• Does not respond to orders or paying attention when called
• Is not looking
• Rejects physical contact
• Sort toys in row
• It has a high degree of frustration and tantrums
• An excessive level of activity
• Does not point
• Laughing for no reason
• Show his needs using the teachers or educator´s hand

Sources and related articles:

http://autismodiario.org/
http://www.serpadres.es/3-6-anos/educacion-y-desarrollo/148610-juegos-para-identificar-ninos-hiperactivos.html"