I wonder if
‘Oh she is just an anxious wee thing’
‘She struggles to concentrate in school but we aren’t concerned about her behaviour’
‘She’s a sensitive wee thing’
‘One minute it’s like we can’t get her to stop, the next she can barely move from her bed’
These were comments constantly surrounding Amelia. Comments that were made and made me wonder ‘if’. IF Amelia was neurodiverse and whether we were looking at an ADHD profile.
Mentioning my wonders to the school they responded with a resounding ‘no, no. Amelia isn’t hyperactive, she can be quite quiet in the class and we don’t see any impulsive behaviours like we do in Ryan who has ADHD. I think it would be more anxiety than anything else’.
Why was Amelia not showing a similar profile to Ryan? Why were her surroundings happy to jump onto mental health diagnoses over neurodiversity? Because Amelia is a girl. It is as simple as that.
Many of you know that Autism is more likely to be diagnosed in boys than girls. Well, the same goes for ADHD. The ratio looks like for every 4 boys to receive a diagnosis of ADHD only 1 girl will. Why?
In essence, ADHD is a product of its history. Everything we know, our diagnostic criteria for ADHD is primarily based on how boys present. ADHD actually used to be called ‘the little boy syndrome’.
For boys, ADHD primarily shows through hyperactivity, impulsive behaviour and inattentiveness.
Research is showing us that girls are more likely to have inattentiveness ADHD, which is ADHD without hyperactivity or impulsivity. So if we are waiting for our girls to throw chairs and run circles around the house - they might not. What you might see is a challenge in being able to connect to their surroundings, follow what is going on in class, retain instructions, become fixated on a topic or task and a difficulty in emotional regulation.
Another area which complicates things for girls and their journey with ADHD is constant societal expectations. Girls, like Amelia, get labeled with ‘chatty’ ‘shy’ ‘emotional’. Rather than further thoughts going into what else might be going on. As women, girls we are taught, subconsciously at times from a young age to internalise demands, emotions and to not be a burden to those around us. ADHD girls create a mask, a persona to survive the day to day and then they burnout and can barely wake up from sheer performance exhaustion.
Sadly girls are still being massively missed out across the board in research. Girls are about 2% of the focus of ADHD research, even though we make up over 50% of the population.
So what do we do for our girls? It goes without saying there is a long way to go in our research, understanding and research for girls and ADHD. But the first step is a simple one.
Notice and wonder. Notice that quiet girl in your class who expresses her emotions in a big way, who struggles to follow along in class. Notice the girl who is ‘very chatty’ and ‘impulsive’ in behaviours with friendships. Notice and wonder. ‘I wonder if..’
This simple step, this small thought can start conversations and approaches that are life changing for our ADHD girls!