Professor Maria Augusta Montenegro, from the Department of Neurology at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, is launching the book Not everything is about attention deficit - Everything parents need to know about school difficulties. In 16 chapters, the work addresses topics related to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and disorders such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, among others that may harm the child's academic development.
Maria Augusta explains that she is not against the use of medication to treat ADHD, and that if used well the results can be efficient. "But medicine doesn't always solve everything. People have a fantasy that medication will solve everything, and they fail to do some things that would be as important as medicating, such as going in-depth with the child's assessment.", says the teacher.
Learning difficulties for other reasons are often confused with attention deficit, and parents and educators automatically think that the solution is medication before the diagnosis is made. "I've seen children who are sometimes in the fourth or fifth year of school, because depending on the school they can't repeat it, and the teacher says the doctor will give them medicine so they can learn to read. And it is not so".
The lack of adequate investigation into the disorder that the child presents can lead to diagnostic errors and prolongation of the problem. "People already come to the office saying that their child has attention deficit. But when we investigate we see that it is dyslexia, lack of glasses, or a hearing difficulty. Sometimes there are other diagnoses with simpler solutionss ", reports Maria Augusta. And its intention is that the book can help families and teachers understand what may be happening to the child. Working with the most frequently asked questions and answers about the daily lives of parents and education professionals who deal with children with learning difficulties, those responsible will be able to seek more appropriate treatment for each case. At the end of each part there is a session suggesting school adaptations that can be useful in guiding educators and families on how to deal with children with learning difficulties.
Professor at the Department of Neurology since 2003, this is Maria Augusta Montenegro's first book on the subject. Previously, the professor had already published works on neurology and the booklet Why am I in the hospital, aimed at children. The book Not everything is attention deficit is aimed at parents, teachers and professionals who deal with school difficulties such as speech therapists, educational psychologists, psychologists, occupational therapists and pediatric neurologists. It is being launched by Pontes Editores, and can be purchased in bookstores or via publisher's website.
