Before your kid is diagnosed with ADHD, consider this

So your kid seems fidgety, inattentive and revved up in comparison to the other kids in their class, but does that mean they have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? Not necessarily, a new Finnish study says.

The researchers studied a national registry in Finland and identified all the kids born between 1991 and 2004 who were diagnosed with ADHD. They discovered that the the youngest boys in each school grade had a 26-percent higher chance and the youngest girls, a 31-percent higher chance of having an ADHD diagnosis.

The study corroborates similar research in Canada, Taiwan, Israel, among other countries. It recommends that: "Teachers, parents, and clinicians should take relative age into account when considering the possibility of ADHD in a child or encountering a child with a pre-existing diagnosis."

So if your kid is being assessed for ADHD and they're among the youngest in their grade, be sure to alert the diagnosing team, before they draw any definitive conclusions.

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