Affiliation:
1. ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal
2. Instituto Superior de Educação e Ciências, Portugal
3. Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
Abstract
This work aims to offer a quick and easy way to diagnose a child for ADHD (attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder), by measuring/ classifying some of the child's features and habits. The importance of an early diagnosis is crucial, and the best time to assess and deal with this problem is in pre-school, avoiding future traumatic situations such as school dropout in the future. So being, in this work several preschool children participated in a survey comprised of thirteen (13) variables that was compiled with the help of a paediatrician, and afterwards were tested for ADHD. With these results, we were able to measure the importance of each variable in determining the likelihood of the child having ADHD using a logistic regression. As a result, we ended up with a smaller set of variables (9 instead of 13), that can be used as an easy method (simple equation) for an early diagnosis of ADHD, just by measuring some of the child's main characteristics.