ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting attention, impulse control and activity level. It is not a discipline problem, it is not caused by too much screen time or too little strictness, and a child cannot resolve it by trying harder.
Behavioural intervention is one of the best-established treatments for ADHD in children. It works by restructuring the environment and systematically teaching the skills that come harder — sustaining attention on dull tasks, waiting, following an instruction all the way through, and finishing work without an adult standing over them.
Tender Twig provides that support in Gulshan, Dhaka, and inside your child’s own classroom where the difficulty usually shows up worst.
Hyperactive, or ADHD?
Plenty of children in Dhaka get called দুষ্টু — naughty, restless, too much. Most of them are simply energetic. The difference is not how much a child moves; it is whether they can settle, and whether it is costing them something.
An energetic child
- Runs and climbs a lot, but can settle when something interests them
- Sits through a favourite story or screen without difficulty
- Behaviour looks much the same at home, at school and at a relative’s house
- Forgets things occasionally, like any child
A child who may have ADHD
- Cannot settle even for things they enjoy, or only for a screen
- Loses track mid-instruction and needs everything repeated
- Difficulty shows up across every setting, not just at school
- Acts before thinking in ways that create real risk or conflict
Two more things worth knowing. ADHD is not always loud — the inattentive presentation is quiet, dreamy and easily missed, and it is missed more often in girls. And a formal diagnosis comes from a paediatrician, paediatric neurologist or clinical psychologist. This page will not diagnose your child, and neither will we.
ADHD in a Dhaka classroom
Most families come to us after a phone call from school rather than after a diagnosis. That is not a failure of parenting — a classroom is simply the hardest environment for a child with ADHD.
Class sizes here are large, instruction is usually delivered to the whole group at once, and a great deal depends on a child sitting still and tracking a single voice for long stretches. A child who cannot do that does not just fall behind academically. They get labelled early, they lose the teacher’s patience, and they start to believe the label themselves.
What teachers usually report
- Out of the seat during lessons
- Calls out instead of waiting
- Starts tasks but rarely finishes them
- Loses books, pencils and homework repeatedly
- Distracted by everything happening around them
- Struggles most during unstructured time
What we actually work on
We do not try to make a child with ADHD stop being energetic. We build the specific skills that make energy survivable in a classroom, and we change the conditions around the child so those skills have a chance.
- Sustained attention on a task that is not intrinsically interesting
- Waiting, turn-taking and tolerating delay
- Following multi-step instructions without re-prompting
- Starting and finishing work independently
- Organising materials and tracking belongings
- Managing frustration without escalation
Medication or behavioural therapy?
Parents ask us this constantly, often hoping we will tell them medication is unnecessary. We will not, because it would not be honest and because it is not our decision to make.
Here is the fair summary. Behavioural intervention is an established treatment on its own, and international paediatric guidance generally recommends starting there for younger children. For school-age children, the evidence for medication is strong, and a combination of medication and behavioural support often produces better results than either alone. Medication tends to improve attention and impulse control while it is active; behavioural work teaches skills that remain when it is not.
The decision belongs to you and your paediatrician or paediatric neurologist. We work with children who take medication and children who do not, and we will never make it a condition of treatment or push you either way.
ADHD in Children: Frequently Asked Questions
What parents in Dhaka ask us most about ADHD and hyperactivity.
The clearest difference is consistency and cost. High energy shows up in some settings and settles when a child is engaged. ADHD shows up almost everywhere — home, school, relatives’ houses — and it interferes with learning, friendships or safety. A paediatrician or clinical psychologist makes the formal diagnosis.
Behavioural intervention is an established treatment for ADHD in its own right, and international paediatric guidance generally recommends it as the first step for younger children. For older children a combination of behavioural support and medication is often advised. That decision belongs with your paediatrician, not with us.
The same behavioural principles apply, but the targets change. For ADHD we work on sustained attention, impulse control, following multi-step instructions, finishing tasks and staying organised, most often with a strong focus on the classroom where the difficulty shows up worst.
Signs are often visible from around four or five, but many children are only identified once school demands sustained attention, commonly between six and nine. Support does not require a formal diagnosis first — the skills are worth building either way.
It might not be. ADHD generally shows up across settings. Difficulty confined to school can point to a learning difficulty, an anxiety issue, a hearing problem or a mismatch with the classroom. That is worth assessing properly rather than assuming.
Yes. Classroom support is often the most effective option for a child with ADHD, because it changes the environment where the problem actually happens. We work in your child’s own classroom and train the teaching staff alongside.
