EDUCATION
Autism and ADHD:
Do You Know How to Help with
Co-Occurring Conditions?
By Alexis ANDERSON
A
mong school-aged children, an estimat-
ed 11 percent are diagnosed with atten-
tion deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
What most parents, teachers, and school
counselors may not realize is that children
with ADHD may also manifest symptoms
of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Hav-
ing two or more co-occurring diseases or disorders
is defined as being comorbid or having comorbidi-
ties. A 2014 review of studies looking at comorbidity
found that “between 30 and 50 percent of individu-
als with ASD manifest ADHD symptoms (particularly
at pre-school age), and similarly, estimates suggest
two-thirds of individuals with ADHD show features
of ASD.” Researchers also determined that children
with this comorbidity often had more severe levels
of dysfunction—which is why early and accurate di-
agnoses and effective treatments are so important
for parents to help these students succeed.
10 | Autism Parenting Magazine | Issue 72
The good news is that many of the treatments for one
disorder can be helpful for the other—which is high-
lighted in Strategies for ADHD: How School Counsel-
ors Can Help Today’s Students Succeed, a recent post
by Counseling@NYU, which offers online masters in
school counseling from NYU Steinhardt. Here, we’ll
look at strategies, like behavioral therapy, as well as
the similarities and differences of both diagnoses
and how they often overlap.
What’s the Difference?
Experts noted that it can be difficult to isolate a di-
agnosis of ADHD or ASD since the symptoms often
overlap. What’s more, the symptoms of ADHD are
often the same behaviors exhibited in typical child-
hood development—except that they persist and
worsen over time.