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1775
Dr. Melchior Weikard publishes the book "Lack of Attention" about distraction and half-listening -
1798
Sir Alexander Crichton's treatise "On Attention and Its Disease" - similar to today, states attention is not automatic, takes a lot of effort, the person could be born with it -
1865
Heinrich Hoffmann's poem "Fidgety Phil" alludes to ADHD -
1902
Dr. George F. Still's lectures about ADHD, calling it "defective moral control"; kids had problems with attention & hyperactivity and lacked the ability to stop impulsive behavior -
1936-39
Kurt Goldstein's study on WWI brain-injured soldiers: soldiers had behaviors characteristic of ADHD -
1930s-1940s
Heinz Werner & Alfred Strauss inspired by Goldstein study, observes kids with mental retardation and stated that they were hyperactive, distractible; new name "Strauss Syndrome" is coined for these people -
1957
William Cruickshank's study w cerebral palsy kids finds similar results to Werner/Strauss'; proved kids without intellectual disabilities could also display distractibility; new term is "minimally brain injured"; one of the first to come up with an educational program for these students -
1960s
"hyperactive child syndrome" replaces "minimal brain injury" until the 1970s -
1980s
inattention is noted to be the major behavioral problem, not hyperactivity; this is still noted in the current ADHD definition -
1991
US Department of Education determines students with ADHD were eligible for special education under the category of "other health impaired" (OHI) when it affected educational outcomes; otherwise, these students can get 504s
