October is ADHD Awareness Month. The CDC estimates that 6 million children between the ages of 3 and 17 years have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

"It's a way to describe when children … we sort of start thinking about it as children … can have difficulty sort of focusing, staying on task. They can also sometimes struggle with kind of controlling their body, whether that's sort of being described as being a little hyperactive, being impulsive," said Dr. Sourav Sengupta, associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

Sengupta says ADHD can impact people even into adolescence or adulthood. ADHD is a disorder that occurs when the parts of the brain that help us focus, remember things and make or execute plans, have difficulty communicating with the rest of the brain. He says for most children, those areas develop steadily over time.

"For individuals that have ADHD, Sometimes it takes a little bit longer, or sometimes that develops in a somewhat different way," he said.

What should parents look out for? Sengupta says a sign of ADHD in children is if they’re having a hard time with the things their peers are doing.

"So, you know, kindergartners aren't supposed to really stay still in their seats for very long. Right. But by the time we're in, let's say, fourth or fifth grade, the ability to kind of be in class, be able to listen to instructions from a teacher, you know, be able to work on an assignment for a brief period of time. These are things we expect our kids to be able to do," Sengupta said.

However, kids with ADHD might still struggle to bring their attention into focus. Sengupta says if that happens, it’s important to make sure other issues aren’t going on such as difficulties with the content or issues with vision or hearing. If all of those check out, parents can bring the attention issue up with their pediatrician. If a child is diagnosed with ADHD, then it’s time to talk about treatment. He says that includes having the child use different learning strategies and medication. He says medication is a support.

"The idea here is kind of like I sort of think of it as hardware and software, you know, while, you know, the brains of kids with ADHD are sort of working through their developmental, whether it's catching up or anything along those lines, we're providing them with a little bit of software support, right? So that, you know, they can attend, that they can stay on track, they can have a little better help controlling their bodies. And what that allows them to do is to learn what they need to learn. Right? And to be able to, you know, socially function," Sengupta said.

Sengupta says parents have every right to be cautious when it comes to a diagnosis for their child, and he wants to remind parents that they’re the experts on their kids and they’re the boss.

He says if parents don’t want to seek an assessment or treatment for a particular issue, they don’t have to do that. The goal is to do what’s best for the child. He says it’s his job to give parents of the children he’s working with all the best information out there and says the science shows medication can be helpful, but stresses that the parent gets to choose.