I had every  intention of replying to this when I first saw it
...BUT... here's a repost of what may be helpful to you...
At present, ADHD is a diagnosis applied to children and adults who
consistently display certain characteristic behaviors over a period of
time.  The most common behaviors fall into three categories:
inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
Inattention.  People who are inattentive have a hard time keeping
their mind on any one thing and may get bored with a task after only
a few minutes.  They may give effortless, automatic attention to
activities and things they enjoy.  But focusing deliberate, conscious
attention to organizing and completing a task or learning something
new is difficult.
Hyperactivity.  People who are hyperactive always seem to be in
motion. They can't sit still.  They may dash around or talk
incessantly.  Sitting still through a lesson can be an impossible task.
Hyperactive children squirm in their seat or roam around the room.  Or
they might wiggle their feet, touch everything, or noisily tap their
pencil.  Hyperactive teens and adults may feel intensely restless.
They may be fidgety or they may try to do several things
at once, bouncing around from one activity to the next.
Impulsivity.  People who are overly impulsive seem unable to curb their
immediate reactions or think before they act.  As a result
they may blurt out inappropriate comments.  Or they may run
into the street without looking.  Their impulsivity may make it hard
for them to wait for things they want or to take their turn in games.
They may grab a toy from another child or hit when they Are upset.
Not everyone who is overly hyperactive, inattentive, or impulsive has
an attention disorder.  Since most people sometimes blurt out things
they didn't mean to say, bounce from one task to another, or become
disorganized and forgetful, how can specialists tell if the problem
is ADHD?
To assess whether a person has ADHD, specialists consider several
critical questions:  Are these behaviors excessive, long-term, and
pervasive?  That is, do they occur more often than in other people the
same age?  Are they a continuous problem, not just a response to a
temporary situation?  Do the behaviors occur in several settings or
only in one specific place like the playground or the office?  The
person's pattern of behavior is compared against a set of criteria
and characteristics of the disorder.  These criteria appear in a
diagnostic reference book called the DSM (short for the "Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders").
According to the diagnostic manual, there are three patterns of
behavior that indicate ADHD.  People with ADHD may show several signs
of being consistently inattentive.  They may have a pattern of being
hyperactive and impulsive.  Or they may show all three types of behavior.
According to the DSM, signs of inattention include:
  --  becoming easily distracted by irrelevant sights and sounds
  --  failing to pay attention to details and making careless mistakes 
  --  rarely following instructions carefully and completely
  --  losing or forgetting things like toys, or pencils, books, and
      tools needed for a task
Some signs of hyperactivity and impulsivity are:
  --  feeling restless, often fidgeting with hands or feet, or squirming
  --  running, climbing, or leaving a seat, in situations where sitting
      or quiet behavior is expected
  --  blurting out answers before hearing the whole question 
  --  having difficulty waiting in line or for a turn
Because everyone shows some of these behaviors at times, the DSM contains
very specific guidelines for determining when they indicate ADHD.  The
behaviors must appear early in life, before age 7, and continue for at
least 6 months.  In children, they must be more frequent or severe than
in others the same age.  Above all, the behaviors must create a real
handicap in at least two areas of a person's life, such as school,
home, work, or social settings.  So someone whose work or friendships
are not impaired by these behaviors would not be diagnosed with ADHD.
Nor would a child who seems overly active at school but functions well
elsewhere.
--- PPoint 2.03
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