NATCHEZ — The signs of De’Norris Sanders struggling to focus on schoolwork were all too familiar for his mother, D’Antwanette Felder.

At the time, the then 7-year-old Frazier Elementary School student was distracted easily and had difficulty taking directions.

“All I knew was that it was hard for me to concentrate at school,” Sanders said. “A lot of things would distract me, like someone walking by or a loud noise, and then I couldn’t get back to my work.”

Felder knew what the problem was; it was the same thing she went through as a child.

“There were a lot of little things that were really hard for him, like focusing on one thing without being distracted,” Felder said. “My mother knew the signs right off the bat because it’s what she saw in me when I was young, so we immediately took him to the doctor.”

A doctor later confirmed the family’s initial suspicions and diagnosed Sanders with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Sanders received a prescription for Metadate CD, which is a generic form of Ritalin. Sanders takes the medication twice a day on school days.

ADHD is a neurobehavioral disorder that can result in someone having trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors or being overly active, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sanders’ diagnosis was similar to the one Felder received as a 9-year-old going to school in North Carolina. At that time, however, her condition wasn’t diagnosed or treated as it is today.

“It was definitely a toss in the air when I was growing up to figure out what exactly was wrong,” said Felder, 30. “Eventually, the doctors called it a learning disability, and (said) it wasn’t anyone’s fault they didn’t know exactly what was wrong. I just don’t think the same information was out there then that’s available now.”

For her son — who just completed his third-grade year at Frazier — the main triggers for his ADHD are a lack of structure and discipline.

“He knows I’m not playing around when it comes to doing well in school,” Felder said. “Sometimes I have to make him buckle down and focus even if it’s just for 15 minutes of fully-concentrated work.

“It’s just a matter of finding out what learning strategies work and using those as much as possible.”

For example, Felder said she leans on electronic devices, such as a Kindle Fire that’s loaded with interactive games, to combine learning with constantly moving elements and loud noises for each correct answer.

Sanders’ focus on one activity at a time, Felder said, is a significant improvement in his development and something that concerned her before he started medication.

“He just had a really hard time getting started on anything,” Felder said. “At school, for example, instead of going directly to his seat, he would go all the way around the room, try to speak to everyone he could or do a million other things before getting to his seat.

“And by the time all that was over with, he was already behind all the other students because they had started their work.”

Felder can easily tell the difference between the days Sanders takes his medication and the days he doesn’t.

His medication should be taken twice a day — once in the morning before he goes to school and again in the late afternoon, after school — throughout the school week.

Felder gives Sanders a break from the medication on weekends and plans on giving Sanders a break from the medication on occasion during the summer vacation.

“The point of the medication is to help him focus in the classroom and in the school setting,” Felder said. “I don’t want him to start depending on the medication, so I want to give him a break every now and then.”