thank you!

- submitted by phillymom on 03/18/2008

Thank you for your honesty! I think it's hard to go against trends as a parent and you really captured this dilemma well.

this is the writer, linda

- submitted by linda keenan on 03/18/2008

thanks, but should i be praised?? i dont know. i just came back from therapy with my son. the gal who works with him (she's great) said 'he gets very very wound up when he jumps into the huge bucket of balls.' and im thinking, well who wouldnt? but then again the other kids arent quite as wound up as mine. so am i doing the right thing? it might interest you to know that ive instructed my husband not to discuss this with his mom, because she kept saying 'don't label him!' also while at therapy today we ran into one of my son's preschool classmates. the mom looked like she didnt want to be seen there. im thinking 'hell-o we are both here for a reason!' ok, im rambling. ill stop.

What a sensitive thoughtful

- submitted by Joanie on 03/19/2008

What a sensitive thoughtful piece on stuff a lot of us as parents are now going through. Really enjoyed this and will share it with my friends.

I'm in the same situation. I

- submitted by Anonymous on 03/19/2008

I'm in the same situation. I hated taking my child to the evaluator. She's fine really but I'm becoming an ultimate lemming, barely recognize myself. It's depressing. But it's nice to read this story. I relate and empathise.

My son went to private

- submitted by Anonymous on 03/19/2008

My son went to private school where they evaluated all the kids in 1st grade -- these were kids they already accepted after substantial testing, etc. Something like 2/3 were found to have various kinds of development problems. Ridiculous! Most of the parents did nothing, including me. It was a joke. They wanted the kids to act like docile little robots, instead of active, passionate 1st graders. It's easy to fall into the pattern of going along. Sometimes it is necessary and helpful. But a lot of time, I thnk, it's overkill and potentially destructive. Very nice piece here, thanks.

trying not to become a lemming...

- submitted by mike on 03/21/2008

thanks linda, i think this may help me fight for my son. we are just starting the testing phase, that was urged by the private school i send him to. keep in mind he's 4 1/2 yrs old in pre-school. my son is very smart. he was tested by the school and found to be a year and a half more advanced than the other kids. yes i know he has behavioral issues, but does he really have a problem or is he just bored? i agree with anonymous above that ALL the schools want the perfect kid. it seems the kids are expected to become drones while in school. the children dont seem to have enough time to burn off their energy, they are not allowed to be kids! my son IS NOT a drone! he is very creative and has a great imagination, and i WILL NOT let the school district or anyone else hold him back. we'll just have to wait and see what the testing has to say. in the meantime keep in mind that children enter the world innocent and naive, they are our bright shining light and the world will try its best to snuff it out label by label.

Pure Ignorance, That's All It Is

- submitted by Anonymous on 03/21/2008

You're absolutely right to second guess the so-called "professionals" that have hijacked our schools and industry. Attaching a "medical" label to human behavior that is outside the purely subjective ideals of a profession that has set itself up to do the labeling is bogus and ultimately harmful to the person being labeled.

One thing you don't mention, and I'll bet many parents have never thought about is that the label attached to a child follows him or her throughout life. Many jobs and professions, especially those involving government clearances or "sensitive" industries, aviation, for example, require the applicant to disclose whether he or she has EVER been diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder. All the crap science the writer refers to in her article are regarded as mental illnesses or disorders. (In fact, I contend all the of the DSM-IV "diagnoses" are crap science.) A "yes" answer to the above question makes it certainly very hard, if not impossible, for the applicant to get that job or position, even if the diagnosis was made years before in childhood. The reason is that the mental illness profession has convinced society that mental disorders result from a "broken brain."

So what parents are doing by allowing their children to be subjected to this nonsense is to allow that child to receive a lifelong label that some day might bar that child from realizing his or her fondest dream. You think your child has problems now, it's nothing compared to when that child reaches adulthood and finds him or herself forever marred.

An ADD diagnosis follows you for life

- submitted by Ben H. on 04/05/2008

With an ADD/ADHD diagnosis on his record, your child may never be able to receive a pilots license without spending thousands of dollars in psychological evaluations. Also, new laws are on the book that strip second amendment rights from people with diagnosis' ranging from PTSD down to ADHD.

If your child doesn't have ADHD, having him diagnosed/labeled as having it may have crippling long term consequences.

nailed it, in some cases

- submitted by sympathetic school board member on 04/05/2008

Linda has struck a chord that should have been struck long ago.

Back in the day (I'm 44) nobody I knew was autistic. I mean nobody. Oh we had kids that had problems, but the ones that were behavioral were given a different label: B-R-A-T.

Typical modern parents

- submitted by Free Software on 04/05/2008

I think the mother feels left out, that her son has nothing wrong with him, she seems to need it to make herself more important

A few years ago she would have blamed sugar, or asthma for her failing as parent. Now its ritalin, or kiddy prozac.

When the kid grows up and is dysfunctional, she needs to blame herself

http://www.fileprompt.com/

pong vs. bong????

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

I think you meant to say "...like an insecure teenager at a beer **BONG** party, not pong! Unless that is what old people used to do in their day!! :)

Great Article!

sad but true

- submitted by med student on 04/05/2008

The sad thing is this kinda of behavior in society is conditioning children and older individuals to reach for drugs when school starts to get hard and self-discipline is needed to succeed. I'm currently in med school and you would not believe the number of "newly diagnosed" ADDers I have in my class who are now on drugs that help them stay up late and learn more before an exam. To me this is just like using steroids in sports. For so many cases the label of ADD/autism is a blanket diagnosis which ultimately hurts those truly suffering from serious cases of these diseases.

Great article

- submitted by An expecting parent on 04/05/2008

As an expecting parent I find myself thinking about this very issue often. If I had been born into this era I have no doubt I would have been diagnosed with ADD. Being born in the early 70s I was not and I still managed to become a successful member of my community. Would therapy have improved my chances? I'm not certain. It may have made me even more self-conscious.

I see my relatives kids being diagnosed with all kinds of issues. They are getting therapy and support. Does it help? I don't think so, really. I have actually had several children tell me that they can't help their behavior, they have been diagnosed with <insert condition here>. Not in those words, but you get the gist.

My current plan is to keep my kids away from therapy and medication unless there is overwhelming evidence they are in need of treatment. I hope I can follow through on that plan and that it ends up being the right choice in the end.

Good luck with your own family!

Beer Pong

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

In response to the anonymous commenter who thinks that the author meant to write "beer bong party" instead of "beer pong party" I would like to say that Beer Pong is a real game, and is not at all obscure.

It's fun, and you can find it on Google.

I believe most (but not

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

I believe most (but not necessarily all) children will grow out of their "disorder" that has been detected by the teacher or other school official without the help of drugs, therapy, counseling, etc. Life is not meant to be easy, and we all learn through our failures and our conflicts and then (hopefully) adjust our behavior accordingly.

I also believe that most (but again not all) "disorders" that "require" medication could be corrected by matching the proper diet and nutrition to the child's blood type - in most cases a visit to a nutritionist will help your child sooner than a trip to the psychiatrist.

As a quick example - I once worked with a young man who had a mood disorder that would reduce him to hiding beneath his desk in tears over imagined slights. He went to a psychiatrist and tried every form of medication available, including lithium. Nothing worked. Then, on a whim, he visited a nutritionist who recommended he eliminate all caffeine from his diet. He stopped drinking coffee and soda and the change was immediately apparent.

Ultimately, however, I feel it is the responsibility of the parents of any child to do their homework. Do not just trust that some teacher has your child's best interests in mind. Do not assume that the psychiatrist knows for sure that some newly released medication is going to be harmless for your child, or that the side effects will not outweigh the benefits gained by using the medication.

It is easier to not be a lemming when you are better informed.

Ugh!

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

Really? I don't get where you think what you've done is moderately a joke or simply just a right of passage...? I am confused by your ability to simply blow off what is obviously something you do not want to do. Stand up MOM!. You are a lemming, but at the very least you should take some stand... It's your child.

hmmm

- submitted by sean on 04/05/2008

i have two kids in early elementary school. i volunteer in one or the other class every other week. i know the kids in 2nd grade and kindergarten. i know which kids leave to meet with this specialist or that and i know the other parents. i find it hard to believe that you are seeing 50% of the kids receiving therapy . . . seems like wishful thinking on your part or there's something in the water where you live.

ever since President Ford signed PL 94-142 (now known as IDEA) we have seen more kids who are being served in special education, particularly amongst those students now receiving the learning disabilities label. i used to diagnose and teach students who had an LD. i also noticed some kids getting the label of "LD" even though they weren't technically qualifying under the definition used at the time (e.g., "at least an average IQ," which was typically classified as 80 and above). many parents would rather have the LD label than have a child slip through the cracks with a 75 IQ and not qualify for special education services. some parents in better schools would push for the LD label so their child could get extended time on a test to look better for college, etc.; however, the point is that even with the increased numbers we're still only seeing about 14% of students served in special education classrooms and this number decreases as the schools are nicer.

ADD kid

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

When I was a teen I was "diagnosed" with ADD and prescribed Ritalin. I took it for about a month, realized it did nothing and stopped taking it. I did not have anything wrong with me. School simply bored me. I got decent grades, many times I was ahead of my classmates and that was part of the problem. What I needed was not drugs but a way to work at my own pace. If I already understood something why should I concentrate when it was being explained again to someone who did not? When doing something that actually interested me I had no problems with my attention span. The problem is that everyone develops differently and at different paces. Just because a child may not be at the same level as another child does not mean there is something wrong with them, they'll catch up later and develop in their own way. Human society has existed for thousands of years and we've gotten this far without giving every generation drugs and therapy.

Unless there is something seriously wrong with you child's behavior there is no need to feed them drugs and send the to therapy to make them "normal".

FYI: There is a game called beer pong and it's not something that old people did in there day. Go to any college today and you'll find people playing it at parties.

An outlier?

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

I congratulate you on your honesty.

But also, have you considered the other 50% of parents who don't put their children in therapy? Are they horribly impaired?

I simply have to agree with those people over age fifty, even though I'm pretty much on the opposite side of the spectrum. There's too much categorization for children. Children are just children.

I've lived in this era of categorizing children, a part of it.

I am now nineteen years old. I couldn't speak until I was four or walk until I was almost two. My parents told me doctors everywhere said I had some sort of retardation or was physically impaired. But my parents didn't give in. They refused to accept the fact that I was impaired. They didn't send me to preschool, where I would probably be labeled the same way. Instead of just waiting for me to develop, they sped up the process. They taught me math, blindly trying to teach me reading, although there was no evidence that anything was working. Yes, I could add and subtract before I could talk. And when I finally started talking, I spoke in two languages, Chinese and English. And my current motor skills are just fine.

And I know, my maturity level due to age is below yours. I haven't experienced nearly as much as you have as a parent, you have your own reasons for doing what you do and I can respect that. I mean, after all, I'm only nineteen, and I don't have a child. I'm sure you have some motive that I, at my current stage in life, cannot comprehend.

I also know that my situation is different from your child's. I was a toddler and your child is currently in schooling.

I'm not saying what you're doing is completely wrong. If you really feel that something's wrong, then by all means, you have a right to do what you believe is right for your child. I'm just trying to bring some discussion to the table, and to show you that even seemingly alarming problems can turn out harmless, and even provide you, as a parent, an opportunity to teach your child what YOU believe is important in life, because as your child enters middle school and high school, it's all about what the government thinks is important for your child to learn.

Dad?

- submitted by Len on 04/05/2008

Well, I havent read all the comments, and I am sure this is comming from the US, though I think most of the problems touched in this article are happening today in Europe, I realle hop, as a dad, that women understand they canot take this responsibility on their own. I think (read: hope) that dads can take a stand in this matter and not give in to those stupid things caused by peer pressure. Let's hope.

damn, forbid anyone offering

- submitted by edge239 on 04/05/2008

damn, forbid anyone offering free therapy to help a delayed child get a leg up. while i agree some of the time these things can be over-diagnosed alot of you are really insulting to people who truly need help. i can only assume that its because alot of you have never had experience in dealing with loved ones with spectrum disorder. for the record i also dont see a real problem with being labeled as different. better than being like every one else baaaaaaa baaaaa ac

Sad

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

You are kind of a bad parent. When your kid is tightly wound ask his what is wrong. Don't jump on some band wagon because you think it will make parenting easier for you. Also shame on you for taking advantage of services not meant for your child. Also the fact that you use the term labeling just goes to show its more about buzz words and less about really taking an interest in your kid.

Therapy, drugs and books are taking away the parenting aspect of being a parent. Allowing parents to be lazy... And people wonder why kids are crazy and unfocused and badly behaved. It's because of the lesson you just taught your son. You didn't just jump off a bridge you jumped off the bridge with your kid in tow.

Enraged Dad?

- submitted by Dennis on 04/05/2008

I do appreciate your sharing of your experience. I do however have a real problem empathizing with your lemming behavior. You should be standing up to the peer pressure and protecting your child. Don't sacrifice the wonderful individuality of your child to satidfied this misguided attempt to make all children "docile robots" as perfectly described by the other commentator. Don't settle for normal (abnormal) for your child.

just a reply to a comment

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

"for the record i also dont see a real problem with being labeled as different."

I do. Being labeled as a diseased person?

Oh disregard what the kid's saying, he's got ADD.

I for one have a problem being labeled as different. Racially, healthwise, etc. Just being "labeled" means categorizing people who are similar in one aspect but may be different in all others means you stereotype the person. So in essence, by labeling someone as "different," you are labeling someone to be the same. You are labeling someone as "diseased," with no indication of other qualities. You're allowed respect for your opinion, I'm just presenting mine.

righton

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

Other kids aren't all excited with a bunch of balls because their parents fell for what you did, only more so, and they're basically drugged out of their young little nuggets. Nice huh?

You should do some _serious_ research on the kinds of effects, often permanent ones, that these drugs have. The medical industry doesn't really tell you about them because they are carrying out such studies on you.

They are drug pushers no better than your typical crack dealer, but because you call them Doctor you tend to take their word for it. It's time to wake the hell up.

righton

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

Other kids aren't all excited with a bunch of balls because their parents fell for what you did, only more so, and they're basically drugged out of their young little nuggets. Nice huh?

You should do some _serious_ research on the kinds of effects, often permanent ones, that these drugs have. The medical industry doesn't really tell you about them because they are carrying out such studies on you.

They are drug pushers no better than your typical crack dealer, but because you call them Doctor you tend to take their word for it. It's time to wake the hell up.

The hive mind of the USA is

- submitted by yeah- right on 04/05/2008

The hive mind of the USA is essentially insane. Take Hollywood. The film output of the richest, most tech advanced nation on the planet cannot portray even a wealthy (by US terms) family, without having children in that family being portrayed as chronically sick. Of course, the US is famous as the land that attempted to use lobotomy as commonly as vaccination; that practised widespread female genital mutilation (and still practises almost universal male genital mutilation for the same pseudo scientific reasons). For much of the first half of the 20th century, all respected US medical scientists swore that females suffered from endless 'hysteria' linked illnesses, and provided enless so-called scientific papers to back up this nonsense.

American medical science, even today, is 99% pseudo science. The vast majority of kids diagnosed with these illnesses (including food allergies) have no illness whatsoever. Instead, these kids are either showing expecting variations in normal Human behaviour, or have learnt to 'play up' to deviant adult expectations (much like US kids in the past that writhed around on the ground, and had 'visions' of ghosts, witches and devils.

Did you know that in the early days of hypnotism (mesmerism), it was shown that people could manifest physical symptoms of certain illnesses at will (rashes and the like). Unconscious expectation training of children can easily produce the symptoms of many so-called illnesses.

Everyone knows that Americans are insular to the point of cultural insanity. Any rational person would, given that all Humans belong to one genetic race, question why the US uniquely suffers from massively common occurences of medical childhood 'conditions' found no where else in such proportion relative to their population. Of course, the US has the dual leeches of medical insurance, and medical 'drug' companies. These corporations are wealthy beyond belief, and have many decades of practice in buying and controlling relevant parts of the American mass media, politics, and the 'scientific' community.

The US population needs to understand that it isn't made stupid for no reason. This mass stupidity is harvested by evil people so that American power can be imposed (at genocidal cost) over the resources of much of Planet Earth. The ordinary American brain has to be distracted by as much idiotic rubbish as possible. Convincing healthy people that they will always breed unhealthy kids was a stroke of genius. Nothing distracts a person more (and makes them docile and pliable) than convincing them that their kid needs constant, unnatural attention.

For any American reading this, for heaven's sake, read up on the history of pseudo-science in the medical community in your country's history. Did you know that ALL of Hitler's eugenic theories (explored at such horrid cost in Human suffering) came from AMERICAN eugenicists, racist monsters that maintaining controlling positions in the US medical community until the 1970's and beyond. Did you know that male circumcision in the US has been justified by ever changing pseudo-scientific excuses ever since the practise became widespread (and every excuse was always backed up by phoney scientific research).

In the US medical research = politics. When some idiotic medical idea is proposed for widespread adoption, the so-called experts will always be at the top of their field, to make everything seem legitimate (and beyond question) to ordinary Americans. The monster that butchered so many Human brains won the Nobel prize for the psedo-science of mass lobotomy. The medical skills of a big name in the US medical community means no more than the Humanitarian skills of any member of the Bush family. In the US, medical scientific reputation is usually bought rather that earnt, by the patronage of the medical drug and insurance companies that stand to earn billions from the ideas being propagandised.

In the end, most Human health, during the main part of a Human life in a first world nation, relates to the thoughts and ideas circulating in that person's brain. The phenomenom of depression is a great example of this. A person can have everything (relative to most of Human history, or most of the current population of the planet), and still think themselves into a mental illness that negates every advantage that person has. Likewise, positive and sane thoughts in the head of a person that has relatively little can make that person's life experience an absolute joy. This blog was written by a person sick enough to be proud of their skill to 'think' their self unfortunate. No suprise this person had worked for two particularly depraved propaganda outlets, CNN and Bloomberg. And no suprise that this person seeks to turn this extreme deviant behaviour into advantage by writing a column. What you have above is NOT commentary , or an attempt at self awareness, but a person following in the long tradition of American writers in using words to sell that which no sane Human should ever be tempted to buy. Disingenuous is the word that comes to mind (actually, it is the word that almost always comes to mind, when reading anything by Americans that in any way link to US politics, especially via media news outlets). I guess Linda is keeping her hand in for when she wants to work for such foul propagandists as Murdoch, Bloomberg, or Turner again!

Interesting..

- submitted by Genevieve on 04/05/2008

I didn't realize this was a big issue. I don't think anyone should be handing out the title of bad parent so easily. Most parents are doing the best with what they know.

Even lemmings love their kids -- and are still doing the best with what they know. I think that should be applauded, so many loving their children and wanting what's best for them. What's wrong with that?

As a parent to two special needs kids -- I've had to fight for help and services for my two boys. Why does it have to be all or nothing? Why can education be more individualized to a child's strength's and challenges?

My children getting services at school does not make parenting any easier. Did you know that parents of children with autism make about 7 grand less a year and spend about 400 a month more than other families?

Did you know many states don't make insurance companies cover autism services and treatments? Some families pay out of pocket and face things like bankruptcy and losing their homes.

My boys won't 'outgrow' their diagnosis.

However the behavior here is rather obnoxious in the comments -- maybe some of the folks here need to 'outgrow' their prejudices and fast-to-judge behaviors. This type of 'stand up against the tide' attitude only makes it harder for those who's kids may actually need the services.

I'd hate they those parents wouldn't want to be considered a 'lemming' and felt that kind of peer pressure, assumed their kid would 'outgrow' it and the kid ended up without the help and support they really needed.

Unless your an expert in the field, have assessed the child and/or are the parent - it's not your call to make.

BTW, I enjoyed the story. It was a good read.

Not everyone here's being obnoxious

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

"However the behavior here is rather obnoxious in the comments -- maybe some of the folks here need to 'outgrow' their prejudices and fast-to-judge behaviors. This type of 'stand up against the tide' attitude only makes it harder for those who's kids may actually need the services."

I don't think that everyone here's being totally bigoted. There's some of the comments that even say that it's not all bad.

There's even one kid who says, "If you really feel that something's wrong, then by all means, you have a right to do what you believe is right for your child." Yeah, he/she says he/she doesn't believe in categorizing, but it's not like he's/she's saying it's horrible.

Just saying, not everyone here is so quick to judge, and I hope you won't judge everyone here so quickly as well.

My kids have both been

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

My kids have both been diagnosed with sensory integration disorder. I had my doubts, but certain types of treatment (non drugs) help.

My son's 1st grade teacher this year proclaimed, after 10 days of school, that she had talked to his previous teachers and that "he has ADD and should be on medication." This is despite every one of those previous teachers having filled out an evaluation where they had the opportunity to make statements like that for us and his doctors to see and use as a tool. None of them did.

This year has been *horrid*. There are a couple things she could spend 5 minutes doing most days that will help him immensely. We've told her. His therapy people have gone to the school and told her. She won't do it. Instead, she puts a lot of effort into correcting him and most days he gets into some sort of trouble. She wastes more time doing it her way and he pays a heavy price.

In his latest report, she made the statement that "his mother always makes excuses for his behavior".

The labels that we accept for our kids are one thing. However, there are always people out there who will pick their own labels too.

Me and the kids mother are now in a battle with this school to get all evaluation records as required by state law. So far they are stonewalling. The kids will *not* be going to this "upstanding private christian school" next year.

Bull

- submitted by Allie on 04/05/2008

I do not understand why people try to medicate and 'fix' their children. Schools are boring, lessons are boring, and if the child won't adhere strictly to rules, then there must be something 'wrong' with them. Total bull.

It is all a result of the trend of pushing medication down to cure every little ailment (or perceived ailment).

And as for diseases like autism, yes, they are real because those with it are markedly abnormal. Too bad humans are the only creatures that coddle their defective offspring instead of letting natural selection take its course. Then we wouldn't have such horrid afflictions running around the gene pool anymore!

(And no, I don't care what anybody's response is to the last bit; my opinion is that those that have horrid diseases that are unfavorable and unneeded in society should not be allowed to be born, by law. It's a detriment to the human race, don't care how much you 'love them'.)

Kids and labelling

- submitted by merlotmom on 04/05/2008

Amen! I send my kids to public school in a city where the majority go to private. Most kids are seeing therapists of one sort or another. We did it for a while but when the writer's strike came and we cut back I realized how much money we spend letting others do the work for us. We are not back in therapy and we're doing fine handling things on our own. We are far from perfect but I think we're pretty "normal". I am in my mid 40's and totally subscribe to the over 50 consensus that we are not letting our kids just be kids. Thanks for sharing your experience.

ADD

- submitted by Ray on 04/05/2008

ADD is a great disease because it selectively occurs. My son can play the Xbox intently for hours but stick him in class with his monotone 60 year old teacher and it triggers his condition. ADD is a huge cash cow for the pharmacy companies. No one should dare question the doctors who get kick backs for prescribing ever kid with the so called cure for it. The Cure is called better parenting.

Reply to the sympathetic school board member comment

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

There is a huge difference in diagnosis that was done 40 years ago and the diagnosis and evaluations done today. Autism research has increased dramatically since the 1980s, party due to changes in diagnosis practice.

Do you think that maybe one of those kids "that had problems" could have benefited if he was evaluated correctly back then? Maybe the kids "that had problems" were Autistic but just weren’t diagnosed back then?

On a different note, there's a website I'd like to suggest that might help all the parents out there searching for ways to promote and develop certain skills by using household materials and creating activities for the child: http://www.OTPlan.com

For the good of your child, take him out of "therapy!"

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

holy bajeesuz, woman.... your kid is 4 1/2 years old?! stop worrying so much! if he's the same in 3 years, then there might be a problem. but COME ON. his brain hasn't even finished it's post-natal exponential development yet! take him out of therapy - trust me, in my (albeit anecdotal) experience, the kids who were worried over and "evaluated" constantly as youngsters are now the private-school kids with over-inflated senses of entitlement and drug problems.

don't forget, pharmaceutical companies and therapists can boost their earnings using just a little injection of fear, paranoia, and knowledge of the maternal psyche.

I'm amazed at how many kids are in some sort of therapy

- submitted by Anonymous3838 on 04/05/2008

And because of the way schools just like to medicate or label I won't be sending my child to public school. I want her to be who she is, if that means being really active, then so be it.

I will say that I have studied and researched disorders and know what to watch for since my daughter might have minor brain damage. She's shown no signs of it yet.

With internet, your son will

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/05/2008

With internet, your son will definitely read this! Very good article, and very glad you posed the counter-cultural side of the argument, as well has your honest reaction.

"the DIRECTOR made it clear..."?

- submitted by Jordan Lund on 04/05/2008

The first question to whoever is attempting to diagnose a child with a disorder needs to be "So, do you have a degree in child psychology?"

If they don't then the appropriate response is "Then you have no business diagnosing mental disorders in children."

So many teachers, educators and "directors" think this entitles them to make medical diagnoses when they are, in fact, incompetent to do so.

Therapy Moms Unite

- submitted by Toddie on 04/06/2008

I am a writer, a pediatric speech-language pathologist, and the mom of a 5 year old in OT. So I've seen the life of a therapy mom on both sides of the fence, and I will assert the following: being a therapy mom SUCKS the big hairy wazoo. If your child truly fits the therapeutic diagnosis to which he or she has been given, it sucks, because you hate the label, the stigma, the time suck of therapy or therapies, and watching other kids being "normal." If your child does not fit firmly into the criteria for the autism spectrum or other disability, he or she still runs the risk of being labeled autistic or PDD-NOS (and I have seen a LOT of misdiagnosis in my day)or otherwise, with all the attendant stigmas. Frankly, I think there's a big group of kids out there, including my own, whom I would therapeutically label as a "funky little kid." And it still sucks to be a therapy mom to an FLK because there's still a need that must be addressed, deficits that must be reduced. There's still the time suck of therapy, the watching of other typically developing kids, and the wondering of how this is going to play itself out as your child grows. So I think, however a therapy mom gets through the day works for me. She loves her kid. That's all that counts in the end.

Kids and Categorizations

- submitted by Rodney Hampton on 04/06/2008

The education industry and the psychiatric/psychological and the medical/pharaceutical industries ALL want us categorized into various little niches so they can sell us their products and services AND take away our freedoms. Humanity comes in infinitely diverse flavors. Don't let them categorize your kids for ANY non-obvious condition. If the layman cannot identify it as a problem it's probably quackery.

My 5 year old son has a slight problem with saying his L's and sometimes using W where R would be appropriate. I'm letting the school do a little speech therapy to fix this. When I was his age, I too had a problem saying L properly. His older sister truly was tongue tied. Hers was bad enough we had to get the tongue snipped and then she had no problems correcting her speech on her own. I'm telling you this because it was very difficult to allow having any intervention imposed on my son. I didn't want him labeled. Even now I suspect that he, like me, would have eventually corrected his own speech.

I guess I'm just trying to illustrate that you should consciously decide what is best for your kids instead of bowing down to the "authority" of the school.

Very sad article. We

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/06/2008

Very sad article. We medicate shy children to spin them up. We medicate exuberant children to spin them down. We have no idea what psychotropic drugs do to a developing brain and psyche. Why are drugs the answer? Proscribed to illegal, everyone thinks they need a drug for something.

Addressing Rodney

- submitted by sean on 04/06/2008

Rodney wrote: "The education industry and the psychiatric/psychological and the medical/pharaceutical industries ALL want us categorized into various little niches so they can sell us their products and services AND take away our freedoms."

that's a nice conspiracy theory there Rodney. actually it's pathetic.

I am a special education professor and researcher. the "labels" are absolutely critical for any kind of meaningful research to take place. these categories allow specific functional needs of children to be addressed. even though we have labels the federal law requires that each child receive individual attention and an individual plan (read: an IEP). if the IEP is done correctly then the education team and the parents and other specialists are helping the child get services and assistive technologies that can best level the playing field for the child for that child's specific needs (beyond any label). this team doesn't prescribe medicine; though, a family doctor might do that . . . that's not coming from the teachers.

ADD and ADHD are very misunderstood. a child doesn't have ADD or ADHD if he/she has it sporadically (e.g., doesn't have it while playing their Nintendo for hours). if the child can sit and listen to a book for 30 minutes and enjoy and act normal during science, but only has ADHD during math then that's not ADHD. ADD and ADHD are pervasive. if you're a parent of a child then you have rights and responsibilities to step in and say "no" if you think the diagnosis is wrong; however, that shouldn't happen just because a parent is embarrassed. that would also be a disservice to the child.

This is massively awful

- submitted by Tom Ritchford on 04/06/2008

All of these symptoms seem to me to be what regular kids undergo. I'm not 50 yet (though it's coming up) but I remember being a kid extremely well; all sorts of kids certainly including myself had many of these symptoms and grew up to be perfectly reasonable adults.

The worst for me is that there was one thing I still remember from childhood that seemed to be a sign of mental illness, and that's bullying. I swear some of these kids were psychopaths; certainly, the medically accepted rate for psychopathy is 4%, one in 25, so it's absolutely not unreasonable.

From reading the newspapers, I see this problem is as bad or worse than it ever was; yet all with all these new conditions, I don't see anything like "childhood bully syndrome" in there - perhaps because these childhood bullies now run our government and business worlds.

An offer of support

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/06/2008

I just wanted to say that while I agree that all these labels and "conditions" are completely absurd and leave a child feeling as though they're already behind in life, I'm not even going to remotely condemn "following the pack" in this case.

You did what you did with your child's welfare foremost in mind. And when everything else is tallied, what is more important than that single fact?

Though i dont have children

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/06/2008

Though i dont have children of my own. I can relate to this because of what i went through in school. They tried to medicate me in school because of bad grades even from early on. But to be honest i really think that the school for the most part didnt really care about my performence. I had a class in 7th grade that tought us about learning styles, and i remember asking "now that you know what learning style we are are you going to cater to that style of learning" and they just said "no, were just required to teach it." I do beleive learning disorder are real, but I also beleive that are schools are not very effective for many children.

The future looks bright

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/06/2008

Boy, been there done that as well. I can say that I know exactly how you felt and why you did it.

It is unlikely that the intervention will do harm, even if he would have eventually gotten there on his own. I think it is best to err on the side of caution.

It's been three years since we were encouraged to have our then six-year old son evaluated. No diagnosis, but recommendations for intervention. Everything is a six-month wait so sometimes you have to take the bull by the horns and make it happen on your own.

I moved my kids to the city for the summer and put my son in a special camp. It was the best decision. He blossomed and entered first grade as a different kid. We went back to the camp last year and at the end they recommended we find a typical camp as he had improved/matured enough to no longer need what they offered.

I am grateful everyday that my son is doing well. All the things we never thought he would be able to do he is doing.

Have courage and be the squeeky wheel for this is your child and he/she is depending on you to make the right decisions for him/her.

Quirky Kids

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/06/2008

Recommend you buy the book "Quirky Kids." Excellent resource for those of us in this space.

it's your CHILD

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/06/2008

how you can you have such a glib attitude to your son's mental health and well being? oh well, i guess it won't make a difference right? growing up believing there is someting wrong with him, lifetime prescriptions for highly toxic medications, who cares! it's just a fad and you're happy to follow it blindly without considering your son, right?

better diagnostics are needed

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/06/2008

having been born with a mental condition (bipolar disorder) that did require medication and treatment from a young age, and that disappeared almost immediately after the proper regimen of medication was found for me in my early teen years, i think the problem is more with mob mentality than anything. it'll be frightening when the backlash leads to a massive anti-psychiatry movement and children such as who i was receive NO care or evaluation.

psychoanalysis should continue to be refined. it wouldn't have taken fourteen years and a wasted childhood to reach a cure if we weren't living in the world of buzzwords.

overanxious parents, or appropriate early intervention

- submitted by Liz Ditz on 04/07/2008

The old way was "wait to fail". The newer approach is "response to intervention" -- meaning children who are not thriving in school are offered levels of intervention. This may or may not involve labelling.

Ms. Keenan, I don't know you or your family. What is true is that much, much higher demands are put on kids' fine motor skills in preschool and kindergarten now than was true even 15 years ago. Getting "therapy" at an early age may now appropriate where it wasn't in 1980.

According to a recent study, somewhere between 10% to 30% of children have difficulty learning to produce rapid, legible hand-written work(1). Handwriting difficulty is often linked with other problems such as attention deficit disorder. Poor quality of handwriting of children with handwriting problems seems particularly related to a deficiency in visual-motor integration. (2)

Children who do not acquire fluent, legible handwriting in the early years often experience far-reaching negative effects on both academic success and self-esteem.(1)

<blockquote>“Handwriting is one of the basic building blocks of good writing and plays a critical role in learning,” Graham, Currey Ingram Professor of Special Education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, said. “Young children who have difficulty mastering this skill often avoid writing and their writing development may be arrested. They also may have trouble taking notes and following along in class, which will further impede their development.”</blockquote>

There are three possible sources of children developing handwriting difficulties: a problem with the child, a problem with the teacher, or a problem with the curricula (and related materials).

In " How do primary grade teachers teach handwriting? A national survey",(3) the authors found that

<blockquote> Nine out of every ten teachers indicated that they taught handwriting, averaging 70 minutes of instruction per week. Only 12% of teachers, however, indicated that the education courses taken in college adequately prepared them to teach handwriting. Despite this lack of formal preparation, the majority of teachers used a variety of recommended instructional practices for teaching handwriting. The application of such practices, though, was applied unevenly, raising concerns about the quality of handwriting instruction for all children. </blockquote>

1. Feder KP, Majnemer A. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2007 Apr;49(4):312-7. 2. Volman MJ, van Schendel BM, Jongmans MJ. Am J Occup Ther. 2006 Jul-Aug;60(4):451-60. 3. Graham S, Harris KR, Mason L, Fink-Chorzempa B, Moran S, Saddler B Reading and Writing 2008 21(1-2):49-69.

Elsewhere:

<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/67956">Handwriting Key to Learming</a>, Newsweek, November 12 2007

<a href="http://ldpodcast.blogspot.com/2007/12/show-75-dr-steve-graham-development-of.html">LD Podcast: Dr. Steve Graham on writing development</a>.

<a href="http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/files/handwriting.mp3">Interview with Steve Graham</a>

Turning from handwriting and delays in fine motor skills to the broad area of ADHD:

My view is ADHD is definitely over-diagnosed in some areas, but underdiagnosed and treated in other areas.

Froelich et al. (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(9):857-864 ) <strong> Conclusions:</strong> Of US children aged 8 to 15 years, 8.7%, an estimated 2.4 million, meet DSM-IV criteria for ADHD. Less than half of children meeting DSM-IV criteria report receiv- ing either a diagnosis of ADHD or regular medication treat- ment. Poor children are most likely to meet criteria for ADHD yet are least likely to receive consistent pharmacotherapy.

As to the argument that ADHD is not a real condition, but the medicalization of normal behavior? In one sense, <a href="http://ihd.berkeley.edu/hinshres.htm">Steven Hinshaw</a> agrees. Answering the question, <a href="http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/?main=conv/hinshaw">Why do some psychologists claim that ADHD doesn't exist as a syndrome?"</a> Hinshaw says:

"I believe that there are both good and bad reasons for this claim. The behaviors that comprise ADHD (inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivity) are indeed part of normal development, so it is a real and valid question to wonder where the diagnostic cutoff should be. Also, the recent publicity about the rise in diagnosis and treatment makes many suspicious of 'over-medicalization'.

"On the other hand, the same issues, such as the normal distribution of constituent symptoms, and the difficulty of ascertaining cutoff points, pertain to many overtly "medical" conditions (for example, hypertension). Yet many people tend to see behavior as completely under one's volitional control. I believe that misinformation and the tendency to stigmatize persons with behavior disorders are the real culprits."

Later in the <a href="http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/?main=conv/hinshaw">same interview</a>:

"Perhaps one of the most shocking findings, says Hinshaw, has been that children with ADHD are the most disliked group of youngsters in any crowd—more so than children with depression, autism, or delinquent problems. Hinshaw explained to a group at last year's BrainConnection to Education spring conference that research has shown that peer rejection is the best predictor in young children of later problems in school, including dropout and mental health problems."

David Rabiner has some excellent resources for parents and clinicians. His discussion of <a href="http://www.helpforadd.com/mta-study/">the recently-completed Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA)</a> is particularly clear. The MTA study found that for many children, a combination of behavior management training (for parents and for the child) plus very closely controlled medication made the biggest improvement.

There is no one correct way to treat ADHD.

Other authoritative sources of information: <a href="http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/adhd/complete-publication.shtml">NIMH on ADHD</a>. Includes discussion of medication issues. <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/attentiondeficithyperactivitydisorder.html">Medline Plus on ADHD</a>, also discusses medication <a href="http://www.help4adhd.org/index.cfm?varLang=en">National Resource Center on ADHD</a>, a lay site sponsored by the largest national organization, CHADD.