Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder- Adhd

Sure Frank. I am a therapist. Worked with kids who were supposedly ADHD. Some were, but many suffered from poor parenting, ie, they got better if/ when their parents went for therapy. Lol.

 

I thought of this thread when I read this article. I wonder if part of this decision is based on the understanding of how overused and/or abused the medications are, and that it could lead to legal issues down the road. http://abc13.com/health/depelchin-announces-cuts-to-one-of-its-big-services/1266588/ DePelchin is a well respected organization in this area. As far as I know, they started out with adoption, and moved into the CPS and foster care treatment areas, with providing psychiatric treatment to other children as an adjunct area, so they're simply scaling back their operations, but it will have an impact on the community at large.

 

What do you want to bet (figuratively speaking) that these so-called 'disorders' started to become commonplace, widespread, and out-of-control when 'the powers that be' started deciding (in no particular order):

1. Allowing children to use and exercise their imaginations is 'counterproductive and negative';

2. Eliminating playtimes/recess;

3. Making sure kids have little to no time to relax and unwind.

I can hardly imagine kids of any age, especially the little guys, expected to sit silently at their desks for around 7 hours straight- virtually bursting at the seams,
plus becoming so accustomed to every minute filled with an activity that if they do have a free minute they nearly come apart with 'boredom'.

and in some areas- like current location- it doesn';t even start at Kindergarten, the strict Structure goes down to pre-K and probably daycare, too.

Might sound simplistic, but if kids were given back their childhoods, and allowed to BE kids, I'll bet you'd see most kids would no longer have 'psychiatric diagnoses.'

 

My Mother, probably not unique among her peers in our non-integrated, close-knit (?) community of middle-European immigrants, somehow knew the need to keep this little monster busily entertained, either through her ministrations, or his own. My Kindergarten teacher was amazed when, all of us given paper and told to write anything, I wrote the integers, the numbers, from 1 to 100. At that time, I recognized the letter-structure of short words, but could not read, yet. Thank my mother, who never worked after her kids were born, for pre-schooling as well as home-schooling.

I should perhaps mention that, while my Mother was born in Bohemia, my Dad, whose folks came from there also, was their first-born, that being in Chicago. So, while the elders within the family preferred to speak their native tongue, my Dad's father insisted they talk English mainly, while at home, even though he, himself, never mastered English! My Dad quit school after the 8th. grade, not uncommon then. He pursued an Apprenticeship as a Tool & Die Maker in his uncle's Shop. Needing to understand Drafting, he attended night classes at the same high school I would attend, many years later.

What I'm saying is that years ago, most people seemed to recognize the fact that no one could, or would, rescue them from economic obscurity; it was up to THEM.

 

I also don't like how overscheduled kids are nowadays. I think it has to do with many parents feeling they weren't able to do all of the things they wanted to do when they were younger, and trying to offer every opportunity possible to their children. Additionally, it seems many of the manufacturing jobs that paid well have been supplanted by coaching and other activities and sports related careers. I think a group looked ahead and saw dollar signs looking at baby boomers children and grandchildren, and did their best to develop a new sector so people could continue pursuing the activities they enjoyed. I think having to attend every day practices for sports, cheering, etc., is too much, especially when the children are involved in multiple sports. It's also led to the parents (particularly mothers) working their lives around the schedules of their children, detracting from couple time for the parents, and family time for all involved. I do think that was the goal, to break down the family unit and emphasize communal activities.

 

+, fewer parents (mothers AND fathers) have enough time with their kids these days to fully understand what normal childhood behavior is... so it's not surprising that they're easily conned into believing their kids have 'mental health issues' and need medication.

I can't place where I read it, but one person recently said in her school district 80% of the Kindergartners are on medications. "Something is very, very wrong."

 

I was very lucky child when I was young the father was the only one working and could afford everything we needed so the mother was home with the children helping teach us thing we did not learn in school. When I got a little older my mother went to work because it seemed that we needed more money but what I had learn earlier came in handy to make meals for myself and this was not just opening a can. Having the house cleaned for my mom when she came home from work. Looking after the house was the responsibility of my brother and me. At school if the teacher though you needed a strap you got it and if I told my dad I would get another.
Now thing have changed both parents need to work and there is still not enough money. When they get home it is time to clean the house make meals and prepare for the next day. The children come home to an empty house or sent to a baby sitter not much older than them. The parents come home tired and just want peace and quiet. So they send the children to another location [extra school/ scouts/ sports/ and so on] just to get them out of the house. In reality the parents have little to no interaction with their own children. The parent feel protective of children they know little about if the teacher says anything the child does not like the parents are down to the school to hold the teacher responsible for all their children problems.
I said I was luck well so are my children one age 7 and 8 and their dad is retired and mom at home all the time so they are being brought up like I was.
No drugs needed in this household

 

Well, the way it was during my early years of school was different than these days but not better.
Kids who were difficult, different, or out of sorts were automatically deemed bad kids, and punished or penalized in some way. And while there weren't many students in that category, with only one exception the troubled/troublesome kids had something going on in their lives- family situations- that they were not prepared to cope with. One example that comes to mind: a kid who was the oldest in a very large family, and he was basically a stand-in parent with all the responsibilities for all his younger brothers and sisters. I don't know what his father did for a living, but his mother was ill, and after she died the boy dropped out of school to raise his younger siblings.

The exception: one friend went through elementary and partway through junior high with teachers constantly calling her parents to complain about her not paying attention in class. She was in the 8th grade- 14 almost 15 yrs old- before they learned the reason was she was almost completely deaf.

In other words, it was easier to penalize students rather than find out what the real problem was.

 

The sad thing today is that teachers spend more waking time with the children than the parents do. This world of politico correctness has teacher scared to say anything that can be miss understood as being offensive. I feel sorry for the teachers we expect them to teach student that do not want to learn or have an incapability to learn. It is not the teacher responsibility to diagnosis a problem their job is to teach. Diagnosis problem belongs to someone else.
We would not ask a policeman to enforce the law without giving him the means to do so.
We ask the teachers to teach without giving them the means to control the classroom.
Believe or not I do not have the answer to solve this problem but I do believe it is not drugs.

 

Would the parents not have known long before then, that the girl was deaf?

 

Well, they were good parents who cared about their kids, but somehow they never picked up on it... and neither did her siblings, aunts/uncles/cousins/doctors/etc.

 

Re: your first sentence- and the 'before school programs,' 'after school programs,' and in some areas the push for year-'round schools. Teachers are expected to babysit and raise other people's kids.
I think any solution has to include encouraging young parents to be responsible for their own children- but they're pressured from every direction to NOT.

 

The idea these days is that the 'troubled' children need to be in with their 'normal' peers. I can recall one troubled child in particular when I was growing up. He and his brothers caused lots of problems, including burglaries, pulling fire alarms, etc. Another family consisted of the troublemakers who would later jump other children, beating them up and taking their money. In both cases, there were issues within the family structure. Other than that, we all sat in our seats, with some fidgeting and whispering, of course, but we walked to school, which used up some of the excess energy. We also for the most part, walked home at lunch, then back to school for the afternoon sessions, as well as having a short recess break.

In 'mainstreaming' the problem children, the entire class is disrupted. I think it can be good for the less disruptive children in Special Ed to be in with some of those in the regular classrooms, but I don't think it's a good idea to disrupt the majority for the minority. Additionally, many, if not most of those in Special Ed have aides assigned to them to keep them focused, restricted, if they're violent, take notes for them, etc. Think of how much all of that costs, and those are tax dollars paying for these programs. I think much of it would be unnecessary if parents cared, were able to be home with their children, and teach them discipline and values. That's assuming the parents have those qualities, of course, which many these days don't. I agree that in some cases, things were better back in our days when the cost of living was lower, and one working parent could cover the costs of housing, food, utilities, etc. Yes, we did without many of the extras we have these days, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

If anyone still believes the "Can't make it on one paycheck... even married women with little children must work to make ends meet... and the rise in cost-of-living is the reason daycare is so common...":

Not long ago, I ran into info that said- variations in locations, etc.- on average, parents who are not eligible for state-funded daycare (meaning: not low-income) can expect to pay more for one year of daycare than they'd pay for one year of college.

Upon checking, one location had on average $13,000 per year for daycare- and that was for the littlest kids, older kids cost more.
The next: $645. per WEEK.
And these were not locations with extremely high costs-of-living, either.
Plus, the average salary is currently said to be $71,000, and the average family composition is married couples with 2-3 children.

Anyone still believe daycare is primarily for low-income families because they 'need' two paychecks?!?

Oh, and notice how many advertise they take care of kids 'from birth'- like drop your baby off on the way home from the hospital and give someone else the responsibility from then on.

And the people who are having the most trouble: young couples who decide between themselves that the husband will support the family and the wives will take care of the children- they're attacked from every which-direction, the wives being told they're lazy parasites and the guys are told their wives are taking advantage of them.