“Of US children aged 8 to 15 years, 8.7%, an estimated 2.4 million, meet DSM-IV criteria for ADHD—according to a report by Archives of Pediatrics.”
First—who cares about the report? Hopefully you do, but why do you care? That’s for you to know and you can tell us if you like. For the purpose of this article, I will tell you what I think:
The report basically tells me, right off, that more kids between 8—15 have ADHD than we thought. Yeah? Previous estimates were between 5—7% depending where we get our information. But wait; in the report I find that only 3k some-odd kids were included in the tests. What’s more, is that:
“An additional 3.3% (95% CI, 2.4%-4.1%) did not meet DSM-IV ADHD criteria but had both a parent-reported prior diagnosis of ADHD and treatment with ADHD medications at some time during the past 12 months. However, the following results focus on those meeting DSM-IV ADHD criteria in the past year.”
Okay, that’s all I am going to include from this report and instead focus on my opinion, because, although the report is useful to the medical profession, I just don’t see it as a practical estimate of the general U.S. 301+ million pop or the world’s 6.7 Billion pop. 3000 candidates and 3.3% prior diagnosed excluded is not the end all, be all of estimitations, in my opinion. Yes, the studies are important and should continue, but, what do we know according to common sense and eye balling the Learning Disorder? It’s a heck of a lot more prevalent than we ever imagined and 8% is only the tip of the iceberg!
I think we can all agree that everyone has ADHD tendencies and everyone, diagnosed, or not, can benefit from learning techniques created for Adders. Why is that? Maybe the education systems take themselves way too seriously and should get back to the basics of fundamentally teaching people through interaction? From my experience, talking to both Adders and those who think, or know, they don’t have ADD or ADHD, interactive learning experiences are the preferred method of learning. So many darn standards and expectations which are set for everyone, but if there is one thing we all know about “everyone”, is that no two people are alike, no matter if they have a learning disorder or not.
The next study should be ‘how many do not have ADD or ADHD’! In the last few months I have talked to more people than in the entire rest of my life, with concern to ADD ADHD, and every single person knows someone with either ADD or ADHD and if they don’t know someone with ADD or ADHD, well, as it turns out, they themselves have it! Now this is a personal study and I am just eyeballing this, but that kind of tells me 8% might be a bit low!
How many people do you know with ADD or ADHD? How many people do you know are related to an Adder? If you have ADD or ADHD and since we know it is hereditary—how many in your direct family have ADD or ADHD? So tell me and our fellow readers: what percent of the population do you ‘think’ have ADD or ADHD just from eyeballing it???
Please, don’t misunderstand me, I think the job the medical profession is doing to study and validate ADD ADHD is important, very, very important, but in reality we already know that this type of research is slow and not really as accurate as is needed.
~Bryan
For those who would like to read the report from the Archives of Pediatrics, here is the link to their website:
http://www.archpedi.ama-assn.org/
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It is sad to see what is going on in many public schools. Parents are too trusting when it comes to teachers. The schools are labeling many children mentally ill rather then providing them with the services that they need. Schools can tap into a lot of money for these labels and the money can be used on a lot of stuff that doesn’t even go to help these children. Labeling a child mentally ill takes the blame off of the school when the child is failing to learn in the way the school is teaching. I found out that my son was gifted when the school tried to pressure me into labeling him ADD. He is very smart but was daydreaming in class and dragging his feet with the assignments. He was also asking questions that were advanced but off the subjests being discussed in class. The teacher made him feel like a fool in front of the class. Daydreaming is a way that gifted children escape the bordom. He was finding nothing interesting being explored in school because they are so focused on the NCLB testing. The schools would rather not find the gifted children because they feel that they are not getting paid to provide them with services. They knew my son was gifted before I did but did not share this with me until I pulled him out of school and requested all records. Gifted children are being destroyed in our school system and many people just don’t see it!
It is not uncommon for a gifted child to have ADD; however, that is for a specific type of medical professional to decide and not teachers. I can understand your frustration and perhaps, anger. I hope that you found a proper medical professional to help your child in the manner proper for him. Seeking medical advice does not mean a child has any illness and ADD is not necessarily considered ‘mentally ill’. Still, for any type of mental issue (Gifted, ADD, ADHD, LD) a proper diagnosis, whatever the diagnosis, is necessary. Many gifted children who also have ADD have a very difficult time ever meeting their potential if not properly diagnosed. Only time will tell with the undiagnosed, such as the case was with me.
I sincerely wish you and your child the best.
~Bryan
Most people I have met, including children,that have ADD, are what is considered “gifted”. In fact many of the smartest people who ever lived were considered ADD. I do not consider Attention Deficit Disorder a mental illness. I’m not ill, just distracted.
It is true however that you can’t always trust teachers. They mean well but they are not doctors. They cannot diagnose ADD.
Because I would rather not argue with the school system, and I did not trust them, I removed my children and taught them at home for several years. I have ADD and no college education. Even still, when my kids returned to public school, my daughter was skipped a grade because she was so advanced. The other child also is a excellent student. Sometimes parents do have to take the matter in their own hands when it comes to their kids education.
I can 100% understand a parent not wanting to accept the label ADD for their child. It is seen as a negative a lot of the times. I think that is what Bryan here is trying to show people, that it does not have to be a negative when treated properly.
Thank you Lisa –that is exactly one of my main points:
“I think that is what Bryan here is trying to show people, that it does not have to be a negative when treated properly.”
The majority of teachers do mean well and sometimes it is easy to place blame on teachers, and yet, many times teachers are doing the best that they can with what they know and have experienced. Teachers are on the front lines, often with too many students, when they see something out of the ordinary they can point it out and ask for testing, but that does not mean what they initially think is indeed correct. And I don’t think most teachers just assume anything and therefore refer their thoughts to the parents and school board. I have known parents to become understandably upset and just move their child to another school and have the same situation repeated or seem to disappear for a while until eventually it resurfaces. Ultimately the future of the child is held in the balance. Professional advice is important even if one is not sure, because only a trained professional can identify what is truly going on. Assumptions and guesses and, yes, even pride can hurt the chances of children. Today is a much more competitive world than we knew it as children and to wait and see can be the choice of a lifetime.
I have spoken to many early childhood educators and most have reservations about how to approach a parent on such a subject as ADD or any other problems in the child’s education. That in itself should be considered, so when a teacher does finally speak up, they might not know exactly what the problem is, but, it can be assumed something is indeed worth looking into with an open mind.
*then again the opposite has also been true, a parent has a concern and the teacher does not consider the parent’s input. In these respects a more cohesive and open environment is needed. Blame doesn’t assist the child and actually can cause the child more harm – there should never be a tug of war when it comes to a child’s well being.
~Bryan
I beleive educators get in that field because they love children and want to make a difference. However, the demands are so many and they get spread pretty thin. It is a difficult job, to try to figure out what each student needs to learn and how. That is why the parent, who knows the child best, needs to keep a eye on how the kid is doing and not rely solely on the teacher. I do this by asking my kids alot of questions about school and how their doing. When they were younger I’d help out in the class to see for myself.
I know sometimes I have observed a kid and thought to myself, well he or she must have ADD. But the truth is, I am not the judge of that, just because I know what it can look like because I have it, or I’ve seen it before. Like Bryan has stressed, it must be diagnosed properly, by people who are specially trained to know what it is. Even the wonderful people who teach, or the family doctor do not have the specialized training to know. Our childrens future are worth the effort it takes to find out for sure, so proper care can be taken of them. I hear that alot of kids are put directly on stimulants. My hope is that they, would only be used as a last resort. A very last resort. This is my personal opinion only.
In the situation with my son the teacher was looking at ADD right away. She even talked to me about medication because it worked well for her stepson. My brother works with children that have behavior problems. He is a licensed professional with a masters in early childhood development. He was the first one to suggest that my son was probally gifted.
When this started he suggested I take my son to a psychologist that he knew. She determined that my son did not have ADD and suggested that the teacher could add some of his interests into his daily work. The teacher ignored this and wanted the school psychologist to test my son instead. My brother cautioned me because he said that school psychologists do not get a lot of training in gifted and can make serious mistakes.
When I would not do the testing with the school psychologist my sons A and B grades went to D and F grades overnight. This teacher gave my first grade son bad grades for backward letters and numbers. My brother told me that this was unheard of. Backward letters and numbers can go on up to 3rd grade and it is normal. He knew she was playing games! I found out later that she was not grading the other children for this. Just my son. My brother has worked in several schools and he said he has never seen anything like this! Taking him out of that school was the best thing I could have done for him. He has always done well since. I have him in a Montessori Charter school now. He is in 5th grade and he loves school.
I did take him to Silvia Rimm for full testing in 3rd grade. I had to get the whole picture. I did not want to deny him help if he needed it. She told me that he has a nice long attention span and that he is very focused. She saw no signs to indicate attention problems. He is gifted and she suggested advanced reading and math. I do think that gifted children get mislabeled. It almost happened to my son. And I think that many people that are labeled ADHD and ADD are probally gifted. They share almost all the same traits.