ADHD preschoolers helped by structure, consistency

[Prrkitty]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/condi....ap/index.html

This might help for older children and adults as well :) <hug>

[Glenn the Great]

ADD and ADHD are a joke. Almost all of my teenage friends say they are diagnosed with it, and so are a lot of my older friends. Everyone has ADD these days. In college, everyone who talks in class or doesn't pay attention claims ADD when confronted. If a student fails a test, it is because his or her ADD prevented them from paying enough attention.

I think that ADD and ADHD are nothing but an excuse for poor self-discipline. It also looks like elementary school and parental discipline has been too soft. When I was young, teachers and adults were very vicious at discipline. Too vicious. While it certainly worked, everyone around me was saying things like...

"When I have kids, or if I were the teacher, I'd never punish the kids and they'd all think I was cool."

It seems that people are making good on that promise, and now we have lots of little kids screaming and running around while the mother waddles after them going "Okaaay Billy, let's tone things down a little bit."

[The_Amaster]

On the front page the title here is reduced to "ADHD preschoolers helped by..." and I swear my first thought was "...ritalin"

Seriously, though, Glenn's right. It's "fashionable" now to have ADD or ADHD, or some other disorder. All the cool kids have them.

While I believe that in some cases there are true examples of the above, a lot of them are just people blowing little personality things out of proportion.

[Trevelyan_06]

I too think that ADHD and ADD are over used. However, this is an actual disease that some kids have to suffer with. What sucks is all the lazy sons of bitches that use ADHD and ADD as an excuse make it that much harder for those that legitimately have the disease.

Part of the reason there has been such and upsurge in the number of ADD/ADHD diagnosis I believe is the current totally unrealistic push for higher eduction. Not that I believe that a college education is not a noble goal to work for, some parents need to realize that their little sweet heart is not college material. When he's 14 and still trying to put the square pegs in the round hole, chances are, he's not college material. Parents, though, just HAVE to get their kids into the most prestigious program in the most ivy of the ivy league school. When junior doesn't get the grades needed, then something must be wrong! It's not that the kid just doesn't try, no he has ADHD/ADD and therefore needs special allowances for tests, etc.

I wish I could find the article I read a little while back that dealt with this subject. They found that in some upper class neighborhoods many of the children were diagnosed with various learning disabilities and therefore rated special allowances during test times. Turns out these parents had enough money to go to a doctor and hound him until he found some type of BS condition to diagnose their kid with which in turn would mean that the kid would get special allowances come test time for that all important SAT time. It was disgusting

[AtmaWeapon]

All the cool kids have Asperger's these days anyway

[mikeron]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJYQnf2KJ4c

[Lilith]

I kind of agree. When I was in therapy they immediately tried to pin ADHD or w/e on me for lack of concentration instead of like...anxiety. Which is what I was in there for. Because it's harder to treat duuurrrr

[Dechipher]

My friend had a huge problem last year (freshman year of college.) He couldn't focus or understand a lot of concepts in class, but apparently over the summer he went to the doctor and they diagnosed him with ADD and put him on ritalin. Now he's fine and he can cope with school and everything, so I don't know. I know it's certainly not something that is BS. I'm fairly certain that I've got some form of ADD, probably ADHD, but I've never been to the doctor and I'm not on any meds for it, so I don't ever use that as an excuse. I don't think I've ever said "Hey, relax, I've got ADD" for anything before.

[erm2003]

I don't think you can discount all cases of ADD/ADHD as bull. There are definitely some people out there who have real problems keeping attention and need help with it if it is severe enough, as pointed out in the example Dechipher gave. The problem is there are many who try to use ADD/ADHD as an excuse for laziness or a general lack of interest in something. There is a difference between not being able to pay attention and choosing not to pay attention. Instead of getting to the root of the problem, some parents and doctors find it easier to medicate and claim that it helps instead of doing something about the real issue.

The sad part is when there are people out there who actually need the medication but don't take it, or if they are minors, their parents don't "believe" in medication even though it could really help their child.

[Sute]

lmao, this girl was jealous of me for having ADD, what's funny is that I know ADD/ADHD is a joke and I make fun of it all the time.

Then, that same girl's mother rushed her four year old son to the clinic and he was diagnosed with ADD because he'd rather play video games than focus on doing chores. What a horrible future that child will have.