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silverhand_gw

ADHD in grammar school kids

silverhand
16 years ago

Hi, everyone I am working on my senior project for Sage College of Albany. I am designing a campaign that will examine the powerful influence that increasingly specific childhood diagnoses have on children today. I am hoping this will be helpful to create an awareness of the dangers of relying on medication to solve behavioral problems.

I am asking you for your insight on the issue of treating ADD, ADHD, and other behavioral/learning disorders with amphetamines, or with alternative methods, in order that I can collect real-life experiences from parents. I am open to all angles of the controversy surrounding this issue. You may be quoted. If you do not wish to be directly quoted, please let me know.


Here is my stance on the issue. Please feel free to argue or agree.

Child-rearing has changed drastically in the last one hundred years, deviating from the authority of the family, to the authority of "professionals." This has encouraged a fundamental change in how society views children, and has also enabled the media to commercialize childhood. Pharmaceutical advertising has capitalized on this change by pushing childhood disorders and treatments intended for "the quick fix." With the deterioration of the family unit, adults have developed a lack of patience and understanding, and buying into the media, expect their children to fit into the projected mold for the "normal" child. When a child does not fit into that mold, professional diagnoses are sought out to succinctly label the particular problem. In the past, parents would have laboriously fought against such stigmas being placed on their children. Now they look to them as liberating excuses, or solid answers to what they now view as disorders.

I seek to point out the dangers in this approach, and will encourage parents and teachers not to focus on psychological diagnoses and medications, but rather on the underlying issues and unique obstacles each child faces as an individual. Children are not, and should not be made out to be carbon copies of one another or of their parents. Parents and teachers need to accept individuality and be willing to make accommodations for different learning, socializing, and developing needs.

With this campaign, I hope to bring to light the exorbitant amount of children being diagnosed and medically treated for "disorders" like ADHD. It will show that many of these "disorders" can be corrected simply by a parent paying more attention, or a teacher altering the way a subject is taught. This campaign seeks to instill a deeper understanding of the child psyche, and an awareness of the dubiousness of most diagnoses, along with the harmful effects that prescribed medication can have on the children. The presentation as a whole intends to capture the attention of parents and teachers alike, and expose a widespread problem that has long been ignored or misunderstood.

Thanks so much. I know your time is valuable - any insight will be appreciated.

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