on drugs for ADHD in this country....and I suspect that is 80,000 too many.
Of course the piece in yesterday's paper was designed to sensationalise the issue but, if the figures were close to correct, then there is a problem out there.
Are there really that many children who need to be drugged up in order to cope with the world - or is the world not coping with them?
I am trying to remember what happened when I was a kitten.
I can't remember any children who were so disruptive that they needed to be given something like valium to calm them down. They were disciplined, kept in at play time or after school, told to apologise - and boys were sometimes given the cane. Children were told to write the same sentence ten or twenty times or made to repeat work they simply had not bothered to finish.
Even when we grumbled that it wasn't "fair" we did it. I remember being out of the classroom getting yet another set of scraped knees dealt with by someone - not the teacher. The class had played up for some reason in my absence and everyone was kept in at morning play time - and that everyone included me even though I had not been there at the time. No teacher would dare to do that now.
And perhaps that is part of the problem. There is a child I know who is "having trouble coping with school". She is said to have "mild Asperger's". This child is very bright and has no learning issues but she refuses to write anything down. She simply says, "I don't like it" and "I don't want to". She has temper tantrums of massive proportions. Instead of going to school some days she spends the day with her grandparents. She gets a lot of attention there.
Her home life is chaotic. There is no regular timetable. Meals are irregular. Her diet is not balanced or varied. She is an extremely "fussy" eater. It is one of those many households where there is "no time".
And yes, she is on a drug to make her sleep at night and another to try and make her conform during the day.
At the beginning of the recent term break another mother said to me that her child want this one to spend a day there.
"But I'm not sure I can cope with her," she told me.
"I don't think you will have a problem," I told her, "Tell her what the program is for the day. Tell her when things are going to happen and what you expect from her at the start. Don't "reason" or "discuss" things with her, just expect her to do it. "
"Well, that's what I do with mine," she said.
"Yes, I know."
And yes, the child spent a day there and told me she had a "really, really good" time. A good deal of it was apparently spent playing an imaginative game of some sort in the back garden without more than a watchful eye from the host mother.
I know it is only one example but I couldn't help wondering how many other supposedly "ADHD" and "Asperger's" children would benefit from a regular timetable, boundaries for behaviour, a proper diet and opportunities to play with only a distant watchful eye on them. Add some definite expectations in the classroom and perhaps we would have only 80 and not 80,000 plus children on drugs. It might be easier for everyone.
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4 comments:
Cat, you are so right.
'Refusal' to write probably reflects the difficulties caused by muscle problems which are part of an Aspergers presentation. With the amount of writing and fine motor tasks exoected of school aged children, I can see how children with Aspergers could easily feel overwhelmed by the pressure. difficult behaviours usually reflect a need tgat isn't being met. It might very well be discipline, security or more structured environment, better diet etc. But it also need to be recognised that a child's physical limitations need to be respected and practical support given. My Aspergers child barely wrote a sentence until grade 3 when he was given a computer and then he typed a long story using words of grade 6 level. It concernss me that parents are pushed into the drug treatments by drs and schools because there is a lack of educational, disability and social support for these children and families in need.
Jodie, I am a relief teacher and I am very concerned. I don't know where your child goes to school but I see very little evidence of any writing being done in schools. Most work is done via screen and keyboard in the schools I have worked in. Some children even have difficulty writing their name. Many of the "difficult" behaviours are the result of a failure to discipline in a consistent and persistent way. That takes effort. Notions about "negotiating" behaviours with children and similar attitudes just contribute to the problems. Alice
That's certainly the case in high schools. It wasn't so much in the primary school but that was a few years ago. Perhaps it has radically changed in junior primary schools in the last 5 years... I agree with you that discipline and consistency from parents requires effort and it isn't easy - I worry that there is so much pressure on parents to juggle full time work and everything else that at the end of the day they can't be bothered with discipline or healthy diets. It's such a shame because parenting the children should be parents' no. 1 priority after their own health. With so many young families separated from their extended families because of work travel or housing insecurity etc. It must be isolating for families and tricky to find new supports when having to move house so often. It's such a complex social issue and can't be distilled into a simple reason as 'lack of discipline' which I see as a symptom and secondary cause for children's behaviour issues - secondary to social and environmental issues such as problems in the food chain.
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