So ADHD can now

cost a $1000 or more to "diagnose"? It seems you can also get extra time in exams, more time for revision and other "help" if you are officially diagnosed as "ADHD". You can also have more breaks to "burn off energy" and help you "regulate" your emotions.

I can remember teaching a child who would undoubtedly now be diagnosed as having ADHD. I handled him in the classroom with no extra assistance. He was sitting at the back of the classroom when I arrived. I sat him at the front. If he did not finish the tasks I set him - and I knew he could - he stayed in until he had finished them. I reminded him of his responsibilities to himself and others with nothing more than a direct look if he started to stare out the window. I made sure he was asked direct questions so he would be actively participating in class activities. It took some weeks but by the end of the first term of teaching him he was getting better marks and he really was focussing more on the work he was given to do.  Yes, it was work but even the other children in the class noticed the change in him. They were more willing to include him in a team. His mother told me he no longer "hated" school. He might not be fond of school but he was not complaining about it as much as he once had. The results were not perfect. He still lost concentration at times and had to be brought back from wherever his mind had taken him. Nevertheless I think the approach worked.

No, that approach will not work for all children but it worked for him and I expect it would work for many others. When I did this the usual arrangement for the classroom was "four straight rows facing the blackboard". There was an equally usual expectation that, for the most part, students were expected to listen to the person teaching them. I tried to encourage the children to raise their hands and ask questions if they did not understand something or wanted to know something more. Some children were reluctant to do that and I had to be aware of it and try to follow up.  They were expected to concentrate on the task in hand. 

No, it was not easy. Work, and school is the child's form of work, is not easy. It is not supposed to be easy...or is it? 

I may be wrong but I think the epidemic (and there is no other suitable word) of children being diagnosed with ADHD may actually have more to do with the way children are now learning and being expected to learn. If very young children are using screen based devices (and many of them are) then they are learning to learn in a very different way from the child who is playing in other ways. Screen time will not teach you to play in the mud or build with wooden bricks. It will not teach you dig holes or pretend to cook.

Young children are often naturally restless. They have shorter attention spans. Screen based activities often reinforce that very behaviour.  There is the instant "reward" when you hit the right button. The joy of discovering you were right is not reinforced by human interaction but interaction with a something else entirely.  Like it or not the style of reinforcement is different. The human element is missing. The emotion is not there.

I know there are people who will argue with this but I do wonder about it all. Do we need to rethink learning styles before we simply say someone has ADHD? Do we also perhaps need to think that most of us have ADHD at some point in our day or week?