In the year 2005 today it seems to me that an awful lot of children are being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. Why is this? What has changed over the years? Do you think it is overdiagnosed today?




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My thoughts are that there are way too many kids that are being labeled as having ADD/ADHD and are auotmatically put on medication. I do think that this is a realistic problem and that some children really do have this, however I feel that it is being overdiagnosed. Many teachers today, with the fear and stress of testing, expect their children to sit in their seats quietly while they do worksheet after worksheet in order to learn the material for the test. What happened to free time, PE, Recess, Music, and Theatre? I whole heartily believe that we need to let kids be kids and understand that they would rather be outside then inside at a desk working. If we all did I belive children would be less stressed and make better grades. By saying all of this I do believe ADD/ADHD is real I just think it is diagnosed too frequently today.

I agree that ADHA is over used as the sorce of the childs inablitiy to sit still and concentrate. I feel that the child should be examined closer to see what the real issue is. I have seen medicine really work for some kids, but druging kids should not be the first solution we reach to.

I would agree with the previous posts. I have a little brother who was diagnosed with ADD. When I would help him with his reading and homework, he did everything fine, when he wanted to. He was diagnosed with this "problem" when he was in Kindergarten. His teachers demanded that he be tested because he "couldn't" sit still and listen to them. The problem with my little brother and many other kids diagnosed with ADD is that THEY ARE KIDS! They don't sit still all the time because they would rather be doing something else. I'm not saying that ADD isn't a real problem, it is, for some people. It just really irritates me that anytime a kid doesn't sit still while being drilled with information for long periods of time, the first thought is "They have ADD". Once again, ADD/ADHA are real problems and can be helped, but it is not as rampant as people think it is.

I heartily agree with you about the fact that ADD/ADHD has been overdiagnosed. As you may have read in my question about school psychology, I techincally should be one of those kids who is on medication. However, I learned a style from my fourth grade teacher that I saw that worked to combat the problems associated with this. If a child was not acting properly, she would have the student go outside and run around for a few minutes and then come back in. This let off some built up emotion and increased the ability of all students in the classroom to learn more effectively. I think that some students are classified in this manner so that they can be labeled as needing special education and therefore schools are able to omit them from testing results. In regards to all of this, I believe that ADD/ADHD can be combated in such a manner that each person diagnosed with it can still have a healthy academic career. I used to forget my books all the time. My dad said that if he had a dime for every time we had to go back to the school house for a book, he would have a considerable fortune. However, on a system of rewards and punishments I was able to learn to bring all my school books home for homework the next night. It was a long grueling process for both my parents and I, but it did work. Now I consider anyone who is diagnosed with the disorder to be a person who can still succeed without the use of drugs.

I have to agree with the rest of the replies on this one. I think it is an overdiagnosed disorder. Also, it seems that everything a child does in classrooms today is considered a "disorder." I also agree with Heath on the fact that kids are going to act like kids. You can't expect a seven year old to act like they're twenty-five.

I have ADHD as I have told everyone in class. I agree with the previous post that it is overdiagnosed. I know I do have ADHD, and I think it is important to properly diagnose kids. Kids naturally have a tendency to not sit still. I had been on Ritlain and Adderall, now I do not take any medication. I had very severe ADHD when I was a kid, even to the point when medication only helped part of my problem. I do think it helped me develop skills that I use today. I do believe that some kids with ADD/ADHD should not be on medication. Even now I find myself talking too much, or interrupting people in class, but I try to correct myself now when I notice myself doing these things. I think as teachers we need to think about how to help these kids with ADD/ADHD instead of always focusing on overdiagnosing, or over-medicating....because it boils down to it, you don't have a choice to change a diagnosis and legally by law, you will have to follow by there IEP (individual education plan). Don't get me wrong, I still think that there is overdiagnosing, but I also think it is important to help the kids you have it, and learn to develop ways as a teacher to deal with ADD/ADHD.

I agree with everyone. ADD is overdiagnosed. Students need to be up and moving around when they are learning. They tend to stay more engaged in the class and will probably learn more. Just because a 7 year old can not sit still in his/her seat, does not mean that they have ADD. They probably are just tired of sitting in that seat and would love to get up and play.

It almost seems that people have forgotten that kids will be kids and really need to have time to get out their energy. They are sometimes surprised to see a kid grow impatient during a class that my last thirty minutes when the child is used to fasted paced videogames and technology. Current TV shows limit their story lines to less than 3 minute clips to keep the attention of our ADD population. I guess a new question would be…

Should teachers speed up their lessons to cope with the shortened attention spans, or should we continue to drug the kids to allow them to have the attention span only when it’s needed?

Sorry, I forgot to sign in...again!!

As I was reading the posts, I had the same thoughts that Daniel had...the theory that kids are watching too much television and playing too many video games, they have a build up of energy that comes out during school time. We are now a sedentary society...this can also be correlated to childhood obesity. This is something that I think needs to be researched when discussing the over diagnosis on ADD/ADHD.
Also, there is no 'real' way to diagnose ADD/ADHD, there are different tests, and criteria that a child must meet to be considered to have either of these. So I feel it can lie in the hands of the doctor/psychologist whether they are liberal/conservative with their diagnosis.
I feel that we should focus on teaching children to change their behavior. As both Hanna and Travis were saying from firsthand experience, changing their behavior helped them deal with school and communication. We are such a quick fix society; we look for band-aids instead of learning how to control our 'problems'.
I tutored a boy who was in 2nd grade, he was diagnosed with ADHD. I tutored him an hour, 3 times a week. For the first month we did not get any of his assignments worked on, we spent that month learning how to sit still long enough to write his name at the top of his paper. As the month went on, he would go longer lengths of time sitting still and by the fifth week he was able to concentrate for over half of the hour without any 'reminder' to focus. By the end of the school year, he was like any other child (needing just a little nudge). He learned how to control his behavior.