ADD Label Being Misused?

[Guest guest]

What does everyone think about this?

Be Well,

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Autism, " is being falsely attributed to medical syndromes "

 

 

http://www.awares.org/pkgs/news/news.asp?

showItemID=234 & board= & bbcode= & profileCode= & section=

Anger over UK professor's claims that unruly behaviour, including

autism, 'is being falsely attributed to medical syndromes'

 

LONDON, UK: Unruly behaviour by many children is being falsely

attributed to medical complaints and syndromes when better parenting

is needed, a leading academic has claimed. Priscilla Alderson,

professor of Childhood Studies at London University, said that

syndromes such as attention deficit disorder and mild autism were

being exploited by psychologists keen to " make a quick buck. "

 

The number of children registered with special needs in the United

Kingdom has doubled in a decade to 1.4million.

 

Professor Alderson told The Times newspaper " I visited a special

school which had 27 children diagnosed as autistic. Of those, only

two that I met displayed the lack of eye contact and absence of

empathy which denotes true autism. Money is behind all this.

Pyschologists want the work, and lower the diagnosis threshold

accordingly. Special needs is an administrative device describing

children who have extra needs from those provided for in the average

classroom.

 

Her conclusions will provoke fury among psychologists and the

parents of affected children, who have spent years fighting for

recognition of a range of behavioural problems.

 

Hugh Morgan, chief executive of the Welsh national organisation,

Autism Cymru, expressed " surprise and dismay at what appear, on the

surface, to be misguided and ill-informed comments. "

 

Britain's National Autistic Society said that questioning the

diagnoses would add to the " stress and confusion " suffered by many

families.

 

The number of children registered with special needs has almost

doubled over the past decade to 1.4 million - an increase from 11.6

per cent to 19.2 per cent in primary schools and from 9.6 per cent

to 16.5 per cent in secondary schools. The term encompasses learning

difficulties, such as dyslexia, to various syndromes on the autism

spectrum.

 

Professor Alderson was backed by Eamonn O'Kane, leader of the

National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Woman Teachers,

who said that members were cynical about an explosion in the number

of special-needs diagnoses and called for more support for teachers

facing bad behaviour.

 

Professor Alderson said that it was often convenient for neglectful

parents to claim that a child had a behavioural disorder. She

believes that much of the increase can be put down to more flexible

interpretations of normal childhood traits, such as restlessness and

excitability. In our more gullible age, she says, this becomes

attention deficit - which could be solved by engaging more with

children and allowing them to let off steam in traditional fashion

by playing in parks and climbing trees.

 

" Playgrounds and parks are empty, because of the scare stories about

abductions, " she said. " But children need the space and freedom to

play, run and climb - without that, they are restless, and come to

be seen as abnormally 'hyperactive.'

 

" About eight children are murdered outside the home each year,

compared with about 50 inside. Cooping up children inside homes is

not going to do them any good. "

 

Professor Alderson, 57, who has three grown-up children and three

grandchildren, admitted that her eldest daughter had

been " difficult, " something she attributes to her naivity at the

time about how to be a good parent. " By the time my other children

came along, I had realised that, if you treat children as adults,

then they will behave accordingly. "

 

Teachers have complained about the growth in the syndromes, alleging

that it gives pupils an excuse to avoid discipline. They are also

suspicious about the number of children who are able to use a

diagnosis to claim more time in their examinations. For a fee of

£50, an educational psychologist or specialist teacher can attest

that a child should claim at least 25 per cent extra time because

they have behavioural or learning disorders.

 

Almost 37,000 11-year-olds were given extra time in their national

test in English last year - up by 8,000, or more than 35 per cent,

in two years. Similar increases were seen in maths and science

tests.

 

Barry Bourne, an educational psychologist, who has worked with

children for 35 years, rejected the claims that his profession was

exploiting labels to make money.

 

" In the past, I think we had a very crude view of some of these

disorders, " he said. " It is a very complicated issue. I think we

have a much better understanding of what aspects make up a

personality than we did when I first joined the profession.

Personally, I am convinced that family history plays a far more

significant part than we believed in the past, and while

surroundings and upbringing are also important alone they simply do

not explain why certain people from the same family develop in very

different ways. "

 

O'Kane, general secretary of the second-largest teaching union,

said: " A lot of teachers are very cynical about the reasons behind

the boom in the numbers of these conditions. We need to do more to

address the consequences for staff who have to deal with the bad

behaviour. "

 

An internet chatroom used anonymously by teachers reveals the

beliefs of many members of the profession. One posting, left this

month by a teacher identified only as " re " , complained about

students who " are whipped off to a psychologist and labelled if they

show the slightest sign of misbehaviour. "

 

It goes on: " This 'diagnosis' then becomes an excuse for more

misbehaviour - we have students with 'mild Tourette's' and lots of

ADHD - and yet they can behave well if threatened with punishment. "

 

Someone calling herself Miss Nomer responds: " Writing as a special-

needs teacher, I am quite sure that a lot of it is complete b. I get

sick of being trashed by some little s who then tells me I can't

punish him because his pill hasn't kicked in yet. When you give a

kid a syndrome, you give him an excuse. "

 

She blamed " uppity parents looking for compensation, extra funding,

a stick to beat teacher and an excuse for their kid's obnoxious

behaviour and their inadequate parenting. "

 

Hopkins, a director of the National Autistic Society,

said: " This can only add to the stress and confusion that many

families face. The importance of receiving a correct diagnosis

cannot be emphasised enough. Access to the most appropriate

education and support depends on it. No reputable diagnostician is

likely to make an on-the-spot diagnosis. Our experience is that

diagnosis is still a battle for many families. Teachers believe the

numbers of children with an autistic spectrum disorder is on the

increase. "

 

(Source: The Times, July 28, 2003)