My world record

[Dave Godwin]

All of the above i think!!!!

[Newt]

Dyslexia - Learning disability affecting reading ability. Persons with dyslexia may have difficulty remembering, recognizing, and or reversing written letters, numbers, and words, might read backwards, and have poor handwriting.

 

It has been estimated to occur in 4% of the UK population, and 10% show some of the symptoms of dyslexia. It has been defined by the British Dyslexia Association as "a combination of abilities and difficulties that affect the learning process in one or more of reading, spelling, writing. Accompanying weaknesses may be identified in areas of speed of processing, short-term memory, sequencing and organisation, auditory and/or visual perception, spoken language and motor skills. ...

 

ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder - Characterized by a very short attention span and impulsiveness. ADHD is ADD with over acvity. In both cases, the behaviors are at a level that is inappropriate for a person's expected level of development.

 

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While I realize that these terms are very much overused and innapropriately applied, they are real conditions and are horrible for the affected person, his/her parents and teachers to deal with.

 

Saying that they don't exist or that they can be resolved by dicipline simply indicates that you are not affected with it personally and that you don't have a close family member who is affected.

[GlennB]

.....

By the way - I am not claiming ALL children are putting disorders on (my wife works at a special school looking after autistic children), I am simply saying that in my own opinion diagnosis(es) for such conditions might be given out a bit quicker than they were 20 years ago.....

 

I have to agree with you, although the world has also changed in that time.

Before my current job I did 3 years at a residential school for teenagers with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). In the end I had to conclude that there are many medics and psychologists out there who had kind of "switched on" to the AS diagnosis. It was almost as if it had become trendy. As a result we ended up with a ridiculous (and sometimes unmanageable) mixture of young people. Some (not *that* many, maybe 40%) fitted the classical AS criteria. Some seemed just plain psychologically scarred by "life so far", some hyperactive, some long-term depressed, some mentally ill (we had at least 3 on anti-psychotic drugs and 2 of these ended up sectioned), some were obsessive-compulsive but no other signs of AS, some appeared just as "normal" (?) as you and I , but had somehow got into the system and had improved to the point where they were just accepting it until they left "the system".

All of them were attracting approx. £65,000 per annum in public funding to place them in our schools. Most were the children of astute, aware and - dare I say it - "pushy" middle class parents. Ooops, I said it.

 

But the new job is a different kettle of fish. "Emotional and behavioural difficulties" - it does what it says on the tin Nothing namby-pamby or trendy there, but as far as I can see every last one of them has been through the most dreadful s##t so far in their short lives. And maybe that's because the world has changed. Rising divorce rate, breakdown of traditional family life, the loss of the 'extended family' that used to provide support, economic pressures for Mums to work full-time. Plonking the kids in front of the TV or X-box. Permanent diet of junk food. All that stuff, added up. Dunno, but it ain't good and it ain't going to go away any time soon

[GlennB]

ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder - Characterized by a very short attention span and impulsiveness. ADHD is ADD with over acvity. In both cases, the behaviors are at a level that is inappropriate for a person's expected level of development.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

While I realize that these terms are very much overused and innapropriately applied, they are real conditions and are horrible for the affected person, his/her parents and teachers to deal with.

 

Saying that they don't exist or that they can be resolved by dicipline simply indicates that you are not affected with it personally and that you don't have a close family member who is affected.

 

Amen to that. In fact "discipline" in the old-fashioned sense is a recipe for disaster. The ADHD kid will just end up endlessly punished, and not quite knowing why. What does work is praising - and therefore reinforcing - what they do right. The carrot beats the stick every time.

[UK-Fishing-Tackle.co.uk]

Newt - what I think I (and others) are trying to convey is that in the UK (and I guess the states) a great many people who 20 years ago would have been considered either disruptive or just 'problem children' but these days that can no longer be so - there must be 'something' wrong, even if that something isn't apparently obvious.

 

Some (and I was clear in saying some) were (in my time) definitely conditioned out of behaviour which today simply isn't done. Conditioning may have been special classes to assist them, or in the case of disruptive children generally a case of mild shaming by teachers (definitely happened I assure you - standing with nose in circle on the blackboard was a good one), and then perhaps a slightly firmer (within reason) hand at home. As I said, becuase teachers are not allowed to install discipline for fear of lawsuits, and parents cannot discipline children to any extent (for fear of being sued by their own kids) then a great (great) many children that may have been conditioned out of disruptive behaviour simply aren't.

 

We are seeing in the UK a dramatic rise in violence caused by teenagers - yes - all teenagers can be awkward, but there is a serious shift towards teenagers getting more and more uncontrollable which in my mind can be directly tied to the 'softening' of discipline by parents forced upon by law. Hitting is wrong, we all agree - but we did get smacked as children and I had a healthy respect for my father (not to say I always did as I should, but I knew the consequences if I didn't, and that always put a doubt in ones mind).

 

As I said - my partner works with severly autistic children in full time care, and I would even dream to say I can empathise with their families - it's something you cannot understand until you go through it yourself I expect. However, there is probably a 'substantial percentage' especially in the ADD and ADHD groups where the kids are just bad kids - no one likes to admit it, but they do (and always have) existed.

 

As I said - it's all about boxes - number crunchers like boxes. It really is bizarre that most countries try and educate everyone 'exactly the same way' when in fact we are all slightly different and our capacities for learning are going to be different!

[Lid]

Glenn, good on you for trying to take them out. Someone needs to help these youngsters whether or not we think their illnesses are real or misdiagnosed.

 

I know a few kids diagnosed with ADHD. A couple are fine underneath it all and just need a bit of love and attention. However some are almost uncontrollable, no matter what you do.

 

Someone mentioned diet. I would agree, diet probably has a huge effect on the mood and behaviour of many kids (and adults). However it is not generally recognised nor accepted by the conventional medical profession.

Edited May 5, 2006 by Lid

[Newt]

Ian W - I agree that lots of kids are mis-labeled because it makes things easy.

 

But for the ones with the problem, life can be a very miserable thing and I've heard teachers say much the same as sharkbyte did when he wrote his opinions on this ADHD tosh and that makes me cringe.

[GlennB]

Someone mentioned diet. I would agree, diet probably has a huge effect on the mood and behaviour of many kids (and adults). However it is not generally recognised nor accepted by the conventional medical profession.

 

Lid, I have this fantasy project lined up where some staff and a bunch of kids with various "labels" like ADHD,AS etc are put on a remote island - no way to escape - for a year, and *everybody* has to eat unprocessed food, drink plain water, there's no TV or PC's or video games etc etc. You get the picture I'm convinced it would make a huge difference, just in terms of diet and activity. I've known kids who didn't eat a single portion of fruit or veg in 2 years! But some (much?) damage has probably been done already during the developmental years, and maybe it can't necessarily be totally repaired.

[Sharkbyte]

They tried something like that in Lord of the Flies.

 

It ended up with the Milky Bar Kid being thrown off a cliff and all the surviving lads dining on a big pig without a side serving of veg.

[GlennB]

They tried something like that in Lord of the Flies.

 

It ended up with the Milky Bar Kid being thrown off a cliff and all the surviving lads dining on a big pig without a side serving of veg.

Read it in 1965 or so and all I remember of that book is "sucks to your ass-mar" or somesuch. And a conch was involved.