I like to call it LPADD -lack of parental attention deficit disorder. ( the core of the problem)

Or

PBS - pass the buck syndrome. ( the believers of adhd)

OR

FSR- free spirit retardation. (what they do to the child via meds such as ritalin)

Isnt it time to stop the natural courses of evolution of the human mind being stifled by emotion blockers ?

Ritalin etc is pure chemist speed. The cleanest amphetamine you can get. I used to take them to get high. I would be awake for days.

However i also have taken them when i was hypo and they countereacted the hype.

I have also known a child who after bad behaviour in school was falsely diagnosed as having adhd . After outside investigation the childs poor behaviour and progress at school was eventually linked to boredom.

Two months later , they had this same student marking the year six exams.

He was only in year two.

When I was a youngster my dad had a very simple solution to any such problems with concentration.

If i was supposed to be sitting down but instead was running around, he simply pulled out his belt and I sat down really quickly.

If i wasn't paying attention in class and i got in trouble, he was standing at the door with his belt when I got home.

If i wasn't following directions, he pulled out his belt.

ADHD is just an excuse for parents that don't discipline their kids properly. I say reinstate corpral punishment in schools and I guarantee those kids will be cured of their "ADHD."

Priscilla Alderson is Professor of Childhood Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London.

"More than one in 20 schoolage children have been diagnosed with ADHD, and by 2007, some experts predict that one in seven schoolchildren will be on mood-altering pills - such as the infamous Ritalin - to control anti-social behaviour.

Yet not too long ago, ADHD was unheard of.

So have scientists identified an old disease - or invented a new one? The truth is that a disorder or a syndrome is not a medical diagnosis, but a collection of behaviours.

These are so broad and vague that almost everyone has them at some point. Getting agitated, losing your temper and being bored are classic symptoms of ADHD - but don't all children behave like that sometimes?

What has caused the rise in ADHD? I believe it has much to do with the destruction of real childhood - shutting children away in schools, crËches, homes and cars.

Recently, David Blunkett said he was 'reclaiming the streets' from young people. I believe we have already stolen the streets from them.

Once, they were the children's playground, where they could have freedom and fun, while their parents had some peace at home.

Now, it is a crime to 'hang about' with your friends. Local authorities have closed hundreds of parks, playgrounds, play groups and youth clubs.

Campaigns, such as 'say no to strangers', create fear. Adults are afraid to speak to a child in case they look like paedophiles. Children with problems at home may have no one to turn to.

Fear of accidents and of being sued leads adults to treat children like china dolls. Then, the safest place is on the sofa in front of the TV ads. Or playing computer games, or watching videos.

With all this enforced inactivity, children who try to be active are seen as abnormal or 'hyper'. Then doctors helpfully add drugs such as Ritalin to the stew of hyperinducing chemicals that children have already ingested from sweets and fizzy drinks.

So how could we help the children likely to be diagnosed with these 'syndromes', and their parents?

If we were serious, we would have to make major changes. Those who work the longest hours and on lower pay tend to be parents with young children.

After a day in top gear, it is hard to adjust to toddler pace, or enjoy an evening picnic. No wonder children have to react to get their share of attention.

Many British children are locked into frustrating, failing struggles with maths and literacy lessons that they could do quickly and easily when a couple of years older. Is this frustration manifesting itself as the classic anti-social behaviour exhibited by ADHD children?

I don't believe the statistics that condemn so many children to this label are fair. We need to look at the way society creates hyperactivity in so many children, and adults. And stop stigmatising - and drugging - the lively ones."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-190390/Does-ADHD-really-exist.html#ixzz0t9SnNAS5

Unruly behaviour by children is falsely attributed to ADHD and autism, academic claims

Professor Priscilla Alderson claims in the Times newspaper that behavioural 'syndromes' are normal childhood restlessness of a generation stuck at home.

But Barry Bourne, an educational psychologist, who has worked with children for 35 years, rejects the claims that his profession is exploiting labels to make money.

July 28, 2003 - Source: This article is taken from The Times newspaper

.......

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”.

Her conclusion will provoke fury among psychologists and the parents of affected children, who have spent years fighting for recognition of a range of behavioural problems. The 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.

“I recently 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,” she said. “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.

“Playgrounds and parks are empty, because of the scare stories about abductions. 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.”

Mr 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 tourettes’ 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”.

Eileen 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.”

Many young children feel unsafe in local parks as these are often dirty and dominated by gangs of older youths, a report says today. Lack of opportunities to play out safely was the top concern of 5- to 13-year-olds from deprived parts of England, according to research by the education watchdog Ofsted for the Government’s Children’s Fund.

It seems everything nowadays is being 'linked' to ADHD..................................