ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Does anyone have experience with or recommended sites to learn about neurofeedback (EED) and ADD or learning deficincies?

Amen to this. Who is this person? They should be heading the department of education or the teachers union.

I am sick and tired of people harping on the school systems and standardized testing. The problem is the parenting and quite honestly the child care industry has not helped. There is clearly a huge need for parent training. There is not one legitimate study that correlates spanking with violent behavior. There is a difference between a spanking and abuse. I have worked with abused and neglected children for over 15 years. The parents of today's society are both lazy and afraid of disciplining their children. They are afraid that their child will not like them. They are afraid that they will be reported to DHR if the child pitches a fit in Walmart and they don't respond by trying to get down on the child's level and giving them choices. The choice is stop pitching a fit or get a spanking. Children start learning prior to birth. They know when the parent is nervous or unsure and start minipulating their environment very shortly after their birth through crying. An inappropriate response to crying starts the child and parent down the wrong path and eventually to the conclusion of the parent that drugs are the only means to control the monster that is created by the parent and society.

I've been in the Child Development field for 10 years and I do believe that if a child is properly diagnosed by the appropriate medical doctors and child development professionals, and then together conclude with out a doubt that the child needs medical intervention then the issue is being handled properly. However, you do see some parents out there who do want a quick fix regardless of whether or not their child has been diagnosed properly. For example, my step daughter is only 2 years old and lives with her biological mother in Arizona. During one of our visitations with the child and biological mother, the biological mother to us said, "I believe its highly possible that my daughter has ADD just like my brother does." This is a mother who is on the highest dose of antidepressents making this statement to us. She floored us with this comment and raised even more concerns for this childs future. Living with a constantly medicated parent, what chance does this child have in being able to grow up with a normal childhood. Being a Child Development professional I only observed a normal 2 year old showing typical 2 year old behaviors. My question to everyone out there is, "What do we do about the parents who are highly medicated, and they are making their children go on medications just because they can't handle their own child when they are medicated or just because it is the normal thing to do because the extended family is also medicated, so therefore the child needs to go on medication?"

I am a special ed teacher and have observed many special needs children and I really don't think that a child enjoys rolling around on the floor or having an uncontrollable tantrum or engaging in head banging, face smacking or biting. We need to help the children.

I have been a teacher and early childhood teacher trainer for over 20 years. I am also the mother of 3, two of whom have moderate to severe ADHD. I have read more research than most, and know most of the behavioral means for changing children's behavior, as well as the statistics on behavioral change with and without medication for children with ADHD. Science is significantly on the side of medication combined with behavior modification helping these children succeed both in school and society. Yes, schools must do all they can to help every child, and many many of them already do. However, as the best of all teachers know, it takes a wide and deep tool bag filled to the brim with tools to do our best for each child. Do not discount the ones, such as well diagnosed and administered medication combined with well thought out and followed behavior programs.

I agree, People should take a child development course to help them be more knowleable, to understand children. I worked in an elememtary school as a yard supervisor sadly we get paid so little I quess our job is not important. We do alot like referee, nurse, etc. in the playground. I have a child development background so I don't judge so quickly if a child misbehave. In our society this days people
judge children if they see them misbehave.

I just finished reading A General Theory of Love by three University of California, San Francisco, Psychiatrists. It's a fascinating book about early pathways in the brain and how to change them if the person had an unfortunate beginning early in life. They say that both medication and therapy can change those pathways, but the real key to everything is a relationship with someone who has healthy pathways. A major point they make is that therapy takes time and insurance won't pay for what's really needed. This really stuck with me. It's a bad situation! We need to change the social system so people (children) can get what they need. Of course, the best thing is to start from the beginning to build the healthy pathways in the first place - and that too costs money!

In 1994, I was a caseworker in Illinois. I had several children on my case load that were diagnosed with either ADD or ADHD and were on meds. Both the children and the adults ( parent<s> ) were in therapy; they received assistance on how to modify behaviors through structure, consistency and patience. The eventual goal was for the child to learn how to control impulsivity through behavior modification and the meds were used to assist with the reduction of symptoms/behaviors while the modification was taking place. It was much harder to teach focus to the kids than impulse control, and very hard for many of the parents to be able to control so much of the environment for these children consistently. But the most frustrating part of it was that these kids that were most definately in need of therapy and meds to assist &, had difficulty getting their prescriptions filled because it was so over-prescribed. They could only have meds for one week at a time! So, the over-prescribing of therapeutic drugs prohibits the patients that do require chemical assistance from their much needed therapy. There is definately a place for psych meds, but we need to make sure of the motivations behind the medications and have a concerted effort to have the medicines be a temporary aid in the battle and not the answer.

I am a mental health practitioner working with preschool children. I much prefer to to evaluate the research for myself. I am not given to getting my information from an editorial because the purpose of the article is to declare the opinion of the author. However, in this case, I must say I endorse the values being espoused. I couldn't say whether it is because of sloppy diagnosing or pressure from the pharmaceutical companies, but it is clearly documented that diagnoses such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorders have been on an increase. The new diagnostic manual is due out in 2008 and there is talk that it will contain many "spectrums" and fewer definitive diagnoes. I believe (key word) it is due, not because of better diagnosing, rather in part because of the profession's inability to differentiate one diagnosis from another and because inadequate time is spent assessing the symptoms. Before assessing a diagnosis of ADHD, medical causes should be eliminated. There is ADHD testing available, beyond the standard interview and questionaires, to help reach a proper diagnosis. However, most diagnoses are made within a 50 minute intitial interview. Medication is often immediately prescribed. I am disappointed with our social trend and especially our professional trend to medicate behavior that is indeed more often a bother to impatient parents and teachers than it is an issue for the children themselves. Unacceptable behavior does not, in and of itself, consitute mental illness. How can two year olds be Bipolar (manic depressive) when their bodies and brains are so underdeveloped and ever changing? Don't essentially all two year olds have dramatic mood swings? We have become too focused on Behavioral Health and have lost sight of Mental Health (brain vs. behavior). In trying to contol the behavior of children, we have developed an over reliance on medicating too many children too quickly. Some children do need medication to manage ADHD or dangerous behavioral symptoms like head banging, but I have to agree it is indeed abuse to give children medication to make the adults feel better.

On one hand, I do believe that we are over-medicating SOME children. Some doctors are going along with some parents wanting to take the easy way out.

On the other hand, we've come a long way in diagnosing and treating. We're not sticking kids in corners with dunce caps anymore. Maybe if they'd had our medical technology before, that would never have happened.

Another thought is that perhaps we're contributing to the problem with the over-processed foods and chemical-laden environments these days. I'm the first to admit that I feed my kids fish sticks and use sanitizing cleaners all over the place. But I always wonder what effect they might be having.

I don't think we can just generally say that we're over-medicating. There's a lot of factors that have to be considered.

First My Thought is that people that have not been in the same situation dealing with their own child-They need not judge others! Too many people in this world so easily critique parents on what they think is right when they have not dealt with it first hand. My son is nine years old and until last year had no confidence or desire to learn. We would spend hours a week with him just trying to help him learn what he couldn't learn in class. At the end of his 3rd year he was diagnosed as ADD. One month later his marks went from 30% to 80's and higher. He decided he wanted to be a goalie and play the clarinet. He now is a focused goalie and his music teacher says it is amazing how well he can play. His confidence is unbelievable and he loves school. Now you tell me what his life would have been like struggling everyday in his early years and I wonder what if he didn't get this medication. What would the lack of self confidence do to him when he struggled to cope with adolescence in his teen years.

I know of a family that has a child adhd.As i observed the child.he was very calm until he took the medicine.After he took the meds..he started to act out in fits of rage.I thought it was very odd.what do you think???

This was an important issue to raise. The amount of drugging does, surely, indicate that we have created a society unfit for many of our children and parents.

It is hard, when one is doing underpaid, stressful work in e.c.e, to think about the political situation or context that creates so much stress, but e.c.e. people will ourselves feel better when we are working for social change toward a world for children that is both kind and thoughtful.

I encourage myself and others to do this work, too, for all our sakes.

I could not agree more. I have seen many cases of "the child must be hyperactive", when some changes in the environment would solve a behavioral problem. Often the change needed is not only to the physical environment, but also to the temporal and/or the social/emotional environment.
Example: A bright/capable 6 year old boy was creating mahem in his classroom, and was not interested in recieving smiley faces for "good" behavior - nor did he care about frowny faces he received for "bad" behavior. The teacher called in the father to tell him that the child should be evaluated for hyperactivity. The wise father questioned the teacher and discovered that the child was finishing his assignments well ahead of his classmates and needed something to occupy himself while he waited. Sitting quietly and waiting was not part of this lively 6-year-old boy's repertoire of behaviors. Nor should it be.
Give him something to do was the Dad's advice. Clean chalkboards, whatever... but keep him busy. Fortunately, the teacher tried the idea, and the situation improved. The child was fortunate to have parental understanding and a father skilled at this sort of discussion.

Growing up in the family circle is very different from growing up in childcare. We, in childcare, must understand that children respond to the environment - and it is our responsibility to make the environment work for them.

Janet Sherman
former childcare teacher and director

I think the children in today's schools are under a lot of pressure because their teachers are under pressure. Teachers don't see children's feelings as part of their job. "We
are educators, not baby sitters," as an expression of "professionalism" has led teachers to
feel it is necessary
to put children under pressure for the sake of educating them. In
my own life, I have known three different children who were at the breaking point, and
their parents were seeking help from teachers. In all three cases, the teachers said something like this,'"Of course I wish I could help relieve the problems your child is having, but I can't
cut back on homework or high expectations because he would fall behind!'' In one of these cases, the
child was feeling suicidal. One ran away from home. One was placed in a
psychiatric facility, and ran away from there. Of course there are many teachers who would not put the system ahead of the child, but we need to develop a professional educator who cares and knows how to help both children and their families.