A Day in the Life- Part 21- Why is there so much ADHD?

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Why are so many children being diagnosed ADHD? Kids seemed to just get on with it when I was at school.

I hear this a lot.

What I am about to write is just my observations. I love to observe children and being a teacher, child behaviour, ways of thinking and learning  and the like fascinate me. I tutor kids in Maths, Xhosa and Afrikaans. I run a little Art Studio. I run a little moms and babes group all called THE STUDIO. I have 4 children of my own. I get to engage with lots of different families and its of different children. Each is unique. Each family is precious and unique. 

I love my work and count it as an enormous privilege to work with people.

I love the different way kids think from each other. So many things come into play when kids learn. Each little person learns in a unique way from another. it is really important to try and figure out just how your kid learns best.

I think that many people who work with children have come to see the different ways children are and learn and so are looking at children in a variety of new ways. Teachers and other professionals are seeing ADHD, perhaps for the first time. 

This is a post about ADHD and why I think that there seems to be more children diagnosed today.

I wonder if this is at all true. In South Africa we have grown out of a terrible history. Part of that terrible history was our education system. it was rigid and strict. Children were beat en and corporal punishment ruled. I do not know a single male who was not caned. I was a nerd at school. a good girl and even I got smacked at school. 

ADHD children who really, really could not sit still or stop talking or pay attention were not diagnosed as such but rather they were labeled as naughty and lazy. they were told to pay more attention and to pull up your socks.

ADHD children who were not obvious jumpers just hid under the radar, hoping that they would not get into trouble.

There marks might have been poor but no one noticed. 

They were not a problem in class. Perhaps they were just stupid or did not work hard.

So what has changed ?

Well, contrary to some views, school has changed. Children are not ruled with an iron fist anymore. Schooling has shifted and is more fun. 

The result is that children can be more of who they really are.

This means that all the wrigglers and jigglers and wanderers are spotted and lots of dreamers are spotted too.

The shift in our schools to a more safe and free environment has not been the only change.

ADHD itself has had massive discoveries and studies done over the last 20 years. We know more about it than ever before. With the Internet and information available, people are more educated about ADHD. 

The quantity and quality  of work that is required of the high functioning schools in our country  means that the ADHD kid who might have slipped through the radar previously and made it through undiagnosed till adulthood, just can not anymore. 

 The result of all of this is more kids are being diagnosed.

To diagnose a child ADHD is actually not that easy. A professional who knows what he or she is looking at needs to be on board. Medication is a schedule 6 drug in SA and so a new script needs to be written each month by a doctor. It is not as simply as made out by some.

ADHD is genetically passed on. The stats are that if one parent is ADHD then there is a 50% chance of a child being ADHD. other causes of ADHD are many, many hours of TV as a young child and trauma and extreme stress as in war. 

Perhaps there are more ADHD children today. There are more people in the world too. Perhaps we just know what we are looking at and so are actually able to diagnose children earlier and thus help. 

All good stuff I think.