DISCLAIMER: The following is my personal views and experience working in the field over the last 3 years.
Did you know that 9% of kids diagnosed with ADHD are given medication? While in France only .5% of the kids diagnosed with ADHD are given medication. Here is the article I got those statistics from Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD. After reading that article I went back and changed my way of working and studying the population I work with. I made a case study out of one of my patients at the time. I discussed with his parents my idea and what the goals were for the new direction of therapy, they agreed to comply and so for one month we ONLY did family therapy in which we focused solely on the parents problems while having the child sit in during the therapy sessions. At the beginning the child was uncomfortable and would try a variety of distraction methods to throw us off. After 2 weeks and him being allowed to participate and express himself the results were very visible. He stopped bouncing off the walls, he improved his relationship with his father, and he was able to start the first 2 months of the school year without going back to his medication (nearly 5 months off his medication). After 4 weeks even the child's tone of voice was lower and he was able to sit through a therapy session with minimal interruptions.
ADHD is not an illness that needs to be medicated, its a problem within the family itself. It can be a lack of communication with the parents and siblings, could be lack of a male or female figure, abuse or trauma or something going on within their own lives that they do not feel comfortable sharing with their families in fear of what may be said or thought of them. Children keep this stuff inside and then are completely unable to focus when in school. Allowing children to express themselves is the quickest way to "fix" attention problems.
Take time to listen and teach them some coping skills, not only will they appreciate you helping them outside of school, the parents will appreciate you helping them in school. Also take time to talk to the parents, if you are not a therapist then offer for them to see the school psychologist or counselor or refer them to someone you may know who specializes in children and adolescents. Sometimes the kids you think are the worst are that way because they are the ones calling out for the most help.
My advice to parents if you notice your child appears distracted, avoidant (unless he's a teenager!) avoids arguments or discussions that may get heated, is to look inward and consider what's going on within your own relationships that may be causing this behavior. I'm not saying it's always your fault but from experience at least 70-75% of the time it is. By working on yourselves and improving your own relationships you will also improve your relationship with your child.
According to many ADHD is the most over diagnosed disorder in the country. I would have to agree with this. Now a days it seems that any child who is unable to sit still or focus on a single task at hand has an attention problem. Instead of figuring out the problem educators are sending parents to doctors to get medication in order to "calm" the child down. I think this is absolute crap and laziness on their part.
Did you know that 9% of kids diagnosed with ADHD are given medication? While in France only .5% of the kids diagnosed with ADHD are given medication. Here is the article I got those statistics from Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD. After reading that article I went back and changed my way of working and studying the population I work with. I made a case study out of one of my patients at the time. I discussed with his parents my idea and what the goals were for the new direction of therapy, they agreed to comply and so for one month we ONLY did family therapy in which we focused solely on the parents problems while having the child sit in during the therapy sessions. At the beginning the child was uncomfortable and would try a variety of distraction methods to throw us off. After 2 weeks and him being allowed to participate and express himself the results were very visible. He stopped bouncing off the walls, he improved his relationship with his father, and he was able to start the first 2 months of the school year without going back to his medication (nearly 5 months off his medication). After 4 weeks even the child's tone of voice was lower and he was able to sit through a therapy session with minimal interruptions.
ADHD is not an illness that needs to be medicated, its a problem within the family itself. It can be a lack of communication with the parents and siblings, could be lack of a male or female figure, abuse or trauma or something going on within their own lives that they do not feel comfortable sharing with their families in fear of what may be said or thought of them. Children keep this stuff inside and then are completely unable to focus when in school. Allowing children to express themselves is the quickest way to "fix" attention problems.
Take time to listen and teach them some coping skills, not only will they appreciate you helping them outside of school, the parents will appreciate you helping them in school. Also take time to talk to the parents, if you are not a therapist then offer for them to see the school psychologist or counselor or refer them to someone you may know who specializes in children and adolescents. Sometimes the kids you think are the worst are that way because they are the ones calling out for the most help.
My advice to parents if you notice your child appears distracted, avoidant (unless he's a teenager!) avoids arguments or discussions that may get heated, is to look inward and consider what's going on within your own relationships that may be causing this behavior. I'm not saying it's always your fault but from experience at least 70-75% of the time it is. By working on yourselves and improving your own relationships you will also improve your relationship with your child.
Very compassionate approach, and a necessary corrective to our collective pharmacological madness.
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