Well, my gut feeling is that she might be right on the point of ADHD being a 'fashionable' diagnosis, and I can't help but feel that it might be related to kids no longer being allowed - if not _expected_ - to run around and expend a lot of energy. When I was in primary school, if kids - especially boys - were to have difficulties sitting still and concentrating, it was often simply ignored - they had plenty of opportunity to run around and climb trees and play football and get into all kinds of scrapes in their breaks, and they were expected to grow out of it. As far as I am aware, most of them did. I am slightly cynical as to whether, almost thirty years later (ugh!) the same standards would be applied, or whether parents and teachers wouldn't actively seek a diagnosis and ways to 'fix' what is so obviously 'wrong' with the child - after all, the child doesn't want to sit quietly in front of the video as my neighbour's kids spend at least half their time. There also seem to be links between very wired behaviour and sugar highs or certain food additives - and *that* would most certainly make it a modern problem. In such cases, my impulse would be to _first_ see whether the problem cannot be controlled with a better diet and more chances to blow off steam rather than with drugs, but that doesn't seem to be everybody's first point of call. Which, as I realise, is tremendously unfair on those people who *do* try, and *are* the best parents they or anyone else can be under their circumstances.
As for autism, thankfully I lack direct experience with it. I do, however, own a horse whose behaviour became more understandable - and more controllable - once I started looking into autism (somebody wrote about their kid and I thought 'that sounds just like my horse'), so on that account I have every inch of sympathy for the parents; but again, I wonder how much can be achieved with behavioural therapy and what role drugs can - or should - play.
As I said, these are musings of a laywoman. I do not think that the parents should be blamed, but living next door to a set of bad parents (not ill-meaning, just totally unskilled, which breeds a lot of verbal violence) I wonder whether milder tendencies that another set of parents would have absorbed wouldn't come out full blast when combined with helplessness before even average behaviour.
no subject
As far as I am aware, most of them did.
I am slightly cynical as to whether, almost thirty years later (ugh!) the same standards would be applied, or whether parents and teachers wouldn't actively seek a diagnosis and ways to 'fix' what is so obviously 'wrong' with the child - after all, the child doesn't want to sit quietly in front of the video as my neighbour's kids spend at least half their time.
There also seem to be links between very wired behaviour and sugar highs or certain food additives - and *that* would most certainly make it a modern problem. In such cases, my impulse would be to _first_ see whether the problem cannot be controlled with a better diet and more chances to blow off steam rather than with drugs, but that doesn't seem to be everybody's first point of call.
Which, as I realise, is tremendously unfair on those people who *do* try, and *are* the best parents they or anyone else can be under their circumstances.
As for autism, thankfully I lack direct experience with it. I do, however, own a horse whose behaviour became more understandable - and more controllable - once I started looking into autism (somebody wrote about their kid and I thought 'that sounds just like my horse'), so on that account I have every inch of sympathy for the parents; but again, I wonder how much can be achieved with behavioural therapy and what role drugs can - or should - play.
As I said, these are musings of a laywoman. I do not think that the parents should be blamed, but living next door to a set of bad parents (not ill-meaning, just totally unskilled, which breeds a lot of verbal violence) I wonder whether milder tendencies that another set of parents would have absorbed wouldn't come out full blast when combined with helplessness before even average behaviour.