The diagnosis of ADHD repeatedly infuses the idea in a child's head that there is something wrong with them. The parallel between different and wrong has been eminently developed over recent years, and the diagnosis of ADHD may be enabling the youth more than helping. A recent question posed on the topic of ADHD asks if the diagnosis shows more about a child's learning development or the school's unwilling nature to develop. As of 2011, The Centers For Disease Control And Protection reported that 11 percent of children between the ages of 4 and 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD. That means an astounding 6.4 million children have this disorder.
If such a large population of the youth has ADHD, wouldn't it be more efficient to find ways to accommodate them and move forward in developing learning and teaching techniques in schools rather than diagnosing each on individually?
The main disputed point with ADHD is how to get children to focus, but with television, computers and phones, youths have not been taught how to focus but rather, how to stray away from the main subject. If schools want a focus, they have to start developing these techniques from an early age. Teachers believe that lectures, powerpoints and taking notes teach the acquired talent of focus. I am here to say that I have learned little to nothing from any. All lectures, power points and note-taking does is benefit the youth that can already focus, but for the rest of us, it doesn't teach anything.
Focus is a very old school concept that sprouts from discipline. There are not many techniques associated with disciplining the mind, but one I have been recently practicing is meditation. Now, there are different types of meditation, and they do not all pertain to just releasing your mind of all thought. Some techniques make it less difficult by having you focus on just one topic. There is even a practice of letting your mind roam free, so that when it is time to focus, your mind is ready. All these methods teach focus, yet none are encouraged in schools.
The diagnosis of ADHD goes far beyond focus, and there is much more research that can be done to help children who learn differently than the normal. But the first step to take before doing any of these is to build up the courage to acknowledge that action does need to be taken in schools to properly equip all students with the same knowledge, just in different ways. ADHD does not have to continue to disable children if we stop acknowledging it as a problem. It's something that makes some children different, but not by any means wrong. ADHD can even come with many pros, which doctors fail to mention or use in a way to help children in their learning years.
If ADHD continues to be viewed as it is, no steps can be taken in truly helping the youth who have it.
