Yesterday my husband and I met with an educational consultant for advice on how to mainstream our son back into a traditional high school for his senior year after two years of residential treatment. There are alternatives out there but you need to know your rights and the laws.
That is not my real reason for writing this post. As we are discussing all the options, we got into a conversation about ADHD or ADD. I have heard that if you are not diagnosed ADHD you are not really ADD. ADHD has become the catch-all diagnosis and I think almost everyone (but me) in my immediate family has some form or another of ADD or ADHD.
Back on track to this post, she explained to us how ADHD victims process information and I am not going to repeat all that jargon. But what really caught me was the statistic that she threw out, the percentage of people, and I am not saying teens or kids because they do become adults or people one day with ADHD. The astounding number of 30% in a classroom!! By my calculations, 30% is close to the norm, so wouldn’t you say it is normal to be ADHD or have the processing skills of an ADHD person?
My next thought was, no wonder our schools are failing and people are not going into teaching professions. As a society we are failing 30% of the population and gloating on the 10% that excel in our competitive AP classes.
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I agree with Turning Winds. Parents should seek advice. They should not neglect the fact that they have adhd or their children have adhd. There are a lot of options, schools and programs to choose from in healing disorders. Adhd schools, Adhd programs and adhd professionals are everywhere. All they have to do is to take some time to approach or attend any of those mentioned above.
I am not so sure that it is really a depressing issue. The bigger issue may be that our schools and society must embrace these differences and not teach to what is thought to be the norm. Obviously a large number are being left behind.
How depressing to know that there is a high rate of ADHD. Parents with ADHD and ADD children or adults should seek advice and help from experts on how to deal with this situation and how to help the children/teens to have as much normal life as possible.