ADHD or Simply being a child?

Ok, so I've been playing with my Blog Profile for the last hour and then I got distracted by YouTube... So that made me think about something. ADHD. Being a childcare practitioner that has worked in both schools and nurseries I am very well aware of ADHD, however I think that is becoming an excuse created by doctors and parents to describe a child of basically being a child.

After some research into it I discovered that the main symptoms of ADHD are as follows:

• Be easily distracted, miss details, forget things, and frequently switch from one activity to another
• Have difficulty maintaining focus on one task
• Become bored with a task after only a few minutes, unless doing something enjoyable
• Have difficulty focusing attention on organizing and completing a task or learning something new
• Have trouble completing or turning in homework assignments, often losing things (e.g., pencils, toys, assignments) needed to complete tasks or activities
• Not seem to listen when spoken to
• Daydream, become easily confused, and move slowly
• Have difficulty processing information as quickly and accurately as others
• Struggle to follow instructions

(Thankyou Wikipedia for summing that up for me).
However I believe that I can explore these a little further. But before I start I am not saying that ADHD is a myth, some children do really suffer from it. I am simply stating that I believe it is being over-diagnosed and it is marking children early therefore putting them at a disadvantage.

So lets start shall we. According to the checklist children with ADHD are easily distracted. But which child isn't easily distracted. Can someone please show me an example where a five year old is so focused on their schoolwork that if someone asks them what they're going to have for dinner doesn't distract them? We all get easily distracted.... squirrel!... Sorry.. So you see! And yes I forget things, sometimes I forget to turn the living room light off when I go to bed, or forget to feed the fish etc. How in the world is this a symptom? As for switching from one activity to another; I started cleaning my room this morning and its still not done because I switched to playing a game, talking to my friend on Skype and now I'm on here. Does that make me have ADHD?

We all have difficulty sometimes focusing on certain tasks. Could this be because the school system in the UK is just crap? I've seen the work that children have to do in schools and to be honest its not very stimulating. Writing between the lines and getting your B and D's the correct way around basically sums up one morning in a Year 1 Classroom. Also as for point three, thats is totally wrong. Of course children are going to lose interest in a task unless its enjoyable! They're children for crying out loud! If I find a game boring or something I'm doing boring yes I get bored with it! Thats how the human minds works isn't it?

This should be a good one to try to explain. Difficulty focusing attention on organizing and completing a task or learning something new. Well I'm trying to learn Japanese, however I'm finding it difficult. Could this just be that children are not little sponges like we believe them to be. We may pour water on them, but it doesn't mean they soak it all in. Basically, just because some children have difficulty focusing on certain new tasks doesn't make them ADHD. Have you ever given a six year old a copy of War and Peace and told them to read and focus on it for an hour. I bet anything they can't.

Having trouble turning in homework assignments and losing things. I lose a lot of things in my life. I lost my keys the other day, I lost a fish the other day (Literally it disappeared out of the tank). When I was in school yes I did have trouble with turning in homework, mainly because I was outside in the fresh air playing. But does that make me ADHD? Has anyone also noticed that these are all academic reasons so far? Not one is about how a child feels or how they speak or actualyl behave its all about how they do in school. Seems legit right?

Not listen when spoken to. Well what are you telling them? For example a child was labelled as having ADHD in my care as he didn't seem to listen to us when we spoke to him. It took over two years but it turned out he was actually deaf in one ear and didn't have ADHD at all. Another reason why I think we are putting this on too many children today. To be honest when you talk to me in person and I'm doing something else then I may look like I'm not listening, but actually I am. So when you're partner is watching TV and you're telling them about your day and they're nodding yet still watching, are they ADHD or just multi-tasking? 

Daydreaming.... seriously? Who doesn't daydream! What the hell! I often sit here and daydream when I'm bored. I can sit here and daydream of certain things I want to happen or what to do. Also, becoming easily confused. I can sit and talk to a child about how the binary systems in a computer work and go into how to install a Bio system and how to format a harddrive. So they're not going to be confused, well of course they are! If I sat here and rambled on about how to program a calculator in PHP half of you will be confused after step one, so how can we expect a child to sit there and not be confused in school. All children have different cognitive abilities and not all children understand everything in the world. This comes down to the nuture and nature debate, which I am not going to go into here.

As for the move slowly. What about children who are in a wheelchair or have muscle disorders. Thats a big vague don't you think?

Having problems processing information quickly and accurately. Well what information are you giving them/ Are you saying stuff like "Dave run and get daddy's coat, then fetch the doogy bags from the kitchen, do you want to take the dog out for a walk, can you get your coat and can you feed the fish before we go please?" If you were six and put in that situation where would you go first? I know that my own mum puts about sixteen instructions into one sentance sometimes, but can this just be down to parenting?  The same applies to "Struggle to follow instructions". So tell me, have you ever just wanted to do the opposite to what your parents say just to see what happens? Thats called being a bit rebellious and is quite common in the condition of "Being a child".

Now I know that some children do genuinly have ADHD and I am not saying that they don't have it. However what I have observed that there is more and more children having ADHD by the day. When I was in school ADHD didn't exist, it wasn't a thing. I believe that it has arisen from parents and schools not allowing children to be children. Give them a little bit of slack within reason and allow them to be themselves. Just because they get bored easily of reading Chip and Kipper and aren't interested in silly worksheets which prove no challenge doesn't mean they suddenely have developed ADHD.

I know this is purely opinion, but if you know a child with ADHD, sit back for just a few hours and watch. Are they doing anything wrong or do they just need more academic support. Labelling a child with ADHD at an early age of three can scar them mentally and emotionally for life. Because that child will always be the one who is seen as the "One who can't do this because he/she gets distracted easily" etc. So step back and think about how you were as a child, did you get easily distracted and did you get bored easily. I know I did and I don't have ADHD. I think that we are over-diagnosing this and its turning into an excuse. Maybe we should give children time to work out their own problems and see how that works?

So please take a minute to think about this. Has ADHD become an excuse for children being children or do we all believe that just because the doctor says a child has ADHD they will always be that way? The choice of course is yours...