From: elg@buster.UUCP (Eric Lee Green)
Date: 3 Oct 92 08:43:20 CDT
Newsgroups: misc.kids,misc.education,k12.chat.teacher,sci.med,chi.general
Subject: Re: Attention Deficit Disorder Resources
Distribution: world
Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home

From article <1992Oct1.130847.7837@ll.mit.edu>, by yasu@ll.mit.edu (Alan Yasutovich):
> In article <1992Sep30.180321.25015@nntpd.lkg.dec.com> hendricks@cdrom.enet.dec.com writes:
>>An excellent introduction to ADD for a layperson is
>>Sally Smith's "No Easy Answers, the Learning Disabled
>>Child at Home and at School".  Most bookstores can order

Most libraries have this book.

My opinion: It's tripe. Just something written by a professional with a
vested interest in promoting the concept of "learning disabilities" to
reassure people that we know what "learning disabilities" are and how to
remediate them.

Hint: very few things in that book have a backing in research. The entire
book is mostly the personal opinion of Sally Smith rather than verifiable
fact.

>>It is full of references and resources.  It's a very

That's about the only reason to check it out of the library. (Don't buy it,
God forbid! Just photocopy the appropriate pages!).

Then here comes Allen:

>       "ADD" is a falacy.  The majority if not all kids/people
>       with this type of behaviour/attention "disorder" is due
>       to allergic/sensitivity reactions to various foods and
>       things in their environment.
>
>       Prescribing something like Ritalin for "ADD", is like
>       taking "downers" to counteract the "uppers" you just took.

Here's where I have to both agree and disagree. I think that "ADD" as a
"brain disorder" is a fallacy -- I think that these children are quite
normal children who haven't learned attending skills. On the other hand, I
DO suspect that the reason they haven't learned attending skills is
biological in nature, based upon basic constitutional factors such as
activity level, seeking new things, etc. -- i.e., it's not "natural" for
them to learn attending skills. Thus you have to take them step by step
through the process via behavioral shaping, ten seconds at a time. But
behavioral shaping *DOES* work. I know. I've done it. It's a very long and
arduous process, and, well, most professionals don't know how to do it and
wouldn't take the time even if they did know. But it CAN be done.

By the way, it's interesting dealing with kids who are supposedly ADD. Some
of them, you know why they got that lable, and it's not the "real" reason.
Take Freddie, for example. He loves attention. He loves talking to other
kids (and adults too), because he lives with his grandmother, she doesn't
talk with him a whole lot, and he's not allowed out at home due to the bad
neighborhood they live in. Thus school is the only place can socialize, and
he makes the best of it. He'll always be asking you a friendly question
totally unrelated to the schoolwork you're trying to teach him, or popping
out of his seat and butting in on other kids' work, or whatever. Thus he
gets the label "can't pay attention." He pays attention quite well -- to
social stimulae that directly affect him. He'll hold a conversation with
you for hours if you'll let him, paying attention to each and every word.
It's just schoolwork that he doesn't pay attention to.

And that's always a problem with a diagnosis of "ADD". It can be a
catch-all. Freddie isn't "really" ADD. Ritalin would not help him. What
WOULD help him would be the opportunity to socialize with other adults and
kids at home as well as at school (actually, he socializes better with
adults than with kids, because, like I said, he's never really played with
kids except at school).

On the other hand, there's classic cases like Mike, who really IS classic
"ADHD". He can't sit straight in his desk. He's always wiggling and moving
around. And it's not because of other people. He doesn't like other people.
He stutters, and he suspects that other people are laughing at him behind
his back whenever he opens his mouth. It's probable that his mother was
using cocaine when he was born -- it's known that she's been to jail
several times on charges of prostitution and drug possession, at least
(it's public record). Thus there's a good reason to suspect biological
involvement. Even kids with biological involvment can be trained to attend,
just as kids with Down's Syndrome can be trained to read and do basic
arithmetic -- but it's a very very slow process. Thus it might be
preferable to have him on Ritalin.

But Mike, in my experience, is the minority of kids diagnosed with ADHD.

--
 Eric Lee Green  elg@buster.TX.US         Dodson Elementary
 (713) 437-6908                             Houston, TX
                "Kids are kids, no matter what"
Newsgroups: misc.kids