From: learn@speedy.acns.nwu.edu (William J. Vajk)
Subject: Re: Attention Deficit Disorder Resources
Organization: Dares No Organization Like Dis Organization
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 15:49:26 GMT

In article <00718123400@elgamy.buster.UUCP> Eric Lee Green writes:

>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. 

You stand with a small group of people who are capable of denying almost
anything as it is well understood and adequately demonstrated that ADD is 
one of a family of conditions which is closely coupled to neurotransmitter 
balances. 

Very much change can be wrought in the production and balancing of 
neurotransmitters by stimulae. Ever notice how some of the "very bad
children" seem to do things to inspire new heights of wrath from parents,
teachers and other authority figures? I think you can take these two simple
facts and figure it out.

>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. 
Take the case of the pastoral society in which most of society has some roots.
The shepherd stands there watching his flock. No need for attention of any
sort. His brain can be shut down, asleep as it were. Comes the wolf. The
sheep make all sorts of noise. Shepherd comes alive, takes his stick, and
wages war. In the moments of stress, in the rush of emotion and chemistry,
he is as we, in a modern, highly directed society, must be at all times. The
problem is solved, the chemistry diminishes though some vigilance is (the
wolf may come back after all) required....thus it takes time for the shepherd 
to wind down to the oxynoron state we normally associate with the sort of 
livelihood.

Your ten seconds at a time shapes behavior by introducing stress. Highly
directed and motivated attention is a human invention, unnecessary to most
of the lifestyles experienced by human beings for recorded history and most
of prehistory. I make the case that "inattention" is the human norm while
it is unaccepted in a school situation. Look at the essence of production
work in factories. If attentive individuals were all we had in our society, 
there would be no factory workers. They simply couldn't stand the boredom.

>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.

Motivating. Works wonders as almost all educators throughout history will
agree. Beatings used to work in many cases too. Just a question of stressing 
the child, after all.

>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.

This is a classic disability....the ability to pay atention and concentrate
in a narrow spectrum of activity. While completely different, consider the
wonderful narrow spectrum abilities of the idiot savant. My point is simply
that one cannot extend an any ability in one area and suggest that it is,
or even should be, a broad spectrum ability given the biological 
characteristics of the individual being discussed. Talk to some high school 
shop teachers sometime. Their world is rife with talk of students who are
animated wizzards in one shop or another, while the English and Math teacher
can't keep them awake.....and there are students with the opposite interests.
What's really happening is that different people are "turned on" to different
things. We tend to take note of those who are alive in shop courses because
traditionally we're an academic society and notice mainly those who don't
fare well in academic (value to the individual not immediately apparent)
courses. Most teachers will tell us exactly the sort of thing you're saying,
that the child can be made to pay attention....but they don't do it because
it is too much like work and perhaps stressful......

For your homework tonight, go rent the movie "Stand and Deliver" and watch
it attentively.

>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. 

Your article sounds quite confused but I expect that is because you seem
to have limited observational data available with not much else. For openers,
ADD doesn't have to manifest the H, though ADD is part and parcel of the
difficulties if H is present. For years the medical profession completely
believed that ADD does not exist in adults. At about puberty, most 
afflicted persons manage to cope well enough to slide by. Interests
change as well, and supervision isn't nearly as close. Like many, you
look for "obvious" causal relationships. Please consider that perhaps
the mother has severe ADD and her lifestyle reflects what she is able,
given her disabilities, to do. For each child you show me with a mother
like Mike's, I'll show you two who are decent, "NORMAL" parents you
would enjoy having live next door to you....and I'll demonstrate their
disabilities to you in a significant segment of the available group. 

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

Just wait till you catch on to the newest broad spectrum definition of dyslexia.

On the other hand, as a teacher, you are required by law to give the
students whatever is necessary to educate them, are you not? And if they
have a diagnosis from a medical professional, why do you question the
validity anyway. In short, you disagree with rather a lot, and it is
required that you behave in certain ways once the diagnosis is a formal
one. So it seems you might have an "attention deficit" in dealing with the 
details as ordered by formalized policies unless you are "turned on"
by them.

Labels are just that easy.

Given the present understandings (not broadly used yet, alas) concerning the 
role of neurotransmitters in ADD, why would anyone want to deny the positive 
results achieved in so many cases by modern (better focused than ritalin....) 
medications which not only make the teacher's job easier, but also improve the 
entire life of the disabled. Please note that the descriptions you used about 
case Mike demonstrate also quite nicely the condition known as endogenous 
(chemical) depression, not unusual as this is yet another fellow traveler 
where we describe neurotransmitter problems. Note that depression then also 
feeds the attention deficit, and you witness a continuing merry-go-round of
failure-depression-failure-more_depression, ad nausium.

The largest difficulty in understanding ADD and fellow travelers is that
the combinations and extent of symptomology aren't as cleanly and nicely
defined as something like a common cold. They vary from individual to
individual, and within the individual depending on a large variety of
factors beginning with lifestyle, and including how and what they
eat. The human being is a complex organism. When you can define for me
where the brain ends and the mind begins, I can clearly define for you
everything you'd ever want to know about ADD.

Bill Vajk

Newsgroups: misc.kids,misc.education,k12.chat.teacher,sci.med,chi.general