Attention Deficit Disorder, Autism or Just Active?

It seems that thousands if not millions of American children are now being diagnosed with A.D.D (attention deficit disorder) or various forms of Autism ranging in severity. It also seems to be occurring in alarming proportions anymore. Every time we turn on the television or radio or even read a newspaper, we are being told that another form of learning disability is being categorized and diagnosed in the country's kids. I only discovered as an adult and mother of my own children with learning challenges that I too was just like them as a child and started thinking to myself that maybe all these "Labels" such as ADD, ADHD, and high functioning autism or Asspergers are causing more problems for our kids than they are helping us understand Their needs.

My youngest son was tested and tested and evaluated time and time again in the public school system to determine why he seemed to be having what I call "mental meltdowns" and they surmised he had Asspergers Autism, which is a high functioning form of autism. I was baffled at the sheer quantity of behaviors they considered to be indicative of learning disabled or developmentally delayed children! It seems almost any behavior except "stepford" perfect ones was good enough to label a child as disabled or delayed. I admit in the early years the extra help and individualized learning plans they made for my son were very helpful and he grew by leaps and bounds the first couple years of that, but by the third grade he had already figured out that he could just "check out" mentally at school and not apply himself if he just acted up a little; after one minor behavioral incident they pampered and coddled him along and allowed him to choose his own activities in order to keep him "on task". The more they expected of him the more he acted out and up. He would lay on the floor, kick his desk, hit himself on the head, break his pencils and many other disruptive behaviors which all escalated if he was expected to perform while in school. Now, while I know full well that my child does have a mild learning disability I feel that being given the opportunity to do as pleases at school whenever he is not in the mood to work is not teaching him any coping skills in which he will need all through out his life in a school and work environment. It has become a cascade effect anymore, he knows he can be defiant and then the school will call me and I will have to come get him and take him home, which is exactly what he wants!!

When I was growing up I also was so much like my youngest child and exhibited autistic like behaviors, some to a greater degree than he, but these things were not being labeled when I was child and I HAD to learn to cope with the world around me and function in it as others did. It was a sink or swim scenario. I did have difficulty learning to socialize with my peers as well as several other behaviors that are now labeled as autistic behaviors, one being the need to rock or bounce back and forth which i did fervently until I was in my late teens. To this day life is a learning process of trial and error for me but my point here is that the schools and society these days are making it to easy for the children to just flake out of their responsibilities and expectations. Expect more from them and they will perform to expected levels. Treat them as any other child and they will act like any other, or so I have heard and witnessed for myself. These so called "border line disabilities are just another way for the drug companies and the physicians to experiment on the public with medications and therapies!

Of coarse all this is just my humble opinion being the parent of three boys with these disorders and growing up one myself. I have been there and done that and know for a fact that a child with these "borderline" behavior issues do not need to be medicated, because I never was and am now a happy, healthy, functioning adult with the same issues and problems as millions of other Americans, I am "normal" by all standards.