The Brandeis Hoot » Prof. Conrad studies medicalization of ADHD:
“I was the kind of kid who would get up and walk around, look at the goldfish, read the encyclopedias in the back of the room, talk to neighbors,” Peter Conrad, a professor of sociology, said in regard to his childhood. “Had ADHD been an option as a diagnosis in the ’50s, which it wasn’t, I would have been probably labeled and gotten a trial and medications.”
Children in Hong Kong are being diagnosed as having ADHD at an alarming rate. The 'push' towards achievement,as defined by international and local schools is, as I see it, fear driven - and it goes like this: "if my child does not get a 'good education', he/she will not survive in our future world'. Grandparents are, in the main very concerned to see little ones under so much pressure. Pressure which is increasingly manifested in overdiagnoses, labelling and medication affecting young growing brains and minds. The real problem is that children's diverse gifts and abilities across broad intelligences is being 'missed' and 'locked down'. Dr Gloria S Wright
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