Syndromes and disorders...

[R1Geezer]

Can't spell? must be dyslexic. Unruly little brat? ADHD etc etc.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/38skezj
does this story add weight to the often proposed arguments that it's easier to have label than sort the real problem? Presumably real cases must be thoroughly angered by this.

[Gromit]

Why do people post tinyurls on this site?

Answerbank automatically reduces urls to an acceptable size. The lunk above is displayed thus without tinyurl:

http://news.sky.com/s...Are_Wrongly_Diagnosed

Unless someone hasn't mastered copy/paste and has to type out a url in full, there is absolutely no reason to use it. The tinyurl in the question did not work properly for me.

[jno]

me likewise. I thought it was an aog thing but it seems to be spreading, The only time to use them is in answering a post by woodelf, whose computer can't handle the AB compression.

[jake-the-peg]

Or if your a nutty ex-soldier you must have post-traumatic stress disorder?

Oh sorry - does that one not count?

[flip_flop]

When my daughter was at nursery they flagged-up that she displayed some traits often associated with Aspergers.

These traits included;

1 - Daydreaming.
2 - Enjoying playing on her own.
3 - Not liking loud noises.
4 - Showing shyness in large groups.
5 - Becoming obsessive about getting things done.

Plus a few other, even more, trivial things.

As a result they called in somebody to observe her behaviour and she also agreed there were traits associted with the syndrome. Becuase of this when she went to primary school she was put on the special needs register.

She has now just entered year 2 and has been taken off the special needs register.

As her father I always knew there was nothing wrong with her - she is just a normal little girl - but the fact that Aspergers was mentioned meant that for three years we were dreading a diagnosis.

This has really really p1ssed me off because the traits they flagged are very common among lots of people, what the hell business is it of glorified babysitters at the nursery to suggest such a thing and the eagerness with which people were happy to bandy about labels.

Obviously we discussed these concerns with our GP who dismissed them out of hand.

It tanspires that extra funding is giving to schools for each child on the SEN register!!! Now call me cynical but.........................

[daffy654]

That report seems to be blaming the teachers for the diagnosis. Anyone who has a child with special needs will know that it is very difficult to get a SSEN, the school has little to do with the process other than maybe initially referring the child for assessment.

[R1Geezer]

Well gromit I didn't realise that this site now did that. In the past Sky news particularly has been a multi line URL so forgive me for trying to limit that. Now did you have a view on the question or were you just getting off on the URL thing?

[jake-the-peg]

Seriously though disorders like ADHD and Aspbergers and yes Post Traumatic stress disorder are not simple binary conditions

It's not a case of you have them or you don't like you have cancer or you don't

In the worst cases they are very very debilitating but the sysmptoms are of varying degree, and they go though a score sheet and a diagnosis is made if the symptoms are over a certain level.

Flip-flop's daughter had the symptoms but was obviously not bad enough to be diagnosed. My son was a bit futher over the line.

Low levels of dopamine in the brain is implicated in ADHD so you can see how this would be the case. Not a case of black and white but rather how bad it is

[R1Geezer]

Yes Jake but Flip-flop's kid sounds normal to me, bit quiet, bit shy, like many kids so why are they even suspecting things like aspergers? It just seems that they are trying to pigeon hole standard traits that vary from person to person.

[ummmm]

R1, have you met many kids with Aspergers?

[R1Geezer]

well I do know one so yes. In fact I think I'm border line myself!

[ummmm]

You can't make up the symptoms.

My son went for all the tests and observations. We got to the grading and at that point I refused to go further with it. My main reason being that he's intelligent and main stream so why give him a label.

Not sure I made the right decision though as some of his behaviours are quite draining to deal with. His school record is immaculate...and that was main aim.

ADHD is a different matter...

[R1Geezer]

Who said you could make up symptoms? Bieing shy, quiet, not liking noise etc are not symptoms unless they are extreme. That's all I'm saying.

[flip_flop]

I think that's right R1.

When this was first flagged we did a lot of research on the condition - and i don't just mean a cursory 10 minute web search. We have at least a dozen books on the subject and I know consider myself to be a well informed amateur.

As far as I can tell, I think I'm on the spectrum, as is my wife, my brothers, my sister, my parents, my wife's sister, her parents, my friends, my work colleagues - basically literally everyone I know has traits associated with Aspergers.

I have become a cynical sod as I've become older, and I can't help thinking it is convenient to label a child to generate additional funding.

[ummmm]

I know that. There's much more to Aspergers and Autism than those symptoms.

[jno]

well, look at it backwards. Child has (say) mild Aspergers, parents think there's nothing wrong, teachers agree, it becomes more clearly apparent a few years later, parents moan to the Daily Mail 'My Aspergers Hell! Useless Teachers Never Even Noticed My Child Was Sick! I Want Compensation!'

As a teacher, what would you do in advance to protect yourself?

[R1Geezer]

I'd rather deal with the occasional suit down the line jno.

[woofgang]

I don't think you can blame teachers from working the system if they can to get more resources. I also know personally parents who have had to crawl over beaurocratic broken glass to get their kids statemented when their needs were obvious even to non teachers like myself....sounds like ofstead getting defensive here and budgetary cut backs being justified

[jno]

I sure wouldn't, Geezer. Why would a teacher want to face being hauled into court or named and shamed in the press? That's not what they go into teaching for. Let them err on the side of caution.

[ummmm]

It does seem that many parents do want their kids labelled though. Someone I know is having their two year old tested for ADHD. To me he's a boisterous child. How can you tell a two year old has something like ADHD when they can barely hold a conversation?