I’m a parent of a child with ASD so I very much understand the need to be alert for signs and persistent, unusual compared to peers, not otherwise explicable behaviour absolutely may be a medical/SEN issue. However, I can say with absolutely no exaggeration that I’ve seen firsthand that: teenagers being stroppy, kids messing around in class, shouting out to be silly/get their classmate’s attention, bunking off lessons or a kid generally just making a bit of an arse of themself all being spoken about in a medicalised, official manner as if it suggests something is seriously wrong with the child. My own autistic DS is the most important thing to me in the world so I absolutely understand the need to be vigilant but at times I think common sense just goes out the window. I sometimes wonder if these people who rush to suggest every misdemeanour ever is automatically a serious medical issue we’re never a child themselves and/or cannot see that sometimes NT people say/do silly things without it automatically making them ND. It honestly perplexes me how fully qualified teachers and other professionals cannot see a 12 year old lad being the class clown is because he’s just trying to impress his classmates and is being a bit silly, rather than it meaning (on that alone) that he has ADHD. Similarly, a 14 year old girl being emotional and stroppy is because she’s a 14 year old girl. A pair of fifteen year olds bunking off school to try smoking, while not great, is actually pretty standard teenage behaviour and doesn’t mean they have ODD. Aibu to think that teachers and parents sometimes rush to medicalise normal childish behaviour and ND should only be assumed when the behaviour is persistent, out of line with peers and doesn’t have another logical explanation.