Rush to diagnose ADHD and autism can damage children: As rates soar up to 40-fold, a major review warns of the toll on those wrongly given a label

[Rubydobydo]

Britain risks harming a generation of children by over-diagnosing ADHD and autism, a major review warns today.
Parents are incentivised to have their children diagnosed by misguided schools and welfare systems that reward such 'labels', the report found.
Youngsters have also been influenced by social media posts that wrongly present common traits as evidence of the conditions.
https://www.dailymail.com/health/article-16194777/Rush-diagnose-ADHD-autism-damage-children.html

Discuss?

I agree no one should rush into any sort of diagnosis.

But isn’t there like a 7 year waiting list to be diagnosed through the NHS?

So I’m not sure how many of these diagnosis’s can possibly be rushed.

Are you sure the mum was telling the truth?

Was this many years ago?

I didn’t think it was possible for a child to be diagnosed with ADHD so young. They’re not allowed to do that now.

It’s not just targets. It’s excessive micromanagement and rigidity. I can’t believe how militant my DC’s school is, including things well out of their control such as what time they were let out of a lesson, parent unable to go to the shop for a last minute school request that day, being punished for a rule particular to an individual teacher that no one has told them about. There are daily uniform checks, equipment checks, put your bag on the back of your chair in this lesson/get told off for doing the same in another lesson, too much equipment out/not enough equipment out, get a question wrong, say hi to a sibling. Then there are the truly bizarre ones which have been normalised - not allowed to regulate body temperature, queue all lunch and still might not get served, can’t ever deviate from set time to wee, pressured to never be ill. That’s for a DC without additional needs.

I'm sympathetic to wanting the best for one's children, but I think the path that parents are guided down is "get a diagnosis and then EHCP for your child who is different from the other children who are all fine".

When many of the issues are like, "my kid struggles with being in a mixed 30 person class for 6h a day plus after school care on a concrete playground with no discipline then going home to do iPad homework and infinite-scroll social media while mum and dad frantically take work calls from the dinner table".

I dislike any activism around the "widening acknowledgement of ND" movement which acts as though "NT" kids (and adults) are just happily wandering through life without being affected by many of the systematic forces which are causing a lot of the rise of these issues.

"It's just that we're more open minded and aware now!" covers up a lot of societal/systematic changes over the past years/decades.

I'm sympathetic to wanting the best for one's children, but I think the path that parents are guided down is "get a diagnosis and then EHCP for your child who is different from the other children who are all fine".

A diagnosis isn’t required in order to get an EHCP, so ‘get a diagnosis and then get an EHCP’ misunderstands the SEN system. Talk of ‘the best’ also misunderstands the SEN system. Any parent who has been through the EHCP process knows the law does not entitle DC to the best possible education. Only an appropriate education and provision that is reasonably required to meet needs.

I think a big part of this is also because years ago there was literally nothing to do at home, so people went out and got jobs and hobbies etc for something to do.

But now there are so many different things you can do at home, so many people are in no rush to leave.

These ‘men’ get their meals cooked, clothes washed and access to porn or online girlfriends and so there’s no need for them to ever leave their homes (I’m sure there are lots of women like this too).

I like to think that DS2 will continue to be a success story. I learnt from my experience with DS1 that battling to get appropriate support in primary/secondary school can leave the unsupported child traumatised with severe anxiety even if they have an NHS diagnosis. But an EHCP is essential.

DS2 had NHS diagnoses of autism and ADHD received at primary school and an EHCP. He is on the 99th percentile but you wouldn’t believe it to meet him as his difficulties are more obvious than his strengths! After one term at secondary his teachers wanted to put him in lower sets as other classes didn’t have TAs. He was constantly told off and becoming very anxious. Because he had an EHCP the LA funded internet school with additional home tutors for non maths/science subjects. He did 11 GCSEs (grades 7-9), then went to a ‘brick’ specialist STEM 6th form for A levels in maths, further maths and physics (2 A stars plus A) and is now in his third year of a MEng degree. His EHCP is ended but he has DSA plus PIP.

The next transition after education into work is likely to prove the hardest. He couldn’t have achieved this if he had stayed in secondary school but support allowed alternative education that hugely increases his chances of achieving work and independence. obviously it was also essential that DS2 received unpaid and unacknowledged support from me as non of it would have been possible if I were not willing and able to ‘sacrifice’ my own career/independence to be his carer/LSA and mentor.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the current system that staying in school increases the risk of failure to meet potential and long term mental health issues that reduce the likelihood of a successful transition to adult independent life and relies on parental sacrifice to try and meet the gap.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Yes and this is only going to get a million times worse.

This x

Also I am confused about the argument that a diagnosis is required to get ‘support’. A diagnosis is needed in some circumstances eg to receive ADHD meds but even referral to autism outreach does not require an official diagnosis (unlawful LA policy that can be challenged) and referral to EP, SALT, OT and application for EHCP are based on need not diagnosis. Obviously if an unlawful policy of schools/LAs is resulting in increased pressure to seek diagnosis this should be stopped.

Accurate diagnosis is essential, but ADHD and autism assessments must be evidence-based, thorough and centred on each child's individual needs. The focus should be on early identification, appropriate support and avoiding both overdiagnosis and missed diagnoses.

More likely that parents send their children with ADHD, ASD, etc to private schools for the small classes and better behaviour, which is the best they can do for their children within the normal intelligence range, but who struggle with the sensory overwhelm in a mainstream classroom of 30 children.

@PocketSand i really found the detailed psych reports helpful as a parent. The explanations were excellent (spiky ADHD profile).
The recommendations initially are for the family so supportive on that level.

@JuliaAgrippina both adhd grandchildren attend private for the increased PE provision. The approach is also more forgiving, you are told in advance of special occasions when full uniform is needed, but day by day untucked shirts, wearing PE track clothing, missing tie or jumper is no call for alarm. A very different atmosphere.

The problem is not the number of people being diagnosed but, I suspect the cost of the subsequent claims for PIP etc.
The Government may well decide to go down the path of if a person has extra costs associated with their disability and start paying the specialist providing them. Not paying parents directly.
If there are no specialist costs incurred then nobody needs to be paid.
Funding private schools would not be viable.

This. The cost of these school places is astronomical, and along with the school often comes ‘transport’ aka taxis.

Also it’s now way more common for people not only to have 1 child ‘disabled’ by autism and ADHD, but all of their kids. I know of one family with 9 (yes, 9) kids, all with EHCPs, all with EOTAS or expensive school places and taxis (bar the youngest who isn’t at school yet, and 2 who are now of an age they’ve left school).

The cost is eye watering yet the parents are urged to ‘fight for more’. I don’t even want to think about the cost of that family when you take into account the DLA, UC, carers allowance, taxis, schools, therapies… over a million a year I reckon. She’ll be absolutely raking it in.

My child is very, very obviously autistic. I also believe that we have developed an education system and workplaces that are very intolerant of eccentricity. We have never tried to have so much conformity and had such poor quality of life around us - not just financially but in relationships. It’s probably no surprise that fewer children & adults are coping. Just look at what proportion of adults take anti depressants. Most, are probably situationally stressed and sad for a whole range of reasons.

So I think the diagnosis question is ultimately just not the right one. We shouldn’t be asking are these conditions over diagnosed or not.
we should be asking - why are so many children and adults struggling? What in our society has made it more difficult? How do we build families, schools, workplaces and communities where the most people can flourish.

My first thoughts are - reducing housing costs so that less families are both having to work full time to put a roof over their heads, having smaller class sizes, children spending much more time outside at home and at school. Workplaces having ‘right to switch off’ and better working hours.

But I could be wrong. We should be researching this. We should be working on this as a societal issue. Not arguing about labels.

Well, we urgently need fewer people. But nobody is really ready for that conversation.

In case it is relevant for anyone else reading, expecting you to be an unpaid LSA is unlawful. The LA is responsible for funding someone to be the LSA/TA/HLTA/mentor if one is required. Parents cannot be compelled to facilitate and deliver provison in that way.

Do we? I think we need young adults who are happy and able to work to pay for the huge crop of pensioners we have coming up. Currently our birth rate is nowhere near enough, so we will need to have higher immigration. We also have too many depressed teens. It’s in everyone’s interests to make school and work enjoyable and productive. There really is no need for it all to be such a slog.

If there were cheaper placements who could meet needs, the expensive placements wouldn’t be named.

In terms of transport, many parents would love for there to be a placement locally which could meet needs.

If it isn’t wasn’t inappropriate for provision to be made in a school EOTAS/EOTIS/C wouldn’t be provided.

People complain about the cost of providing provision outside of mainstream but then don’t want some DC with SEN in MS either. Parents of DC with SEN can’t win.

@ElanaohElana

”… I also believe that we have developed an education system and workplaces that are very intolerant of eccentricity. We have never tried to have so much conformity ”

Interesting, as schools cater to children’s individual needs far more than back in the seventies and eighties’ . In those days, you had whole class teaching so everyone was taught the same. Today there is much more awareness of different needs, adhd, autism, dyslexia etc .

I suppose it could be considered rude, I’ll take that.
To explain my interest - my children are 32 and 31. Amongst their contemporaries I knew two brothers, both highly academically intelligent, that were diagnosed with dyspraxia. They were taken out of primary and put into a fee paying school (whether that made any difference I do not know) and are now successful adults with careers, albeit their dad jokes that they still can’t ride a bike.
And going back to my school years in the 60/70s we had kids that were less able but got on with it. I recall one family that were all what was called “a bit thick” but all went onto work as farm labourers and so on, had families of their own - succeeded at life in other words.
But I also knew that some children needed ‘special education’. I have no idea of what happened to those children, something I expect would have been common.

What intrigues me now is why so many are receiving a diagnosis, indeed why so many are displaying quite life limited traits such as being non-verbal, whatever.

I absolutely support the idea that everyone deserves an education, and that everyone deserves to be part of mainstream life. But is the current provision, and the growing number deemed in need proving a disadvantage to all?

I have no skin in the fight. I have two infant grandchildren, both of whom seem engaging and engaged. But talking about this with my DiL this morning, she says that despite 14 years as a nanny, she doesn’t understand why some children don’t respond to what she called ‘normal parental upbringing’, whether that be directly by a parent or their proxy, such as a nanny or childminder.
Thats why I’m interested.

There is more awareness of SEND. But I went to primary school in the 80s/90s when there were no tests whatsoever and I spent the majority of time painting, projects, drawing, playing etc. It was before literacy and numeracy hour. We did do Maths and English but we did much less of it and much less sitting still full stop.