Good point, and also I wonder how many of these diagnoses are deliberately sought by parents aware of the "relative age within school year" phenomenon. Holding

Good point, and also I wonder how many of these diagnoses are deliberately sought by parents aware of the "relative age within school year" phenomenon. Holding kids back a year because of this has become so common that it has a name: redshirting. Having them diagnosed as ADHD and either medicating or holding back seems like a natural extension. I don't mean to suggest that anyone's faking it BTW. As the authors point out, the real problem here might be underdiagnosis of September children. But parents of August kids might be more than a little predisposed to schedule that doctor visit, listen to that diagnosis, etc. in a way that parents of September kids would not be.