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Trouble could also stem from having an attention sucking device in front of them at all times. Suggesting ADHD to parents any time kids struggle is such a comi

Trouble could also stem from having an attention sucking device in front of them at all times. Suggesting ADHD to parents any time kids struggle is such a comical cliche. Of course it could be that, but when you hear hooves outside the door think horses not zebras. It’s like if there was a tv playing in every classroom. Imagine how distracting that is. I remember reading Ender’s Game and how the kids used tablets and thinking how great that would be. Instead schools wrote zero software and just plopped shitty vanilla windows that shows Kim kardashian news when you open a new tab and expected kids to stitch together their own education plans. As a parent it’s been hard experiencing schools get through this learning period and maybe one day it will be good. But I had two different schools with two different kids suggest adhd as the reason my kids struggle with an average of 21 different apps used in 6 classes each throughout the year. Of course physicians said no. But it’s funny how all of a sudden schools are detecting growth in adhd at the same time they’re issuing laptops.

ehutch79 4y ago
Even if it's not ADHD, a professional, and at least tell you that, and then provide coping strategies to help focus. And honestly it doesn't hurt for a teen to have someone who they can talk to who is not their parent/authority figure, and has their shit together.
- prepend 4y ago
  Yes, this is true. Professional help is useful to teens (and all humans). While true, it’s silly to suggest it in response to a problem occurring due to school laptops. It’s like reminding people that meditation and exercise are valuable. It’s like when I’m menstruating and someone says “honestly it doesn’t hurt for a teen to have someone who they can talk to who is not their parent/authority figure.” Definitely true, but not relevant to the issue at hand. I think it comes from an intent to help and nurture, but it sounds like lalaland nonsense that just makes the conversation harder by spending time on something that doesn’t seem useful. Of course, you don’t know who has availability to use healthcare to diagnose so it may help sometimes for people who truly have undiagnosed ADHD. Or for people who don’t know that it helps teen to be able to talk to people who have their shit together. But I find that the problem is way more frequently that teens know how valuable it is to talk with people, but don’t have the resources or ability to find and use those people. So it’s like telling a homeless person how useful getting a job would be. Or a fat person that it’s possible to lose weight through diet and exercise. Yes, yes, let’s spend energy on actionable interventions.
  - ehutch79 4y ago
    Lack of focus and all that isn't new. It doesn't need a laptop to trigger it. Teens have always been like that. We've just started applying names to the problem instead of a belt.
  - notRobot 4y ago
    > While true, it’s silly to suggest it in response to a problem occurring due to school laptops. You don't know if the lack of attention is being caused by the laptop, since I assume there are other kids in the class also with laptops who are able to concentrate?
faeriechangling 4y ago
My experience with ADHD in school was getting diagnosed with it. Being told to take my medicine because it really works. So I spent a week not taking the medication and then saying I did. Got positive feedback and praise. Spent a week taking the medication and saying I didn't, got criticism and a disappointed condescending tone. The medication cost was high and a burden my family could not really afford, and since the teacher couldn't seem to tell the difference, I stopped taking the medication and received much criticism. Directly before my ADHD diagnosis I was transferred out of a class due to extreme neglect and abuse, and the schools just chalked up my subsequent struggles to my brain being fucked up due to bad genes. When I did present an actual chronic health issue and several symptoms around the same time, given the school had the hypothesis "this child is doing badly in school because they have a health condition" you might think they would pay attention to this new evidence, but they already had their excuse so they just accused me of malingering. I've been VERY cynical about the paediatric mental health system for a long time because there's strong conflicts of interest, I don't think the system is open to the idea of falsifying its own theories, and people aren't meaningfully measuring student outcomes after they experiment with their theories. I specifically detest how amphetamine and methylphenidate access is gate-kept until a doctor calls you "disordered", and it's treated as common ethical sense to force people to adopt an insulting label if they want access to certain medications.

ehutch79 4y ago

Even if it's not ADHD, a professional, and at least tell you that, and then provide coping strategies to help focus. And honestly it doesn't hurt for a teen to have someone who they can talk to who is not their parent/authority figure, and has their shit together.

prepend 4y ago
Yes, this is true. Professional help is useful to teens (and all humans). While true, it’s silly to suggest it in response to a problem occurring due to school laptops. It’s like reminding people that meditation and exercise are valuable. It’s like when I’m menstruating and someone says “honestly it doesn’t hurt for a teen to have someone who they can talk to who is not their parent/authority figure.” Definitely true, but not relevant to the issue at hand. I think it comes from an intent to help and nurture, but it sounds like lalaland nonsense that just makes the conversation harder by spending time on something that doesn’t seem useful. Of course, you don’t know who has availability to use healthcare to diagnose so it may help sometimes for people who truly have undiagnosed ADHD. Or for people who don’t know that it helps teen to be able to talk to people who have their shit together. But I find that the problem is way more frequently that teens know how valuable it is to talk with people, but don’t have the resources or ability to find and use those people. So it’s like telling a homeless person how useful getting a job would be. Or a fat person that it’s possible to lose weight through diet and exercise. Yes, yes, let’s spend energy on actionable interventions.
- ehutch79 4y ago
  Lack of focus and all that isn't new. It doesn't need a laptop to trigger it. Teens have always been like that. We've just started applying names to the problem instead of a belt.
- notRobot 4y ago
  > While true, it’s silly to suggest it in response to a problem occurring due to school laptops. You don't know if the lack of attention is being caused by the laptop, since I assume there are other kids in the class also with laptops who are able to concentrate?

faeriechangling 4y ago

My experience with ADHD in school was getting diagnosed with it. Being told to take my medicine because it really works. So I spent a week not taking the medication and then saying I did. Got positive feedback and praise. Spent a week taking the medication and saying I didn't, got criticism and a disappointed condescending tone. The medication cost was high and a burden my family could not really afford, and since the teacher couldn't seem to tell the difference, I stopped taking the medication and received much criticism. Directly before my ADHD diagnosis I was transferred out of a class due to extreme neglect and abuse, and the schools just chalked up my subsequent struggles to my brain being fucked up due to bad genes. When I did present an actual chronic health issue and several symptoms around the same time, given the school had the hypothesis "this child is doing badly in school because they have a health condition" you might think they would pay attention to this new evidence, but they already had their excuse so they just accused me of malingering. I've been VERY cynical about the paediatric mental health system for a long time because there's strong conflicts of interest, I don't think the system is open to the idea of falsifying its own theories, and people aren't meaningfully measuring student outcomes after they experiment with their theories. I specifically detest how amphetamine and methylphenidate access is gate-kept until a doctor calls you "disordered", and it's treated as common ethical sense to force people to adopt an insulting label if they want access to certain medications.