There is very little discussion here of another relevant point, I think. There is tremendous pressure both by the school and societally on the parents of a child TO have them be labeled as “learning disabled”. It doesn’t help that the clinical definitions of things like ADD and ADHD are so vague and all-encompassing that nearly any school child (especially boys) could easily be fit into their parameters. So a parent had a child who is misbehaving at school, causing some problems at home not wanting to do homework, fidgety etc. The school comes home with the implication that “there may be an issue here” and suggests a visit to a specialist. The specialist does the “tests” and determines, Indeed, your son/daughter IS fidgety, misbehaving and doesn’t want to do homework — that seems to fit the ADD/ADHD profile (oh, and by the way, it’ll make you my patient for a long, long, time) and so then the parent is left having to decide whether they should slog along without medication and dispute the diagnosis, or fall in line, take the meds, which, as expected, calm the child into submission and play along in the game. Am I saying that there is not child out there who really has ADD/ADHD problems? No. Nor am I saying that there is no child out there who shouldn’t be on the medication. I am also not saying that every doctor out there doing the tests is just in it for the money. But I AM saying that all of the pressures, when one has a child who might just need some maturity and/or better discipline, are towards diagnosis with a “disorder” and then subsequent medication. It is NO ONE’s natural interest to NOT have that diagnosis. The parent doesn’t want to have to do all the hard legwork to deal with the difficult child or face up to the idea that their current methods of discipline aren’t working. The teacher doesn’t want to have deal with helping implement a discipline plan in the classroom for this child when putting him/her on meds has a much quicker and easier calming effect, and the Doctor has no incentive to send the child away without a diagnosis because he/she will have just lost a patient- coupled with the very fuzzy guidelines for ADD/ADHD it is difficult NOT to diagnosis a child with this– and don’t even mention the drug companies who have a HUGE incentive in promoting the idea that these “disorders” not only exist but are prevalent and can ONLY be helped through their (latest) medication. All of these factors likely heavily distort the LD designation, over and above the potential funding factor cited in the original article. (Please note, I am NOT talking about dyslexia, or autism or Asperger’s here which are all clearly medical issues that can be truly tested for in an empirical manner)
And to add to the anecdotal nature of this comment thread let me say that my experience in this comes from one relative who has had a child diagnosed ADHD and put him on medication, one friend who had the same diagnosis and after seeing the side effects of the medication on her child chose to fight the behavior issues without it for 10 years now (the girl is now a wonderful teenager whose behavior is all the better for the years of work), and a boy who I mentored for several years who was put on meds in 2nd grade largely because of his behavior which likely had nothing to do with ADHD and more to do with his miserable home life, lack of good parenting, and spirited personality (in fact, he was tested after nearly 6 years on the meds and that doctor said he had absolutely NO distraction problems). The medication he was on ruined his appetite, stunted his growth (he would grow during the summer when off the drug and not grow during the school year while on the drug) and God know what else. His mom finally took him off the meds in 8th grade although the school really resisted it. She felt bullied all along by the school in the process even though, legally, the school was not supposed to suggest drugs AT ALL to parents.
