Nature Vs Nurture ADHD

It starts on TikTok (Owen Chevalier)

• Huge increase of people searching, tagging, and seeking ADHD diagnoses from tiktok

  • Object permanence for babies vs. new symptom of ADHD as forgetfulness

• Social construction of mental health terms

• Public is shifting psychological concepts to include less severe and expansive definitions

NYT and the ADHD epidemic

• NYT cites dude with a twitter credential

• Children 2-3 are being prescribed medications for ADHD

  • Need meds vs normal challenging behvariours

• Many kids are diagnosed with adhd when they don’t have it

  • Lots of boys!

• NYT just allows professionals to make baseless claims and everyone just assumes they’re right because #professional

ADHD Epidemic

• Highest proportion of ADHD diagnoses (majority boys)

  • Promoted interest in psychotropic drug use in children 

  • 99% of children diagnoses are put on meds

    • addictive

• disease model: ADHD is chemical imbalance (no evidence)

• self-questionnaires operational definitions

ADHD as a problem

• Address it with IEPs, extra tutoring, medication, ear plugs

  • But what if we changed the classroom to better suit children

• ADHD IS A QUESTION OF DESIRED OUTCOME

  • Teacher perspective 

  • Ministry perspective

Individualisation

blaming the individual and putting al burden of change on them

Pathologization

when a human difference gets turned into a ‘problem’

Medicalisation

turned into a medical problem with the associated negative judgments

→ medicine /=/ medicalisation

Medical Model Approach to ADHD

• 1902: hyperactivity and impulsivity 

• Now considered a neurological disorder 

  • Impulsivity, hyperactivity, inattention

• DSM 1968: only officially named in DSM in 2013

Moral Model Perspective

the way in which some people interpret disability through the lens of societal or personal moral value

• Adds a layer of moralising/judegment onto the perception of an impairment/condition

• People with ADHD are judged because their symptoms line up with “bad behaviour”

MM/IM

 “fixing” the student with ADHD including drugs, therapy and also things like tutoring, weight vests or fidget toys

SM/EF

how the school and curriculum are built

alter to reduce the kinds of stimulation or scheduling that are hard for students with diverse abilities to learn

SOCIAL MODEL ALTERNATIVES

capacity: what a person can do

gift based: unique gifts

adaptive: how symptoms are a response to an environmental condition

train experts on dimensions of learning disorders

Environmental Considerations

• Lack of universal diagnostics

• Cognitive bias of teachers

• Pressure on schools for standardised tests

• Larger class sizes mean less support

• Comorbidity