My aunt passed this magazine article from WebMD along to me over the past summer. As many of you know, we spent the last few years with doctors and specialists either trying to diagnose our 4 year old Park with autism/behavioral disorders/language delay (which he has). I don't want to undermine the big strides Park made with the Early Intervention program but we were always skeptical that doctors were too quick to label Park based on what they felt was "normal" behavior.
In Park's case, we have been quite fortunate in that he was never labelled and that we refused to allow it. We found alternative approaches and succeeded in getting him the help he needed while nurturing his individuality. Because of our approach, we were interviewed for an article on the pros and cons of labelling children that came out this month. (Unfortunately, I have been unable to get the link to the article yet but will post it and discuss it in my next post.)
Back to the article in WebMB, it's a refreshing outlook on the phenomenon going on in our country of diagnosing young children with disorders. Again, I want to make it clear that I am not against diagnosing children. Some children's progress have depended on it. I am, however, concerned at what I see as over-diagnosing young children. My son was almost a statistic until proven incorrect. Anyways, without further ado...I highly recommmend reading this great article found if you click on the link below. When you get to the periodical, go to page 21. The article is titled, "Oh, Boy: Is SPD The New ADHD?"
http://img.webmd.com/dtmcms/live/webmd/consumer_assets/site_images/magazine/digital_issues_pdf/webmd_ja12.pdf
Thoughts?
~Mommy Bridget
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