NZ Single Parents Trust

Here in New Zealand we are seeing a growing number of young children and teenagers being prescribed Ritalin because of learning difficulties and behavioural problems.

Ritalin is used for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as well as for similar disorders. These orders have extremes on one side to extremes on the other side. Many ordinary behaved children fit within these extremes. It can be difficult for doctors to decide who has these disorders and who doesn’t as fightforkids shows.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A list of behaviours that psychiatrists declare are problems, such as: has too little attention, is too active, fidgets, squirms, and, therefore, is not “normal.”

I needed to put my eldest son on Ritalin because the school he went to would not accept him for the day if he was not basically subdued. As time went on we figured that his behaviour problems were because frustration took over when he tried and tried to learn. He had been lost for many years already in the school system. It was when a specialist teacher spent time with him, he figured out how to learn. This is something interesting. Adult and young university students face this when studying for diplomas, degrees and further. Universities and the like spend resources on teaching students to find the best way for them, individually to learn.

By no means will I refuse to believe there are children who need to be stimulated. My brother was a classic but a lot of sport and understanding teachers got him through. My girlfriend’s son was diagnosed with ADD from age 3. I thought I could use the same strategy as had been used for my brother and my son when he was young. I even suggested I show off my skills over a weekend with the young lad unmedicated. I will never do that again. Not only did this child find that riding a bike on the roof was fun but played chicken with cars. “Why are you running in front of the cars?”, I asked. He replied, “I want to know what it is like to die.”

As a parent and especially a single parent, you have the responsibility today to help your child learn, keep them occupied as well as all the other responsibilities that are a part of parenting.

Ritalin can be seen as a friend to a parent as other medicines. But I tell you, much research has been done on medicated drugs and addiction. Like any mind-altering drug, Ritalin could become a necessity in your child’s life through to and during adulthood. You may be encouraging the child to see medication as a way of solving other problems. Ritalin is worth money on the street and at schools. It is not a drug to consider lightly for you child.

Extra sites to read.
fightforkids
National Institute on Drug Abuse
topix

This entry was posted on Monday, June 5th, 2006 at 7:57 am and is filed under Children, Health, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.