[nkycincinnatikid]

mark

[iowamark]

Your source page has no mention of ritalin. What exactly are you trying to say/post?

[monkeyshine]

I had to look it up, because I don’t have kids. “Whole Word” sounds like a horrible approach to me. Seems to me, and I am just going by my gut so perhaps I am no help at all to the question asked, but seems to me that teaching people phonics is the better approach. Whole Word will come once people know their phonics.

I have said for a long time, again this is just anecdotal from what I have observed, that if people don’t learn the stuff they are supposed to teach in Kindergarden and 1st grade at an early age, then those people will have a hard time learning how to learn. When kids are young, they learn how things associate. They learn letters and phonics. They learn colors - primary, secondary, tertiary. They learn simple math. If you don’t learn that stuff early on, you can’t learn more complex issues. You don’t learn how to make associations, you don’t learn how to learn. But perhaps I am off track for what this thread is about. Don’t mean to derail it.

[zek157]

“This is a brain shrinking, top tier heavily psychotropic drug,”

BS

[nerdwithagun]

This is sad. I am pretty sure there is over prescription of it; but there are many people that probably need it. I plan on going to see a psychiatrist soon and may be put on something similar. Call it whatever you want, but I can look you in the eyes, and half of what I hear is Charlie Brown's teacher “wah-wah-wah..” The TV won't turn off, I'm absent minded as Hell, and I get a sense of dread and sick in the stomach over normal things.

[wintertime]

In my 30 year career as owner of and doctor in a health clinic I have known several thousand families. My anecdotal observations:

— I have **never** met a homeschooler with ADD or ADHD who has been homeschooled exclusively. This is true only if they never attended government school.

— I have** never**met an obese homeschooled child, if that child was homeschooled from the beginning. Again, this was my observation if they had never attended government school. In fact, I can't even recall having a cubby one.

— Academically successful homeschoolers and successful institutionalized children spend the **same** amount of time in formal study at the kitchen table or their desk. I conclude then that the real learning is happening in the home due to the home life of the family, the efforts of the parents and/or child ( himself), and friends or family of the child.

Conclusion: The only thing government school does is waste the child's life, promote ADD and ADHD, increase the likelihood that a child will be illiterate and innumerate, and make kids fat.

[wintertime]

One more thing:

You consistently ignore the following:

— Government schools teach children to think and reason godlessly. The children **must** think godlessly just to cooperate with the godlessly secular humanist curriculum and instruction. This is a gross First Amendment and freedom of conscience abomination not only for the child but the citizens who pay for it.

— Godless government schools violate every First Amendment Right. They treat children who have committed no crime like prisoners, and the danger is that children will grow into adulthood being compliant prisoners of the voting mob and government.

[cva66snipe]

When the Mental Health experts finally take enough time too do some studies the Ritalin usage may drop like a rock. Is there something wrong? Sure. The thing of it is there are a group of very similar disorders {can be proven by auditory/visual processing testing} of which Ritalin can make worse.

I have basic need to know reading skills. Books? I don't have the necessary attention span to read one usually. I never have been able to read many books cover too cover. Maybe a dozen in my adult life. I was a Special Education student myself back in 1970-72. Since that time I have acquired a pretty good understanding of my disorders which back then were thought to be ADD ADHD I was thought to have back in 1965 in second grade.

The behavioral issues it looks like are starting about the time kids get video games for Christmas, birthdays, etc. There is nothing wrong with the games itself to most kids. However to kids who have sensory processing damage in the auditory or visual processing and interpretation part of the Optic/Vestibular portion of the brain these games and many other things can in fact trigger common ADD ADHD type symptoms. Simpy put it is over taxing their sensory processing system and the ADD ADHD symptoms are the result of that. They likely do not have ADD ADHD.

BTW generally no pills will help this as such. It take classroom and home environment modifications and a lot of patience and understanding on the part of parents and teachers. I don't mean letting them get away with bad behavior I mean a modified communication environment. It can be caused by birth defect, early in childhood chronic ear infections, chronic sinus allergies, etc. In some cases it carries on into adult life and the progression worsens. It can be serious enough to at some point become disabling.

I do not buy into the ADD ADHD epidemic. But I do see a clear link in the increased symptoms in a large percentage of kids as related to technology advances of the past 30-50 years.

A little bit of basic detective work can help determine if Central Auditory Processing Disorders or C.A.P.D. is the actual cause and not ADD ADHD. An Audiologist or Speech Pathologist trained in CAPD testing is where I would start right after getting an extensive medical history of a kids childhood ailments. A Shrink would be my last resort.

[mamelukesabre]

I do not understand any of this.

I don’t have kids but I do remember my days learning to read and I do remember other kids in the class learning to read. And I remember my little sister learning to read.

Reading came easily to me and I liked it. I would read everything I could. I read every sign I saw, every billboard I saw, every word that came up on the television. I really don’t think I needed a teacher to teach me how to read. Once the alphabet was learned, I was reading beginner books that my parents had in the house. There were easily 50 beginners books in my house to read. Maybe more.

I really believe the only thing a child needs to learn to read is lots of things that are easy to read and at least one parent that will spend time helping the child when he/she misses a word now and then. That’s all I needed.

My sister on the otherhand learned a little slower than I did. She didn’t like to read for some reason. It was boring to her...at first. But once it started to click, she was reading every sign she could see and every billboard also and you couldn’t stop her from reading.

So this whole notion of “whole word” and ADHD is a bunch of nonsense to me. Just buy the kid some damn books. That’s all it really takes.

[Montanabound]

I think you may be onto something, but I have no evidence. My kids went to school that used a version of Whole Word - what a disaster. I taught them to read at home using phonics. In the first grade class, the children listened to books on tape repeatedly, until they were memorized. Then they “read” the book back to the teacher, and they thought they were reading! Then they couldn’t understand why they couldn’t read other books. I can see how they would get frustrated and not be able to sit still.

[philman_36]

...has used bogus methods (i.e., Whole Word) to teach reading.
BS! The first word I read was from a sign in a commercial!

I can still remember the elation I felt that day when I made the connection and realized that I could, and actually was, reading.
I learned that word and many other from listening and watching television. Commercials were my first reader. I didn't have any idea who "Spot" was or that he could run much less who "Dick and Jane" were.
Christ on a cross you even recognize TV as a source of educational material, though in a dissimilar manner. Television Teaches What Public Schools Used To

Whole word reading does work. I taught both of my kids that way and they were well above all of their classmates from day one. The problem with whole word reading is that teachers either do it wrong or they don't have enough time as it is a very time consuming process and advances vary from child to child. It isn't one size fits all.

And as far as the amphetamine or methylphenidate stimulant drugs being used on children...somebody lost their damn mind!

Having said that, much of your "2)" is so absurd I'm not even going to bother replying. You'll probably take it the wrong way and you'll be just one more "hurt" member. However, if you really want me to chime in I will.

BTW, my "whole word" daughter wound up being her class valedictorian. My son did well too, though not as well as her.

[achilles2000]

The first 15 pages or so of Chapter 4 of The Harsh Truth About Public Schools will ground you in the Ritalin/psychotropic drugs debate. The notes will point you toward sources that you can contact to ask about reading in particular.

[achilles2000]

On the book I should have pointed you to pp 205-233 and the related notes.

[BobL]

“Schools all over America continue to force five- and six-year olds to start their education by memorizing 200+ sight-words.”

When I see this stuff, it becomes OBVIOUS to me that the teachers are doing ALL THEY CAN to inhibit American kids from learning to read.

Sure, they do blow off Sight Words in Third Grade and THEN switch to phonics...but they have then assured the kid will be a slow reader for life.

Any parent WORTH A DIME will teach his kids to read well before the schools get a shot at them. Either do it yourself (as I did, when my kids were less than 4 years old...and yes, it took a few spankings to get their attention), or go to Kumon, Sylvan or some other after-school learning center and let them do it the RIGHT WAY. Otherwise why not just cut off their left thumbs...you’re doing the same damage (if not more).

[steveo]

Don’t change article titles to promote your agenda.

[Admin Moderator]

The title you created

" READING and RITALIN "

was misleading and did not match the source you linked. We have replaced it with the published title.

Please always just use the published title at whatever source you link.