Posted on 10/14/2007 9:48:10 AM PDT by crazyshrink
Pray tell, what in this wretched world as you seem to describe it, is good, I ask rhetorically?
I know it would not have existed for my daughter back in the 50s because she would have been dead.
Medical advances are keeping children alive who would have otherwised died. Unfortunately, sometimes there are repercussions, like brain damage.
Premie babies, babies kept alive on ventilators, etc.
Plus, there are a whole multitude of babies born addicted to drugs.
I’d like to know what they did to improve working memory.
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I cannot tell you exactly what they did in this study. The usual process is to use behavioral training. Kind of like repeating something until it becomes a habit. Secondly, specific tactics are available to “ease” the discomfort often felt by the family and especially the low self esteem often associated with the child’s perceived feeling of “not fitting in”.
see post #10
FReepmail me if you would like to discuss this further. Others have done this. And by the way, I don’t promote meds as the answer to all psych probs.
ADHD is not fatal in and of itself. It tends to be the risky behaviors (drugs, drinking, sex, etc.) associated with the problems of executive function which prove fatal.
These behaviors often are the result of not feeling like one belongs and then the gravitation towards others with the same situations. ADHD behaviors often lessen as we move into adulthood and learn ways to better deal with them.
What is good? To ethically discharge one’s duties as an agent of the state is good.
I think there are basically 3 sets of kids. One set of kids just does the right thing. They make a few mistakes along the way, but you know they are basically going to be okay. Then there is the other extreme that I think nothing is going to help those kids.
Then we have the middle set of kids. These are the kids with learning disabilities, emotional problems, ADHD, etc. They can go either way. With patience and help, they can be shown how to become productive members of society. If you can keep them away from the risky behaviors and have them grow into adulthood, then they will do well.
With my daughter, she’s not great at speaking and writing. However, she is a math whiz. We make sure she feels good about herself because of her strength in math. I’m also going to figure out ways for her to become involved in the community. My other son and daughter are into drama and band as outside activities, but my special needs daughter can’t do things like that. It will be my job to help her figure out other things she can get involved in.
(Say a prayer for her however. A week and half ago, she had a grand mal seizure for the first time in over 10 years. She’s on anti-seizure medication right now. Her speech has definitely taken a hit, and I don’t know if it was the seizure or the medication. We’re all very stressed about the situation. She’s come so far to have this be another set back.)
Interesting. Anyone have a sense as to whether the rote learning and memorization of earlier generations may have kept the levels down previously—and whether it might prove useful going forward?
B.S. All this boils down to is cookie cutting; if a kid doesn’t fit the mold he must be changed; not a genius from the past would have survived such an approach.
Frontal Lobotomy cured a number of mental ailments along with its companion, shock therapy; somehow we moved beyond that.
That is not common sense. I call it stupid sense.
For example, if you are having an allergic reaction common sense would say you should treat the symptom because it is affecting your health presently. Yes, you can then plan long term to avoid exposure to allergens and also begin a regimen of treatments that reduce your reactions to allergens.
If someone has ADD and medication can bring about immediate relief from the symptoms then withholding its usage because somewhere in the future accommodation's in training might reduce its effects would be cruel in the short term.
Or learn to self medicate with coffee, tobacco adrenaline rush from risky behaviors.
Look, we live in a society where people are too likely to look at the short term solutions and not enough for the long term. Obviously in extreme cases you want to solve the problem right away but frequently ritalin is promoted as a long term solution for many children with mild symptoms and health isn’t an issue.
Why work hard on diet and discipline when you can just take ritalin forever? Because there are consequences to taking short cuts. That’s hard for most Americans to accept in an era of easy debt, diet pills and youtube debates.
Outstanding point and question!
I do not know and have not seen any research dealing with this subject. One thing to keep in mind is that it was much more acceptable/common for people to drop out of school in the past and one could surmise that ADHD behaviored adolescents were probably more likely to do so.
not a genius from the past would have survived such an approach.
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I would argue that the genius’ from the past, as well as those currently alive, have figured out how to moderate their behaviors to be more successful. ADHD behaviored people are typically higher on the ability scales than others.
ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) is still quite often used with success.
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/bfc540e5ac1abe02cc256e7d0082eede/1ba8b753b4425a0acc256fcc000acbc4
There are multiple forms (5) of ADHD. ADD (no hyperactivity) is more prevalent in females. ADHD (w/hyperactivity)is more prevalent in males. Ther is also “mixed”.
To their credit, there are many people who manage their symptoms w/o meds and often w/o “professionals” involved.
Famous ADHD people (please note: I have not verified these names but took them from another site. I have seen lists much longer.)
1. Ty Pennington
2. Albert Einstein
3. Thomas Edison
4. Henry Ford
5. Benjamin Franklin
6. Whoopi Goldberg
7. Magic Johnson
8. Napolean
9. Edgar Allen Poe
10. Ozzy Osborne
11. Babe Ruth
12. Will Smith
13. Steven Speilberg
14. Sylvester Stalone
15. Henry Winkler
16. Frank Lloyd Wright
17. Bill Cosby
A large part of it is political. There are indeed hyperactive children and behavior disorders but I think classifying them so broadly is unjustified except as a way to provide layers of false certainty and credibility to a profession (psychology) that now finds no abnormality with clearly deviant behaviors such as homosexuality and transexuality. Now little boys that can’t sit still and are bombastic are the deviants while the little boys who don’t know the difference between an anus and a vagina are considered normal. This is the profession we wish to put our faith in? Given that track record one might as well send their children to play in traffic.
Let us remember it was not long ago that lobotomies were being recommended for the good of people with depression and other maladies like moodiness and growing interest in men which were what led to Rosemary Kennedy getting a hole put in her head by her “loving father”.
We should be careful and not assign too much glory to doctors or politicians who cure so little and claim to help so much. I totally disagree with the definitions of hyperactive and normal behavior. Show me how it is normal not to become bored or always work steadily towards solving a dull problem? Show me how it is not normal to become depressed when your life is going no where? More importantly how does a child prove they don’t have ADHD?
Are you really a shrink or do you just buy into this nonsense that suddenly, in the past 35 years, high-spiritedness and unbridled curiosity has suddenly become a “disorder?”
That could be patented as pure Bullroar; what you are saying is that anyone who stands out in a crowd suffers from some mental aberration that itself, sets them apart, and had they not been so “disordered” they would have been but mere ciphers - next I suppose, you will be telling me that they all had homosexual tendencies.
We’ve got to put some sense back in common sense.
There’s got to be either a surplus of hammers or a shortage of nails.
There’s a big difference between long term memory and short term (working memory).
My daughter has above average long term memory (70%), but way below (2%) working memory.
For example, if she asks you to spell a word, she can’t remember the letters that you are telling her.
However, if she sees a word, and writes it down it gets transferred from her short term memory to her long term memory. All she has to do is write down things, and it gets transferred and she is good to go. She is great at memorizing all kinds of facts.
However, if you ask her to process things on the fly, she is very bad because she just doesn’t have the working memory to do that.
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