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Kirsten
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Attention Deficit Disorder?
February 19, 2008 - 10:03 AM
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Our generation has been characterized by some as the ADD generation. What is your reaction to this portrayal?
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Megan
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
February 21, 2008 - 03:52 AM
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I don't think its ADD, i think its more that we live in a pill popping society that relies on fixing the symptoms and not the problems.
It could be that we have more to do, more access to things that distract us, ipod, cell phones, computers etc.
We as a generation can't be catagorised like this, SOME of us work hard at one thing at a time, SOME of us can work without getting distracted.
We are not the ADD generation, we don't need to be stereotyped that way.
ADD and ADHD are becoming more apparent in this generation because it is a way to say "this child has a medical condition" and that is has nothing to do with parenting.
So in response, we are no more an ADD generation than our parents generation and their parents before them.
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expat
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
February 21, 2008 - 04:10 AM
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Megsy wrote:
I don't think its ADD, i think its more that we live in a pill popping society that relies on fixing the symptoms and not the problems.
It could be that we have more to do, more access to things that distract us, ipod, cell phones, computers etc.
We as a generation can't be catagorised like this, SOME of us work hard at one thing at a time, SOME of us can work without getting distracted.
We are not the ADD generation, we don't need to be stereotyped that way.
ADD and ADHD are becoming more apparent in this generation because it is a way to say "this child has a medical condition" and that is has nothing to do with parenting.
So in response, we are no more an ADD generation than our parents generation and their parents before them.
OMG a Tom Cruise-luvin Scientologist !!! 
just kidding, and i agree with you COMPLETELY !!! too many bad parents and bad teachers
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Eirik Haefnir
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
February 23, 2008 - 10:23 AM
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Do you mean that more people are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD? Or simply that young people these days have a shorter attention span in general than a generation ago? In my opinion they're two different "problems".
As far as diagnoses go, my sister is a kindergarten/elementary school teacher, and in every class she's taught yet, she keeps noticing that every year more and more kids are diagnosed with disorders like ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyscalcula, Autism, etc. Usually accompanied with the adjective "mild".
I believe most of those children only suffer one problem. Parents that don't want to hear anything bad about their kids and instead want to blame it all on diseases and dream it can be fixed by pills.
If you're talking about concentration span in general. If I look at my father, as a kid after dark they'd sit around the fire and tell stories. So unless you were the storyteller you were sitting there for an hour doing nothing. As he got older TV came, and he just sat in front of that all evening.
These days, the Net-Gen is growing up in an interactive world. Everything you do asks for interaction. It's become a second nature for young people to do a dozen things at the same thing all along. But is that necessarely bad?
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Nikki
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
March 14, 2008 - 10:17 AM
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I agree with what Alvader has said. There are definitely more children each year getting diagnosed with "mild" problems. I honestly do not think that it is all medical, it's just an attempt to label every child that is a little bit different - daydreamer is now mildly autistic, hyper is ADD. I wouldn't lump in dyslexia and discalcula because no one really noticed them in previous generations and probably had a similar prevalence rate. And too our generation is different than our parents. We have always been taught that multi-tasking is the greatest thing ever and is essential to future success in life, and I don't think that our whole generation can turn it off with the flick of a switch because now they are realizing that it is not as efficient as previously thought.
I think that ADD has become so prevalent in Canada ans the States because parents don't have the time to spend with their kids that they used to. There really aren't too many stay at home mums and many parents work lots of overtime. They don't have the time to try to work on problems or teach their kids how to be more patient or respectful (often they are not all that patient or respectful themselves) so they look for a bandaid, pills.
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Nikki
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
March 14, 2008 - 10:20 AM
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As I wrote this, quite ironically and entirely coincidentally, I was listening to a song by folk artist Willy Mason called Oxygen with the lyrics:
"I wanna speak louder than Ritalin/
For all the children who think that they've got a disease"
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Nick Yeo
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
March 24, 2008 - 04:59 PM
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No....I don't have ADD, I mean, wait a second...gotta text something to a friend...and did you see that commercial just now??...oh it has that song that reminds me of the time when...what are we talking about again?
In all seriousness, I'm a little intrigued at some of the responses so far in this discussion. I think everyone has touched upon a lot of themes and topics here: an over-analyzed, over-medicated swath of children, who don't spend enough time with their parents, etc etc. Also, the explosion of convenient technologies that have us plugged in 24/7.
Did you know that multi-tasking was a term coined by the computer industry to explain how your CPU was able to run a word processor, calculator and play music at the same time? It was considered quite revolutionary that all of these things could happen simultaneously...and now the human race has co-opted the word to explain how we can focus on multiple tasks and complete a litany of jobs.
And to Allvaldr's point about is it actually bad to be doing so many things at once? Studies have actually shown that switching between tasks while working (email for 10 minutes, write a report for 30 minutes, talk on the phone for 5 mins etc) is actually less efficient when it comes to your brain. It needs 5-10 minutes to prepare itself for a specific type of task...but by that time, you've already moved on to the next thing.
Point in case: in the time its taken me to write this response, i have : Checked my email 3 times, chatted with a collegue, downloaded a PDF, checked my Facebook profile once, cycled through all the open windows and programs.
Kirsten and I (as one of the "older" members on this thread, although I use that term veeeerrrrry lightly) - we recall a time when things were simpler...where VHS and cassette were the only formats, where computers were only available in school (if you were lucky), where having more than 10 channels was a luxury, and where I was allowed to go to the creek near the back of my house and play for hours on end...
Ahh...to be young and carefree and unplugged...what were we talking about again? 
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Jessie
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
April 5, 2008 - 05:21 PM
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I don't have ADD, but I have a close friend who has ADHD, a similar condition. He looks upon his condition as not a disability, but a gift. Did you know that ADHD people have the ability to concentrate on multiple things at once, as well as the ability to "hyper focus" more than any of us "regular" people can? Albert Einstein had ADD. As far as medication goes, there is a huge difference between giving medicine to kids who are just a little hyper and giving medication to people who have a legitamate medical conditiona and need it in order to function.
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Jay DeGrandis
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
August 22, 2008 - 11:06 PM
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Read
The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child by Thom Hartmann and Lucy Jo Palladino
Hartmann's theory is that ADHD traits are consistent with a human genetic factor that was adaptive for "hunters" in the course of human evolution. He points out how many non-conformists in history became great inventors, leaders, and innovators, precisely because they were not forced to conform to prevailing dogmas and customs.
Hartmann sees the current desire to force conformity as a dangerous threat to individuality and progress.
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Mafer
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
August 24, 2008 - 10:31 PM
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Megsy wrote:
It could be that we have more to do, more access to things that distract us, ipod, cell phones, computers etc.
We are not the ADD generation, we don't need to be stereotyped that way.
ADD and ADHD are becoming more apparent in this generation because it is a way to say "this child has a medical condition".
On a few months, I'll formally become a psychologist.
On one hand, I agree with Megan perspective. On the other hand, sometimes we focus on the criteria of, for example, DSMIV or CIE-10, that we don't see what's really happening. Diagnosis could be wrong, and the stereotyped ones suffer all their life. It is needed to be objective and not only use tests but interviews with significant ones, observations in multiple contexts beside classrooms. Medications have secondary effects and it need to be prescript carefully.
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Jenn
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
October 21, 2008 - 12:22 PM
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I was personally tested for ADD & ADHD when I was 14 because my parents thought my not-so-good grades in school were the result of a "mental disorder." And when I think about it now, how ridiculous is that?! My parents didn't want to accept that I wasn't motivated/disliked school so they blamed it on the fact that I medically had something wrong with me.
Kids now-a-days that have actually been "diagnosed" with one of these supposed diseases, use this as a profit. They sell their prescribed pills to college/high school students that think they need help studying & just look at the problems that causes. Kids that are not prescribed these drugs can easily access them, and that goes back to one of the very first posts in this forum: we have simply grown into a pill-popping generation.
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Raine
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder?
October 23, 2008 - 10:30 PM
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i read a book called Last Child In the Woods that talked about the importance of nature in education and developement. accordign to it, kids who interact with nature are far less likely to have ADD, ADHD, and Autism.
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