Category Archives: ADHD Bias

Diagnosing Sleep Apnea in Young Children Suspected of ADHD

August 16, 2012   admin

Diagnosing Sleep Apnea in Young Children Suspected of ADHD
More and more children ages 3 to 17 in the United States, as well as other countries, are being diagnosed with ADHD each year. US Statistics show a huge increase in kids under age 7 years being diagnosed and treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder particularly in the past three years.
Just in the U.S. alone, the number of kids ages 3 to 17 diagnosed with ADHD has skyrocketed to in excess of 10,000,000 ( Yes…that’s ten million) and that number is expected to increase by 15 to 20 percent over the next year.   Likewise, during this same period, as many as 4 million or 40 percent of those children ages 3 to 17 years, will have been misdiagnosed with ADHD.
Obviously, it’s very important that we diagnose ADHD and other behavior problems carefully and accurately in order to avoid wrongfully labeling a child with ADHD when indeed he or she is not ADHD.
Currently, there are in excess of 95 medical, social, and environmental things that can cause ADHD-like behavior, confusing the diagnosis; causing misdiagnosis of ADHD… Read the rest. One of the most common seen in kids under age

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How to Build Self Esteem in ADHD Kids Two

March 20, 2012   admin

In this second article on “Building self-esteem in kids, whether ADHD or not”, we will continue looking at ways to build self-esteem and confidence in all children, teens, and just maybe in adults, too.
Just like most children with learning problems, kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder often have poor confidence, a shaky self-image and poor self-esteem. This combination of social-communication shortcomings usually leads to disaster sooner or later as these kids and teens fail to develop and retain the skills necessary to survive in an academic environment, needed to get and retain a job; and fail to acquire the social-interpersonal skills used in building a successful life. “If you can’t clearly and effectively tell someone what you’re thinking or what you want them to do; then you can’t expect them to understand you.”
For these very reasons, ADHD experts and child behavior experts… Read the rest place a great deal of emphasis on building confidence levels and a positive self-image-self-esteem in all children and teens (and sometimes adults) in their care. This is often done by teaching the ADHD-behavior problem child the skills needed to build positive self-worth, positive self-image, and good confidence leading to improved self-esteem.
Ways to build positive

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Learning Problems often blamed on ADHD Behavior

March 08, 2012   admin
Poor Self Esteem and Confidence ADHD Problems

Poor self-esteem and confidence problems must be corrected before ADHD behavior learning problems can be “fixed”!
Many times teachers and parents blame an ADHD child’s learning difficulties on his or her behavior and insist the ADHD behavior must be “fixed” before learning problems can be corrected.  
Unfortunately, this is sort of like putting the proverbial horse before the cart. If you ask a hundred parents and teachers to describe an ADHD child’s behavior, many of us can predict what they’ll say. Just about 100 percent of those asked know a child with ADHD will show:

Impulsive behavior
Poor attention span
And sometimes hyperactivity.

Of course, these are all core symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and they have been drilled over and over into everybody’s brain. Erroneously, we’re told these are the things, teachers, parents and doctors are supposed to look for when a child isn’t learning or cuts-up in class.
Unfortunately, with so much hype on the core symptoms of ADHD, the other more often outstanding and life-altering symptoms of poor self-esteem, lack of confidence, and poor self-image are overlooked or out-right neglected.
It is literally impossible to improve a child’s ability to learn without first addressing … Read the rest

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ADHD Misdiagnosis-Increased Awareness in Parents and Teachers

June 02, 2011   admin

ADHD Misdiagnosis-Increased Awareness in Parents and Teachers
One of my many goals in publishing this blog-Mistakenforadhd.com is to help increase awareness of the pitfalls parents face when it comes to making an accurate ADHD diagnosis and finally deciding on the best ADHD treatment.
We all need to be involved in improving the process of identifying suspected ADHD children, evaluating their behavior problems or learning problems thoroughly and making sure that they are not misdiagnosed as ADHD instead of being treated for the real cause of their behavior.
I believe if teachers, doctors, therapists and parents don’t develop a keener sense of what is and what is not ADHD that we are going to have an ADHD misdiagnosis crisis that may harm the futures of more than 4 million children and teens in the next year.
In order to help improve that public awareness and sound a warning about the pain and suffering that misdiagnosing and mislabeling a child with ADHD can cause; I’ve been doing dozens of radio talk show and recently was invited for interview on a popular television show in Greenville, SC.
Both of the hosts, Jack Roper and Kimberly Kelly have serious concerns about ADHD misdiagnosis … Read the rest

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Preventing Classroom-Teacher Bias-ADHD Misdiagnosis

April 26, 2011   admin

Once a child has been labeled as ADHD, whether he or she is actually ADHD or not, it’s virtually impossible to remove that label.
The best way to unstick the almost super-glued ADHD label in a child or teen “suspected” of ADHD is to prevent it from being applied in the first place. The old saying: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is very true in this case.
One child misdiagnosed as ADHD is one too many!
So how can you prevent a teacher or fellow classmates from mislabeling your child with ADHD?… Read the rest

Anticipate problems by talking to your child’s next teacher in advance. Do not wait for the teacher to phone you-take the first step in explaining your child’s behavior traits to his new teacher. He or she will be less likely to feel bias even if they have been “warned” by previous teachers.
Explain how your son’s or daughter’s doctor has evaluated your child’s behavior, what the diagnosis is-if any- and whether or not he or she has undergone some type of therapy.
Ask him or her not to label your child by warning the next teacher or biasing them with an unconfirmed diagnosis

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Classroom Problems may Cause ADHD Misdiagnosis in Children

April 23, 2011   admin

It seems there are many Classroom Problems that may Cause ADHD Misdiagnosis in Children and Teens
Teachers have a difficult time. Many must deal with 20 to 30 kids for the school year-all with different personalities, different childhood behavior traits, and different styles of learning. I know it’s hard to manage controlling all of that behavior and at the same time meeting “no child left behind” guidelines.
How do I know? When I was a junior in college, I let my mom talk me into “filling in for her Spanish class” for three days when she was ill. By the end of the second day, I had new respect for teachers. It’s no small wonder that some teachers would like for children to all have the same learning capabilities, attention span, social skills, and behavior traits as the average student for that grade level.
Unfortunately, this unrealistic classroom bias poses dangers in the way of preconceived notions about learning problems and what is and what is not normal behavior or misbehavior in children. Often times, I’ve found the only way to get rid of the labels caused by these misconceptions is to move the mislabeled or wrongfully targeted child to … Read the rest

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Classroom Bias may cause ADHD Misdiagnosis

April 14, 2011   admin

Children who suffer school teacher and class-peer bias may be misdiagnosed as ADHD… Read the rest
In my previous post, I told you about Derrick, a 16 year-old misdiagnosed as ADHD because of classroom bias due to a poor student-teacher interpersonal relationship.
In this post, I’d like to share how we figured out that Derrick’s ADHD was really not ADHD and that his behavior was the result of a poor relationship between him and his teachers.
When I spoke with Derrick’s principal and teachers, here’s what we found out about Derrick’s school experience:

One of his middle school teachers had warned his “new” high school teachers that he was ADHD and they should expect trouble
Several of his teachers got together and decided they would be very strict when it came to his behavior-he would not be allowed to get away with anything
One of his teachers didn’t believe ADHD actually existed and called Those kids” to “just be lazy”
She wasn’t going to cut him any slack when it came to homework, class work or testing
Several of his teachers made it a point to tell his classmates that he was ADHD and if his behavior disrupted their class experience, they should complain.

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