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Ritalin Talk To Stop?

'RITALIN BILL' FUELING ANXIETY

Confusion continues to swirl around a legislative proposal that advocates say would inhibit teachers and parents talking about behavioral problems of students who may need mental-health treatment.
Ref. https://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1%2C1249%2C...15470%2C00.html

Stop Talk Ritalin

Wow, I think that this legislation is a huge mistake. After just having gotten home from a routine appointment with my son's psychiatrist, I must say that I am grateful for all of the professional help my son has received. In fact, our whole family has been fortunate to receive a lot of professional help in caring for and interacting with him. I don't know if we would be where we are today, speaking of having the proper diagnoses and treatments in place, or if we would even be seeking help for him at all, without the teachers who have helped us to recognize some problems that are not typical of most children to have. We were fortunate enough that Jerry had teachers who were not interested in labeling or judging him, but were interested in Jerry receiving the help that he needed as well as helping him and the rest of the class to have the best experiences at school that they could. It was because of caring teachers that we sought out help in the first place. I feel that teachers don't have any rights, in my opinion, to tell the parents what they should do. However, I think that discussion about my child's behavior is very important. I feel that my son's education is a partnership between the school, his teachers, and us, and we all need to communicate for Jerry's best interests. Therefore, I want to talk to them about my son's mental illness. I know that there is a risk of a stigma attached to my son by doing this, but in my experience it is far better to learn from them what I can about his behaviors at school and to provide them with any information that could be helpful to them in interacting with him than staying silent.

In our situation, our children are with their teachers either half of the time or less comparing to the time they spend at home with us, but I couldn't agree more with this statement. Sometimes a child's behavior is caused by mental illness and sometimes it is not, and for us it is still crucial to have the input from my sons teachers. When he was in the stages of diagnosis, we had to have Jerry's teachers fill out evaluations every 6 weeks and they were kind enough to do so. In fact, his doctor still has forms for me to fill out occasionally with feedback from the teacher so that the doctor can know what is going on at school. If I lived in Utah where it sounds like this bill might pass, I would have a big problem if that meant that I could no longer communicate with the teachers about my son's conditions. Just because a student's problems might stem from mental illness, I don't necessarily think that means that the issues can't or shouldn't be talked about. Maybe instead of prohibiting all discussions, mabe a more fair proposal would be that parents did not have to be forced into a discussion with a teacher about their child's behavior. Not to say that the teacher could not communicate unbiased information, but that the teacher could not advise the parents what to do and the parents did not have to participate in any discussion if they didn't want to. Some people are aware of problems that their child may be having but prefer to keep it private, which is understandable to me. I don't have all the answers, I just know what my experience with my son has been.

First, I don't think any teacher or school should be allowed to make anyone take medication as a condition to remain in school. Of course, there are cases that really do require a child to be on medication, but I personally think it is ultimately up to the parent and a doctor(s) to decide that. If need be, then the courts should be involved as well. In extreme cases where a child was having that many troubles in school and if that school or a teacher tried to require my child to take medication, especially as a condition of enrollment, then I think it would probably be time to look for another school. It might be wise to look for a school that could better provide for the child's needs, such as a school and/or classroom that is geared towards specifically teaching those with different kinds of special needs. I do think that a school or a teacher has the right to state, with valid reasons and proof to back those reasons up, that they are not equipped to handle and provide a proper education for my child, due to behavioral issues. This has happened several times to my son, and while it is not 'fun' to go through something like that, I would rather look around and have my son attend a school best suited for his needs and where his teachers have extra training and a desire to help children with issues such as Jerry's.

I think that there are many people in life who try to be "doctors" without professional training, or even those who are doctor's, but have never examined my son and know nothing about his past history. (which is crucial in the world of mental health) My thoughts on this subject stem from past experience with my son. I can get a good 'feel' for someone's intentions behind discussing his behavior and 'issues' with me. Even if I don't agree with them, if the concern is genuine, if it is coming from someone who is trying to be helpful, and/or if someone is trying to provide me with information (including teachers), I will almost always listen to them. Sometimes I have learned things I didn't already know and/or their information was helpful. The times when comments or discussions aren't helpful, then I don't worry about it because I know that he is receiving the best help and medical care we can provide for him. We know that we are doing our best to help him.

Ritalin Talk To Stop? Health & Special Psychology

My first inclination at reading this was to smack those in support of this across the face. Come to think of it, that is still my inclination. What are they thinking?

When it comes to diagnosing children with ADD, ADHD, or any other behavioral disability, I will be one of the first to stand up and say it has gotten way out of control. Just because a five year old is hyper does not mean that that particular child has ADD. Come on! If you were five years old and had to sit in a classroom for six hours staring at a chalk board, would you not be prone to disrupting and having a problem focusing? Most schools, at least around here, have taken recess out of a child's day. Thanks to the FCAT taking over everything in school, children in elementary schools no longer have that thirty minutes to burn in the middle of the day.

**deep breath** I'm in rant mode major at the moment. I apologize. In my head I'm sitting here thinking that these people are idiots.

Who spends most of the time with a child? That teacher! I'm not saying give teachers a right to point at a child and go "You need drugs" and that order be followed up. A child goes through extensive testing, at least they used to, through the school system to pinpoint whether or not a child is ADD. There is a lot of observing and such, and a lot of attention is drawn to that student.

I absolutely agree with that. If I were a parent, I would want the input of my child's teacher.

Another thing that was mentioned in the article was about the parents' role.

The only problem with that statement is that most parents don't act like parents in a situation where their child's behavior is under scrutiny. Most parents who are approached with a severe child have the attitude of "Not my baby! My child is perfect. There's something wrong with the teacher." While there are cases where the problem does lie in the teacher's impatience to deal with a child, a bit more of it comes from lack of attention from parents. I've had friends whose parents put their children on ritalin for no good reason. Just because they assumed that because their child was making C's in school, she was ADD. The problem was, she just wasn't good at school.

Parents are just as guilty as educators when it comes to dosing children up on drugs. They don't want to deal with the hyperactivity of a child, so they turn them into zombies. This past Summer I had at least three girls every week who were on some form of medication for ADD. I'm sorry, but you cannot tell me that every child who is on ritalin is ADD.

I think the communication between parents and educators is vital when any part of a child's academic life can be questioned. If a teacher suspects the child might have a problem, then they should be allowed to contact that parents. Hopefully instead of trying to hype the child up on medicine, they will try to use alternate means of helping that child. I'm one of those people, and I know I'll be one of those teachers, who will try to fix things from every angle before suggesting a child be put on medication.

I'm not saying all medicine for all cases is bad. I know several people really are in need of the medication to help them get through the day. It's wonderful to hear a real success story about a person who could not focus until they got on medicine, but most older people I know who were not put on a medication before their adulthood tried everything else first. Our society is just too drug happy. If this bill gets passed then I believe that the legislature is proving that they really don't care about their students as people.

Stop Talk Ritalin

User Dawnofthenew, it is not necessary to be so longwinded when posting. Keep on topic by posting general view points and not centering discussion on personal dilemmas.

Stop Talk Ritalin

When it comes to a teacher surmising whether or not a child is hyper or has ADD or ADHD, though I think some experienced teachers have some idea of the difference between the two, I agree with you. Teachers are not doctors and should not diagnose what only a doctor should diagnose, in my opinion.

Yes, some schools provide a lot of testing. This is the only way a teacher or school could come close to guessing whether or not a child has ADD or another type of mental illness, in my opinion, without confirmation from a doctor. This goes along with the thoughts above of not assuming that every child who exhibits similar symptoms has mental illness, and that only a doctor can truly diagnose mental illness. I think that this is part of what the legislation is trying to say, "to keep teachers from becoming doctors in the classroom," but I feel that they are approaching it the wrong way.

While I agree that parents who think this way exist, I know many parents who listen carefully to what a teacher has to say, especially if the behaviors are noted in the home. I am not sure what can be done about parents who have a "lack of attention" problem when it comes to their child's behavior, or who does nothing if faced with a possibility of having a child with special issues. I do still feel, though, that there should be some kind of protection for parents to prevent intimidation about their misbehaving child and/or being told what they should do by educational professionals, such as the article suggests.

Ritalin Talk To Stop?

I am a high-school teacher and I would like to give my input on this issue. First of all let me start by saying I understand both sides of the story. I work with children with ADHD on a daily basis, some of them are under Ritalin and others are not because the parents think it is not healthy for the child.

I personally think a teacher's role goes beyond the chalkboard...I think most people do not realize that but we are teachers, parents, psychologists, social workers, doctors, etc...Now, we may not be professional in ANY of those areas but we do care about the children's health. Many times I have counseled a parent to seek professional help for their child and I do not regret it.

By the other hand, some principals and teachers over do it because they do not want to cope with a hyperactive child at the school. It is very stressful and they are willing to put that child in drugs when may be the kid is having a problem of other kind. The fact is that most teachers are NOT well trained in this matter.

The truth is that the United States is becoming the country of Ritalin's children and let's remember that this drug has been prohibited in Canada and other countries. It has LOTS of awful side effects for young children specially, therefore, if a school thinks that in order to keep a child in the school, he/she must be put on a drug I think it goes against the personal rights of the child and the parent's decision. NOBODY but the parents have the right to decide what is best for the child.

Ritalin Talk Stop

Yes, but those who you may associate yourself with are not going to be the same people that a teacher associates with when it comes to dealing with his/her student's parents. Almost all of the friends I keep would side with the teacher, but that's because a lot of my close friends are like me when it comes to our nature. So while you may know a lot of parents who would listen, the people you come in contact will be different from those that a teacher comes in contact with.

The point is that if a teacher is not allowed to give output about their postulations on a child, then who is to say where else that child will get the extra attention from. If a student has a serious problem, it is more likely that a teacher who has been trained in identifying some of these possibilities will pick up on it before a parent would. A lot of parents, though not all, would rather brush it off as their child just being a child. While I don't agree with simply drugging a child up because they're a little hyper, I do believe that if a child is showing extremities of hyperness, something needs to be looked into. A teacher's input is incredibly valuable being as to how they do spend six hours a day with that student.