4 Statements on Developmental Disorders

Here are 4 statements on developmental disorders that I often see in my country. I'll tell you why I agree or disagree with them.

Children with a developmental disorder are less smart than normal children.

Though in some cases this may be true, because their brains aren't developing properly after all. But there are also a lot of cases in which children with developmental disorders are a lot smarter than the average child. Especially children with a disorder classified under autism. Children with autism have a great interest in things they like and often like to learn and collect information on those subjects, making them really knowledgeable about them. And if they are like me and have an interest in learning, there's a really big chance that they have basic knowledge about almost every single thing that you can mention, to the point of knowing facts that may seem completely useless to other people. This doesn't mean all children with autism are smarter than normal children and it certainly doesn't mean that all children that are smarter than the average child have a developmental disorder.

Children with a developmental disorder are socially inept.

This certainly is true for most of the children with a developmental disorder. They find it harder to talk to other people, especially when they don't have the same interests. There are also children that keep to themselves a lot because other children don't understand them. Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are often too hyper and rowdy for other children and some of them don't know how to deal with their anger or when they feel they have been wronged, often causing them to have little outbursts of anger and start fights with other children. This often leads them to be the child other children least like to play with and they are often last to be chosen as a partner. Other children with a developmental disorder may seem to be able to interact fairly well with other children at school or with the children in the neighborhood, because these children are close to them a lot of times. But there's a fairly big chance that it's the other children that take the initiative to play and when the child with the developmental disorder is left alone, they will find it hard to approach another child themselves.

Children with a developmental disorder have less chance on a successful career.

I think there's nothing less true than this. Sure, there are careers that aren't suited for people with developmental disorders, but doesn't everyone have a job they aren't suited for? As long as it's a career they have interest in, a career that needs the qualities they have and a boss that is willing to make some small adjustments to make the right environment, lots of people with developmental disorders can become amazing career people.

Nowadays almost every child can be labeled with a developmental disorder, specifically ADHD.

Here's yet another statement from which I think is not true.

While it's true that more and more children with developmental disorders are being recognized, but this is only normal because of the continuous research on developmental disorders. Nowadays we know more about developmental disorders than we did 20 years ago and 20 years ago we knew more about it than 50 years ago. Where 50 years ago you would just be an annoying hyperactive child that wouldn't listen to its peers, now there's a chance you may be recognized as a child with ADHD. Especially the sneaky and not always very obvious ADD is easier to recognize with today’s knowledge.

And a lot of children that appear to have ADHD, don't really have ADHD. A big part of their hyper and boisterous personality is partly to blame to their upbringing. Every healthy child has a great amount of energy and need a lot of movement, but half of the day is spent sitting still in class, having to listen to boring lectures of teachers and doing work in which they may not be interested at all. After school, lots of children will sit down and watch tv or play video games rather than going outside to release their excessive energy. Though video games often have proven to be a great stimulus for the brain, children sit still all the while and the energy they have left, will show in their behavior as a form of hyperactivity. Then there's also the diet. Almost everything has sugar in it nowadays and sugar gives you energy. Children that already have a lot of energy naturally, will have even more energy the higher their sugar intake is. And some artificial food colorings don't do any good for hyperactivity as well. Don't take this as criticism on your parenting though, you're probably just doing the same as what most other parents do nowadays: giving your children more freedom than you had as a child.

In classes here in the Netherlands children are also treated less strict. Would you get your fingers hit with a ruler 50 years ago or just simply sent to the hallway to reflect on your actions when I was a grade school kid 15 years ago, believe me, for a child that was shameful and embarrassing back then. But now just pointing at a child when they do something wrong can lead to angry parents, saying the teacher did their child wrong. In the 3 years I have been standing in the classroom as a trainee, you had to warn children at least thrice before sending them out of the classroom and even with those warnings, many children were not sent out of the classroom. Personally I think this leads to the children not taking you seriously, because why would you stop doing what you like when there aren't all that much consequences if you don't. When I was in grade school, we would think twice before talking all the time, but now classrooms seem to be noisy all the time, only quiet when the teacher is angry or when everyone is seriously working, but once one child is distracted and starts talking to another, the whole class seems to take that as an okay for them to talk.

My opinion on these statements are based on facts found on the internet and in booklets on developmental disoreders I own, stories from people with experience and my own experiences. And like I said, it's my opinion, I'm not forcing you to think the same as me.