When Your Child's Teacher Intervenes
Your child's school ought to offer plenty of opportunities for him to learn about himself, to discover his strengths, and, to compensate for his vulnerabilities, to experience success as the reward for his efforts. It can also be a useful resource to help you assess, observe and monitor your child's behavior. Often, a teacher might be the first person to alert you to potentially troubling behaviors. This may be painful to hear, but your relationship with teachers and other school personnel will be even more important to preserve and strengthen.
Excerpt from FRONTLINE's "The Medicated Child" Parent's Guide written by Joshua Sparrow, M.D., child psychiatrist at Children's Hospital, Boston, and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
Full URL to The Medicated Child Parent's Guide: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/medicatedchild/parents/
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Technorati Tags: Frontline, PBS, The Medicated Child, psychiatric medications, child development, parenting, pediatrics
- Hold off on your initial reactions and response to disagreements or school crises until you've had a chance to gather your thoughts
- Start with positive, appreciative comments about some aspect of teachers' efforts, even if you disagree with others.
- Invite teachers to provide specific descriptions of the child's behavior, and show them that you are listening carefully, even when you disagree. Then offer your observations so that consensus on a more complete picture of the child's behavior can emerge.
Excerpt from FRONTLINE's "The Medicated Child" Parent's Guide written by Joshua Sparrow, M.D., child psychiatrist at Children's Hospital, Boston, and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
Full URL to The Medicated Child Parent's Guide: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/medicatedchild/parents/
Related Topics:
Technorati Tags: Frontline, PBS, The Medicated Child, psychiatric medications, child development, parenting, pediatrics
4 Comments:
Dear FrontLine:
Thank you but my comment regarding "The Medicated Child" was displeasure with its promotion on the viability of atypical antipsychotics on young children and infants. To me, this is infanticide in a way. Please don't push such a harmful message.
Last year my son was out of CONTROL I wasn't sure what to do all my family said i think he is ADHD which runs in my family and what parent wants to think they have a ADHD child. I have never had him tested but found in March of 07 he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes a few months later he was still out of control i was in tears every day cause my kid would not listen to me for the life of me. Come to find out a few months later he was diagnosed also with Celiac Disease which is a wheat intolerance so i had to put him on a gluten free diet. About 2 to 3 months later it was like a new kid a total turn around in his attitude at home and at school, (for awhile there i thought he was going to be kicked out of Kindergarten it was an every day struggle to tell him to behave at school.) My son was 6 at the time and now he is 7 it was so hard to put him on a gluten free diet from buying and finding gluten free food to making his school lunches, not going out to eat at certain restaurants not knowing if something had gluten in it and having a picky eater on top of everything. I have heard a gluten free diet could help children with ADHD and Atisum so that is why i thought i would write a comment on here. I have came across many sites on Google about Gluten Free foods that are helping children and not just for Celiac Disease.
I left my comment but was not able to leave it since the google info was not in english. Since I went to google and hopefully will be able to leave a comment. I have read every other comment on this site. I am glad I did. I hope more people make comments like most of what I've read so far. I wish my first message would have taken. Frontline please do the shows suggested by the others. Your show lacked so much information that is available to parents. You should take the opportunity to educate for the children's sake. We in America are destroying our own children and giving the responsibility to those we consider smarter or wiser. I have studied and researched this topic for a few years now and have personal involvement with the use of these drugs on children in my own family. I will go to the site where the lady says she can help parents with these issues. I have to tell you that it is true that some parents just do not wish to handle problems but by drugs because it is easier for them. No, not all, but I do know some who just don't want to put up with their children's issues. And I know this for a fact. The "Nanny" would have a field day with these parents. The kids don't have problems,oh yes! they do, it's their parents!! God help us in this country as we are destroying our own children because of laziness, not all, and teachers who decide our kids have problems and doctors who do what the parents want, shut the kid up!!! When all the time it is the parents who have created this angry unpleasant enviornment for these children. So many of you made such wonderful and thoughtful comments that I am glad I took the time to read them. I pray that more or the same comes forward and that someone out there will really do something to move the parents and others in this nation to see that the war on drugs is not working. The pharmecudical companies have just too much to lose!!!! They and the FDA aren't going to give up all that power and money for the lives of our own children. God help us all!!!
P.S. It's late and my contacts are hurting forgive my poor spelling it's late here. Goodnight and God bless us all
Frontline,
Mental illness diagnoses are frequently used as a catch-all excuse for not dealing with the psychological and emotional needs of many adults; but in children it is cruel abuse. I have seem my own children go from a well adjusted life with good behavior and academics, when I was in the home, to irritable, short-tempered, even frantic and agressivly bickering children in turmoil, in the exclusive care of their father (who is addicted to pain medication himself), and who, when he decided to divorce me, "got rid of me" by accusing me of mental illness so he could have me declared "unfit" and get sole custody of the children at home. It was unfounded, but difficult to refute. I fell vidtim to the suggestion to take psychotropic drugs when medical doctors could not identify the cause of bizarrre symtoms that later turned out to be thyroid cancer. At my husband's suggestion to my doctors, (before I went in for appointments, he would call them and tell them to look for signs of mental illness). I suffered on antidepresssants for ten years, in an oppressive household environment, through incredible pressures and stresses, with the mistaken diagnosis of depression, (with it's increased suicidal thinking from those medications I was taking).It exaserbated my throid dysfunction, I could not afford to be suicidal, and when I was subsequently diagnosed with thyroid cancer,that news brought me peace of mind. That is a sorry state and indication of the psycological torture I was subjected to, when a diagnosis of cancer brings peaceand understanding.
The same thing has, and is,happening to many teens and children I have become associated with in schools and day care settings,I was a part time /substitute teacher for a while, until I spoke out against this "trend" of diagnosing bi-polar disorder in preschoolers.
At best,These doctors and psychologists have no idea the psychological torture they are inflicting on these trusting children.
At worst, it is predatory and horrifying, not to mention the emotional and self-esteem damage, and perhaps the physiological brain damage, some may be inflicting on these vulnerable children.
Our children are being sacrificed to a fad in the field of medicine. Just as bad as giving children meth or coke or other illicit drugs, I think it is irresponsible medical practice.
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