The Myth of the ADHD Child: 101 Ways to Improve Your Child’s Behavior and Attention Span Without Drugs, Labels, or Coercion

The Myth of the ADHD Child: 101 Ways to Improve Your Child’s Behavior and Attention Span Without Drugs, Labels, or Coercion

A New Perspective on ADHD and its Remedies

A fully revised and updated edition of the groundbreaking book on tackling the root causes of children’s attention and behavior problems rather than masking the symptoms with medication.

More than twenty years after Dr. Thomas Armstrong's Myth of the ADD Child first published, he presents much needed updates and insights in this substantially revised edition. When The Myth of the ADD Child was first published in 1995, Dr. Thomas Armstrong made the controversial argument that many behaviors labeled as ADD or ADHD are simply a child's active response to complex social, emotional, and educational influences. In this fully revised and updated edition, Dr. Armstrong shows readers how to address the underlying causes of a child's attention and behavior problems in order to help their children implement positive changes in their lives.

The rate of ADHD diagnosis has increased sharply, along with the prescription of medications to treat it. Now needed more than ever, this book includes fifty-one new non-drug strategies to help children overcome attention and behavior problems, as well as updates to the original fifty proven strategies.

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About the Book

A fully revised and updated edition of the groundbreaking book on tackling the root causes of children’s attention and behavior problems rather than masking the symptoms with medication.

More than twenty years after Dr. Thomas Armstrong’s Myth of the A.D.D. Child first published, he presents much needed updates and insights in this substantially revised edition. When The Myth of the A.D.D. Child was first published in 1995, Dr. Thomas Armstrong made the controversial argument that many behaviors labeled as ADD or ADHD are simply a child’s active response to complex social, emotional, and educational influences. In this fully revised and updated edition, Dr. Armstrong shows readers how to address the underlying causes of a child’s attention and behavior problems in order to help their children implement positive changes in their lives.
The rate of ADHD diagnosis has increased sharply, along with the prescription of medications to treat it. Now needed more than ever, this book includes fifty-one new non-drug strategies to help children overcome attention and behavior problems, as well as updates to the original fifty proven strategies.

 

Q & A with Dr. Thomas Armstrong on The Myth of the ADHD Child

  1. What do you mean when you say “ADHD is a myth” – do you deny ADHD exists?

I use the term ‘’myth’’ in its original sense, meaning ‘’story’’ and I believe that ADHD is just not a very good story to account for the very real behaviors (hyperactivity, impulsivity, distractibility) that exist in kids across the country and around the world.  No single cause has been found for this disorder, the incidence keeps growing dramatically over time, the methods used to diagnose it are subjective, and the drugs used to treat it don’t work very well and have some potentially dangerous side effects.

There are other ‘’stories’’ that can account for the same behaviors in a better way, including the fact that these kids have more school pressure on them than thirty years ago, they have a neurological delay that is not pathological but within normal developmental limits, they manifest creative behaviors that can at times look like a disorder (creativity is often messy), the males who are diagnosed display ‘’all boy behavior’’ that would have been considered normal thirty or more years ago, mass media has played a big role in shortening their attention span, kids are suffering from ‘’nature deficit disorder,’’ some kids are acting out stress that it is in the family, and there are other ‘’stories’’ as well.

2.Why do you think there has been such a dramatic rise in ADHD diagnoses in not just America, but worldwide?

Kids are playing outdoors less, getting less physical activity, are stressed by an increase in standardized testing in schools, and are negatively affected by the increased levels of stress in their families, their communities, and the world at large.  The Internet, video games, texting, social media and other mass media outlets have negatively impacted the brains of our kids, by creating a higher need for stimulation and a lower tolerance for delay.  In addition, fast food diets have been linked not only to obesity, but also to ADHD-related behaviors.

The biggest reason for the increase, however, is the push by pharmaceutical companies to find new markets to sell ADHD drugs like Adderall, Strattera, and Concerta.  These corporations have been allowed to market directly to parents since the late 1990’s and this has created a demand on doctors for a diagnosis and a medication to go along with it (and because of other demands on doctors, these diagnoses can take as little as fifteen minutes). We’ve seen Big Pharm progressively open up new markets over the past few years, starting with school-aged children, then adults, then very young children, more recently the aged, and finally, through new markets opening up in countries around the world.

3. You begin Chapter 3 by listing out the common drugs used to control ADHD in children: central nervous system stimulants, antidepressants, antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, anti-anxiety agents, and blood-pressure medications. You say that these have “now made it possible for parents and professionals to encourage compliance in children through purely biological means. All the messiness involved in growing up – the battle of the child’s will against the adult’s will, the endless restless curiosity, the sudden bursts of anger, excitement, or jealousy – all this unpleasantness can now be avoided.” You view this as “Orwellian” – do you think we are robbing our children of their childhood by seeking quick-fix solutions?

Yes.  While I believe that medications judiciously prescribed and resolutely monitored by physicians do help some kids with their attention and behavior issues, I feel that, as with society in general, we want quick, easy, and simple solutions to our kids’ problems.  But it’s far better if we turn to non-drug options first, particularly those that are appropriate for equipping kids with the skills they need to regulate themselves in our increasingly complex world.

These options include good communication skills, stress reduction techniques, emotional self-regulation strategies, working memory exercises, good study habits, self-monitoring tools, and many more strategies that I go through in my book.  To expect a pill to provide all of these things, or be substitute for them, is absurd.  In fact, the longest-running study of ADHD treatments recently found that ADHD drugs are not in the long run effective, so parents definitely need help with discovering and applying the many non-drug strategies that are out there, which is what this book hopes to accomplish.

4. ADHD is characterized by three main features: hyperactivity, impulsivity, and/or inattention. Why is a child’s relative age in a classroom, as an indicator of neurocognitive maturity, crucial in the risk of being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving ADHD medication? 

Recent studies have shown that when a child is one of the youngest students in his class, the risk of his being diagnosed with ADHD and treated with drugs goes up substantially (from 30-50%). This observation is congruent with findings from brain scan studies which have shown that the brains of kids diagnosed with ADHD lag in their development (both in the neocortex and in sub-cortical structures) by 2 to 3 years compared with neurotypical kids (this developmental delay is not a disorder, but rather is regarded as being within normal developmental limits).  When you put this together with the fact that we’re asking younger kids to do things in the classroom that used to be expected of older students, you can understand why ADHD is on the rise and why it serves as a simplistic and uncritical way of shoving these more fundamental findings under the rug.

5. Gender also plays a large role in ADHD diagnosis –  you cite statistics that 13.3 percent of all boys were identified as having ADHD compared with 5.6 percent of girls. Why is this?

This wide gender difference in the incidence of ADHD diagnoses should wake us up to the fact that we’re now pathologizing males who thirty or forty years ago would have been regarded as rambunctious, obstreperous, high-spirited, and even wild, but who would ultimately be regarded as behaving according to normal gender expectations.  One leading neuroscientist, Jaak Panksepp, has suggested that the rise in ADHD may be related to the loss of ‘’rough-and-tumble’’ play among boys, while David Nylund, a clinical social worker, has used the character of Huckleberry Finn to emphasize the boyishness once seen as a manifestation of ‘’all boy’’ behavior.

6. You have been an educator for over forty years and note that generally our education system enforces “worst practices” learning. How does the way in which school is conducted impact the likelihood that a child will be prescribed drugs for ADHD?

Research has demonstrated  that kids diagnosed with ADHD do best in active learning environments, where they’re actually doing things:  writing, conversing, reading aloud, role playing, building things etc.).  In fact, in one study, observers could not tell the difference between neurotypical and ADHD-diagnosed students when all were engaged in active learning.  On the other hand, kids diagnosed ADHD do worse under conditions of passive learning (listening to a lecture, silently reading a book, looking at a worksheet).  The problem is that our schools have decreased the amount of time devoted to active learning and increased the time spent in passive learning as a part of a test-based ‘’tougher’’ and more ‘’rigorous’’ academic curriculum that has taken hold over the past thirty years, and studies have shown that this trend is related to the increase in the number of kids diagnosed with ADHD in the United States.

7. The ADHD diagnosis might look good on the outside with “the fine veneer of medical authority, scientific rigor, and governmental support” that it has garnered since its official recognition as a psychiatric disorder in 1980. What is your argument against this “authority defense” so commonly used by frustrated parents and the medical community?

Relying on authorities rather than one’s own senses or common sense is a problem that has been with us since at least the 17th century, when philosophers (trusting Scripture and Aristotle) refused to look through Galileo’s telescope since they already ‘’knew’’ that the sun revolved around the earth.  ADHD guru Russell Barkley says over 6,000 studies ‘’prove’’ that ADHD exists. This is an example of ‘’scientism’’ – in other words, arguing that it must be right because science says it’s so. Real science is about not trusting authority (Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman wrote about science: ‘’take all of the evidence, try to maintain some objectivity about the thing—enough to keep the thing going—not to ultimately depend upon authority’’).

Science historian Thomas Kuhn suggested that science changes when anomalies start to pop up that contradict the ruling paradigm (e.g. Barkley’s 6,000 studies), and then ultimately become so numerous that the whole way of looking at things must be changed. My book contains many of these little anomalies, which, as they accumulate in the work of others in the future, may eventually topple the whole ADHD enterprise.

8. Your book The Myth of the ADHD Child presents 101 practical nondrug strategies that can be used to help improve the attention and behavior of kids diagnosed with ADHD – what are a few of the approaches you tackle? 

Behavioral strategy:  Positive Time Out:  Instead of sending your child to a corner for ‘’being bad,’’ discuss ahead of time a place he can go to whenever he feels like he’s going to ‘’lose it.’’ Make sure it’s not seen as a punishment place but rather a place for getting oneself together.

Biological strategy:  Limit Junk Food.  A fast food diet has been associated with ADHD behaviors, so for dinner, prepare an ahi tuna steak and sweet potatoes rather than going to MacDonald’s for burgers and fries.

Cognitive strategy:  Teach Your Child How to Self-Monitor.  Get an app for your child’s smart phone such as I-Connect, which will periodically ask ‘’are you on task?’’ by flashing, beeping, or vibrating.  Data can be then stored and discussed.

Creative strategy:  Channel Creative Energies into the Expressive Arts.  Provide a space in the home for painting, sculpting, collage, or other creative endeavors.  Avoid judging the work that your child does there.

Educational strategy:  Foster Good Home School Communication.  Meet with your child’s teacher at the beginning of the year and let her know your child’s best ways of learning, interests, and strengths. Keep in touch over the course of the year through emails, snail mail, school visits, and even online meetings (e.g. with Skype). Stay positive and solution based with the teacher.

Ecological strategy:   Make Time for Nature.  ADHD symptoms decline in natural environments, so take walks as a family, go on hiking trips, get your child away from the screen and encourage him to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

Emotional strategy:  Build Resilience in Your Child.  Resilience is the ability to prosper despite adversity.  Teach your child how to develop a ‘’growth mindset’’ (‘’What happens to me depends on my own hard work and effort’’). Teach him alternative ways of encountering failures (e.g. ‘’I didn’t study enough’’) and ways to improve next time around (e.g. ‘’I’ll set aside 30 minutes a day to study for that class’’).

Familial strategy:  Celebrate Successes.  At the dinner table, share the positive things that happened to each family member that day.  When your child does something special (wins an award, gets a good grade), go out to a restaurant to celebrate or throw a party.  Keep success photos on the bulletin board in the kitchen.

Physical strategy:  Promote Daily Exercise.  Exercise is associated with lower ADHD symptoms. Suggest your child work out before school, support involvement in sports, play physical games as a family (even ping pong in the basement), give your child a Fitbit to keep track of the number of steps she takes every day.

Social strategy:  Use Effective Communication Skills.  When your child does something you don’t like, avoid criticizing, judging, or ridiculing.  Instead, ask questions (‘’What could you have done differently?’’), encourage positive behaviors (‘’I’d really appreciate it if you cleaned the garage today’’), celebrate successes no matter how small (‘’You did a terrific job on your homework assignment’’), and respect your child by listening (‘’I’d love to hear your ideas for solving this problem’’).

Click here for a list of all 101 strategies from the book.

Click here to read my article:  17 Reasons Why I Believe ADHD is Not a Legitimate Disorder

Click here to watch my video:  17 Reasons Why I Believe ADHD is Not a Legitimate Disorder

Click here to read 65 blog posts by Dr. Armstrong on ADHD

 

 

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Endorsements
"This is a fabulous book. Not only does Armstrong explain with balance and clarity the evidence-based problems associated with the concept of ADHD; he also provides a wealth of practical ideas, resources, and approaches to help the parents of any kid who is presenting with challenging behaviour, especially those who have or might attract a diagnosis of ADHD. Professionals and parents alike will benefit enormously from reading this." - Sami Timimi, M.D. Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Professor of Child Psychiatry and Mental Health Improvement, Lincoln University
"Parents everywhere should read this book, not just those with kids diagnosed with ADHD! Thomas Armstrong presents a wealth of strategies, ideas, tips, and resources that will help parents nurture kids who feel good about themselves, who have skills for coping with life’s challenges, and who practice learning strategies that will help them succeed in the classroom and beyond. I wholeheartedly recommend The Myth of the ADHD Child !" - Jack Canfield, Coauthor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series and The Success Principles™
"At a time when ADHD and the medications used to treat it are growing by leaps and bounds, Thomas Armstrong asks parents to think critically about the ADHD diagnosis, to value the uniqueness of their children’s different rhythms of learning, attending, and behaving, and to appreciate and use the wide range of non-drug strategies that are out there to help their kids prosper in school and flourish in life." - Michele Borba, Ed.D., author of The Big Book of Parenting Solutions, Building Moral Intelligence, and UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World
"I love this book! If you feel like you are at the end of your rope, The Myth of the ADHD Child gives you lots and lots more rope – 101 tools to help your child thrive. This book is masterful in problem solving and will give you hope that there is always something more you can try." - Lara Honos-Webb, Ph.D. author of The Gift of ADHD
"Thomas Armstrong, author of a pioneering series of books on neurodiversity, offers practical alternatives for parents who want to enable their ADHD-diagnosed children to tap the natural strengths of their atypical minds, manage stress, and express their creative intelligence without relying solely on medication. An inspiring guide to helping your kids live up to their fullest potential." - Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
"…absolutely essential reading for parents, teachers, and others concerned with children who struggle. Armstrong provides a lucid and comprehensive response to the tragic overuse of medication for America’s children. Bursting the myths of an established brain deficit, a single cause, and long-term effectiveness of drugs, Armstrong discusses parental options with compassion." - L. Alan Sroufe, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Child Psychology, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
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