Why are there so many children with IEPs nowadays?

[Anonymous]

I am baffled at the number of children having IEPs at our school. It seems like there is an ever increasing number of children who are hyperactive, uncooperative, can't listen or do anything on their own (poor executive functioning - what is that and why is it happening) ... it is truly heartbreaking to see that, it is also very obvious how difficult life is for the parents of these children, very alarming and heartwrenching. What do you think is contributing to this change with our kids?? Is it something we are doing? Is it the environment? The food? The screens? I know there is likely a lot more proper diagnosis and attention but it can't all just be that we diagnose more acurately today vs. 20 years ago. thank you

[Anonymous]

10% of the population historically has had ADHD. No idea what % has ASD. The diagnostic criteria are clearer now, there is no stigma and the way school is run today makes the learning disability noticeable. I think in the past with smaller classes, lots of recess and PE time and lower sit in your seat bored, kids with mild ADHD were fine until high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10% of the population historically has had ADHD. No idea what % has ASD. The diagnostic criteria are clearer now, there is no stigma and the way school is run today makes the learning disability noticeable. I think in the past with smaller classes, lots of recess and PE time and lower sit in your seat bored, kids with mild ADHD were fine until high school.

OP here. Thanks to previous two PPs - both interesting takes. I was also thinking the way we live nowadays - hectic, competitive, always running and busy - both parents and kids, overbooked, etc. is hurting kids. The school days do seem so packed and incredibly structured, yet the time assgined for learning with the teachers seems tiny, sometimes i really wonder how teachers find any time to teach with all the paperwork and tracking they have to do.

[Anonymous]

These are both contributing factors, I’m sure.

I will say that some well-intentioned parents know not to spank, but probably don’t know what to replace it with. They read a book and try it, but since they didn’t see their parents discipline this way, they make mistakes.

Furthermore, families are smaller now. My mother learned to parent by taking care of younger siblings. Her younger siblings probably learned to parent by watching their older siblings have kids. Now that families only have two children, you don’t have that built-in mentorship.

There is also less sitting around/fighting boredom required of children during the regular day. I see toddlers on the phone in the grocery store. I see families watching videos in the van on a regular afternoon car ride. Fewer families do religious services, which require a lot of sitting down and shutting up.

[Anonymous]

Parent wanting to give their kids an edge.

[Anonymous]

The ones I know all have one SN parent. It's possible that the SN parent is not as good at parenting as they would like to be.
I don't really parent my kid. They sit in front of screens all the time. Doesn't make them behave poorly. It's fine for some kids. I have that kid.

[Anonymous]

Extra time

[Anonymous]

I once heard a developmental psychologist assert that ADHD is a developmental outcome as opposed to an immutable condition that just happens to some people. I thought that was interesting. It suggests that parenting techniques can play a big role in the extent to which the symptoms are expressed.

My own thoughts, based on my own education and relevant experience, are that two things may at least partly explain the apparent increase beyond just better screening and diagnosis: 1) thanks to the internet, globalization, and more women in the workplace there are more people with ADHD, ASD, and anxiety meeting each other and having children together, thus passing their genes to offspring; and 2) people are having children later in life which is linked to an increased number of chromosomal and genetic changes linked to neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric conditions. Sometimes 1) and 2) combine. I’m in academia and I can’t tell you how many people’s kids are diagnosed with one of the three conditions I listed. It seems like a perfect storm of contributing factors with people already having certain traits and delaying childbearing due to the tenure track timeline.

[Anonymous]

Reduced stigma leading to more people seeking a diagnosis, especially at young ages. In previous generations, those kids would have just been labeled as “disruptive.”

Higher expectations in high school and kids who were able to mask it well before then start floundering when faced with tough classes, multiple deadlines, possibly also a job, and after school activities. In earlier generations, some high schoolers didn’t even go to school for a full day. Or they dropped out and started working in a factory or what have you.

[Anonymous]

Mass-produced school is anti-human, so when school becomes normalized, humans become "abnormal".

[Anonymous]

My daughter has ADHD and dyslexia. You blaming me for that is pretty disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has ADHD and dyslexia. You blaming me for that is pretty disgusting.

I’m not sure who you’re talking to — maybe the PP who said poor parenting? I’m curious what you mean by “blaming”. Would you consider it blaming if it turns out you and your spouse have gene variants that combined to increase the risk for one or both of these diagnoses? They do go hand in hand fairly often.

There are so many genes that influence brain development, cognition, and behavior. And they interact with the environment which can include parenting. I think if we knew more about all of this, and if we had more widespread genetic testing, we would all have a better understanding of why we and/or our kids have various diagnoses. And there would be a lot less blame and guilt along with more resources to help parents learn how they can influence their children’s outcomes positively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mass-produced school is anti-human, so when school becomes normalized, humans become "abnormal".

This. I think public school needs to be one model and there needs to be at least one or two other models.
The one size fits all model is broken beyond repair and public school spend more time and money on fighting parents than it does helping children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I once heard a developmental psychologist assert that ADHD is a developmental outcome as opposed to an immutable condition that just happens to some people. I thought that was interesting. It suggests that parenting techniques can play a big role in the extent to which the symptoms are expressed.

My own thoughts, based on my own education and relevant experience, are that two things may at least partly explain the apparent increase beyond just better screening and diagnosis: 1) thanks to the internet, globalization, and more women in the workplace there are more people with ADHD, ASD, and anxiety meeting each other and having children together, thus passing their genes to offspring; and 2) people are having children later in life which is linked to an increased number of chromosomal and genetic changes linked to neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric conditions. Sometimes 1) and 2) combine. I’m in academia and I can’t tell you how many people’s kids are diagnosed with one of the three conditions I listed. It seems like a perfect storm of contributing factors with people already having certain traits and delaying childbearing due to the tenure track timeline.

Source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mass-produced school is anti-human, so when school becomes normalized, humans become "abnormal".

This. I think public school needs to be one model and there needs to be at least one or two other models.
The one size fits all model is broken beyond repair and public school spend more time and money on fighting parents than it does helping children.

Teacher here. I also think the school day structure doesn’t help. We are asking kids to do 2 hours of LA and 60-80 mins of math daily. Imagine if each subject was 45 mins. We could have longer time for recess, daily science, and kids wouldn’t be forced to sit and attend to the same thing for so long. I grew up in the 90’s and never had 2 hours of Language Arts or a full hour for math.