Reply to Why are there so many children with IEPs nowadays?

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Reply to "Why are there so many children with IEPs nowadays?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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. [/quote]

Agree with a lot of this. Kids didn't get help in earlier decades, they were just labeled disruptive, or shy, or "smart but won't put in effort," or immature, or whatever. 
My DH very obviously has ADHD and my MIL is in total denial, she will laugh about his quirks as a kid but not see that it's a condition that could have been treated. He dropped out of college due to executive functioning issues. I myself spent all of 4th grade chewing my sleeves and shirt collars to shreds in the classroom, and nobody said "Maybe get that kid evaluated for anxiety." Zero teachers said anything at all, and my loving and medically trained parents said "Hey, stop ruining your shirts."

I also think the executive functioning we expect of kids now is overwhelming. We ask them to sit still too long, absorb and carry a lot of information, and do too much after school. Kids need more sleep and more physical activity, even NT kids who are doing fine in school. I personally don't think the answer is more free time to be on screens, so much as different kinds of organized activities - outdoor activity, music, art, community service, work with younger kids, shelve books at the library, etc. Ways to use all the parts of their brains and bodies.[/quote]

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