Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today.

[elleng]

The Centers for Disease Control tells us that in recent years there has been a jump in the percentage of young people diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly known as ADHD: 7.8 percent in 2003 to 9.5 percent in 2007 and to 11 percent in 2011. The reasons for the rise are multiple, and include changes in diagnostic criteria, medication treatment and more awareness of the condition. In the following post, Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist and the founder of TimberNook, a nature-based development program designed to foster creativity and independent play outdoors in New England, suggests yet another reason more children are being diagnosed with ADHD, whether or not they really have it: the amount of time kids are forced to sit while they are in school. This appeared on the TimberNook blog.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/07/08/why-so-many-kids-cant-sit-still-in-school-today/

[JDPriestly]

1. Children are not nearly moving enough, and it is really starting to become a problem.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/07/08/why-so-many-kids-cant-sit-still-in-school-today/

True.

[hollysmom]

2. when I was a kid we had gym 3 times a week

and until high school we were sent out side to sit, walk play what ever, just get out of the building. I walked home for lunch until they cut lunch to 20 minutes from an hour. I don't think the kids have a lunch/play time anymore.

[Divernan]

5. My grade school: 15 minute recess at 10:30; + hour for lunch and more recess

Most of us rode our bikes to and from school - weather permitting; too snowy/rainy for biking? - we walked. No school buses for our parochial school. I walked home for a hot lunch every day, unless it was snowing, and had to hustle to get home, eat and back in time. No lunch room at my school - kids could buy white or chocolate milk, and brought lunches in brown bags. And no gym facilities or gym classes.

Recess was totally unorganized, but sex segregated. Also unsupervised cause the nuns were grabbing a quick lunch in the convent. I recall an old guy who was the custodian was available if anyone had an accident. The boys played baseball or basketball. The girls played tetherball, baseball, dodgeball, hopscotch or jumped rope. We all had stay-at-home moms, but nobody had 2 car families. The dads took the cars to work. Moms did grocery shopping on Saturday mornings. There was not a single car waiting to pick anyone up after school. But hey! at least this was a perfectly flat midwestern town - so we weren't walking uphill both ways, as the folk lore goes.

And with no electronic games - and we got our first television set when I was 11, we spent a lot of time after school skipping rope, roller skating, climbing trees, playing tennis, walking to and from the town library or local YMCA for swimming lessons.

That was life for a kid in small-town, 1950's America, and it was damned good. Thanks for this OP - I've had fun recalling that life.

Oh, and when the weather was too bad to go out for morning or noon recesses, the nuns had us stand, stretch and do group exercises in our classroom. They didn't have PhDs in education, but evidently knew instinctively that kids need to move to let off steam.

On edit: Just thought of that line from Out of Africa - lightfoot lads and golden girls.

[Brainstormy]

11. My experience was very like yours

I was in a public school, and in the burbs in the southeast, and we did ride the school bus, but we also had three recesses and played the games you mentioned. No cars, for the most part in the hood. We engaged in outdoor, unsupervised play. Rode our bicycles in packs. Played games of hide and seek that took in whole blocks. Virtually no "managed" activities. Great fun, just getting to be a kid. lost, I think, to our grandchildren.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Two things:

1) CHILDISM

by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl and


2)


Love, Peace and the Righteous Fight.
~ Lmsp 🙌

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Kicking.

Thanks for your post, elleng.

~Lmsp

[Arkansas Granny]

6. This has been troubling me for a long time. It is not natural for kids to sit still

for long periods of time. And if the lack of core strength and balance in kids who don't get to move enough isn't bad enough, many of them are given drugs that set them up as life long consumers for big pharma.

[Divernan]

7. "changes in diagnostic criteria" =s Big Pharma casting an ever widening net.

I hang onto my lab results from my annual exams. Can't help but notice how readings which once were in the "normal" range have now been reclassified into abnormal - re blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. necessitating lifelong prescriptions. As many others have observed, Big Pharma has no interest in cures, only in lifelong treatments. Antibiotics fall into the "cure" class, and infectious disease experts have been warning us for years that as bacteria mutate to overcome existing antibiotics, the pharmaceutical industry has fallen way behind in developing new antibiotics.

A huge moneymaker for Big Pharma is HGH (Human Growth Hormone). One couple I know, on their pediatrician's advice, had both their sons injected weekly with HGH for years. Dad is 5'8"; Mom is 5'4" and both sons - now adults - are six feet four inches tall. That's eight inches taller than their father (or their grandfathers or uncles).

Treatments, not being medically necessary, were not covered by insurance, so no oversight re approval/necessity of treatment. The expense was $15,000 per child per year. "Dad" liked the idea that his boys could be jocks (which he never was) if they were tall, and more attractive to girls. Oddly, both boys have extremely long legs and are awkward - neither of them ever played even Little League, let alone team sports in grade school or high school. Once I learned what had happened to these young adults, I took a closer look at the teens at the local Y. A lot of the girls had legs like giraffes, out of proportion to their torsos - we're talking 5'10" - 6' tall, while their moms were 5'2"-5'6". Suddenly I got the picture of a popular pediatrician in a well-to-do community hyping HGH like mad and getting lots of perks from Big Pharma.

Here are some of the researched side effects for prescribing HGH to "normal" kids.
If HGH is given to children with normal growth, serious side effects may occur because levels in the body become too high (http://www.msnbc.com/news/785625.asp?cp1=1#BODY). They include development of diabetes; abnormal growth of bones and internal organs such as the heart, kidneys and liver; hardening of the arteries, and high blood pressure (http://www.msnbc.com/news/785625.asp?cp1=1#BODY). New research also suggests a link to colorectal cancer later in life (http://www.msnbc.com/news/785625.asp?cp1=1#BODY). Long-term over-dosage could result in symptoms of acromegaly, or excessive bone growth (http://www.msnbc.com/news/785625.asp?cp1=1#BODY). HGH injections should not be given to children with normal growth because they could get diabetes and develop malformed growth of bones and internal organs, hardening of the arteries, and high blood pressure (http://www.msnbc.com/news/785625.asp?cp1=1#BODY).

[Arkansas Granny]

9. Big pharmacy is motivated by profit, not improving health.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Absolutely.

We are a sick & twisted culture, ruled by greed.

[Divernan]

8. Hey guys! Remember to "like" this OP so it doesn't sink without a trace. Need 2 more likes.

[Nay]

12. I have noticed this with my grandson. Unhappily, my son and DIL don't

care for physical activity much, although my son does go to the gym regularly. His school does have recess, but it's not very long. When he gets home, he's more likely to play video games than anything. He does like to go out and play, but he does more of that at my house. I am pretty physically active for an old grandma, and we go for hikes, go catch bugs, go swimming at the Y, etc. I have noticed that I have more physical stamina than he does, which is worrisome. At age 8, he should run circles around grandma. All I can do is try to help some. I may start doing some light weightlifting with him, try to get him interested in that. And we'll keep hiking.

[elleng]

13. Great for you and your grandson, Nay.

I expect my 2 new grandsons will be active, and encouraged to be so by their parents. I am concerned about what happens when at their schools, though.

[Squinch]

14. Kick. If we let kids play and move when they are 4,5,6 and 7 in school, the "surge" of ADHD would

disappear.

In kindergarten, kids used to play games that taught them HOW to sit still. Games like Duck Duck Goose, where you sit still without having to concentrate on anything else but sitting still, and then after a few minutes, you get a reward of being able to chase someone in a circle.

Today, kindergarteners have to sit still for a 45 minute math or reading lesson in which they are being taught things that their brains are not developmentally ready for, and there is no "jump up and run around" reward - ever!

Kids have specific developmental abilities at different ages. We have created a curriculum in our schools that completely ignores that fact, and works AGAINST kids developmental levels.

And then we wonder about all the ADHD...

[liberal_at_heart]

15. I agree that kids need more physical activity, but I get so tired of hearing that medical conditions

don't exist. No, Big Pharma did not invent ADHD, jut like they didn't invent my son's autism or any other medical condition. I personally know two adults who get plenty of physical activity and still can't sit still. In fact, they use their ADHD to their advantage in their jobs to get more done.