Posted by Sara T on November 26, 2000, at 23:42:47
In reply to psychiatric drugs in the schools, posted by john breeding on October 24, 2000, at 14:51:38
As the parent of a child who is on both Adderall and Zoloft, I cannot say how much both of these drugs have HELPED my son. He has Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of Autism. He is highly intelligent and is in a mainstream academic setting. I doubt he could be in such a setting without the assistance of his meds. What does he gain from this? Self esteem, because he believes he is just like all the other kids, a chance to USE his intellect, and a chance at having friends and doing all the other things his peers do. He also has the benefit of emotional stability and quieting of his anxieties because he can't cope with the sensory input a regular school environment entails.
Are the meds all he gets? NOOOOO!!! and no one should be foolish enough to think that meds will solve all their kids issues. He must have and recieves supports from the school in the form of Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Pragmatics (social skills). I have had him though physical, occupational and behavioral therapies as well as social skills training. I know of many parents that do the same for their children.
I grew up with ADD long before anyone called it ADD, and I personally know of the havoc it can wreak in your life when left untreated. So I cannot say that I agree with your villainization of all psychiatric drugs.
I do,however, agree that the model of classroom education we have is sorely lacking in being able to respond to the student with a different style of learning. But when you have, as you do in my state, Florida, kindergarten classrooms with 34 kids in them and no aides, what can you expect? THe teachers cannot cope, and the trend toward mainstreaming special ed students makes their job harder still. The regular ed teachers don't have the training to deal with students who have special needs and the states aren't willing to help out with in service training and aides, and most important, cutting classroom sizes. Is it any wonder alot of kids are acting out?
Undoubtedly most kids could benefit from better parenting, but let's not take one thing and make it the scapegoat. As you so aptly put it, our capitalist society exerts a great deal of pressure on parents who are overloaded already. I myself have taken on a great deal of debt in order to stay at home and advocate for my son. Insurance doesn't cover many of the needs we have, and I know of others who would like to have the proper testing done for their kids but can't because it's so expensive.
I say, improve mental health services, make them AVAILABLE to people who need them. Then perhaps we'd be giving families a chance to learn the skills they need to parent better. But don't villainize the medications that help so many achieve the best the can.
Sara T.
poster:Sara T
thread:39
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/child/20000813/msgs/55.html