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Why so many kids cant sit still in school today
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post
Posted: April 4th, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/07/...
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. Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist ... suggests [that] more children are being diagnosed with ADHD, whether or not they really have it [because of] the amount of time kids are forced to sit while they are in school. "I recently observed a fifth grade classroom as a favor to a teacher," [Hanscom explains]. "The teacher was reading a book to the children and it was towards the end of the day. Kids were tilting back their chairs back at extreme angles, others were rocking their bodies back and forth, a few were chewing on the ends of their pencils, and one child was hitting a water bottle against her forehead. This was not a special-needs classroom, but a typical classroom. We quickly learned after further testing, that most of the children in the classroom had poor core strength and balance. In fact, we tested a few other classrooms and found that when compared to children from the early 1980s, only one out of twelve children had normal strength and balance. Only one!" Many children are walking around with an underdeveloped vestibular (balance) system today - due to restricted movement. With sensory systems not quite working right, they are asked to sit and pay attention. Children naturally start fidgeting in order to get the movement their body so desperately needs.
Note: Prominent ADHD specialist Keith Connors called increasing ADHD rates "a concoction to justify the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels" in a 2013 New York Times article. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from reliable major media sources. Then explore the excellent, reliable resources provided in our Health Information Center.
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