What caught my eye this week was the learning disabilities. This
is basically the middle ground between the two extremes of the intellectual spectrum,
you’re not a genius but you also are not mentally retarded. If you have learning
disability you usually have trouble with mastering an academic subject. Under the
learning disabilities I found that ADD and ADHA are the most intriguing to me. I
think that this is most fascinating to be because I know plenty of friends whose
children have either ADD or ADHD. Though I have learned how the medication have
helped the girl in the article “Medicating the young mind” to be able to live a
more normal life. There are still plenty of question I have about this subject
such as: Are medications really the only answer? If so, why? And why do other types of psychological therapies
not work? What can parents do to help
prevent ADD and ADHD from happening or hinder in its effects? Should medication
be put off to be used as a very last resort or should medication be used right
away when doctors or parents think there might be a problem?
I think
the real life part of the material for me is still ADD. I have a friend whose
children have ADD and they struggled with them learning or listening to what
was being asked of them. Like in this week’s article they were also put on
medication which significantly helped them to better learn and listen to
others. Not only are they on medication they also go to therapy on a monthly
basis to help them all learn to better interact with each other.
It's great your friend's children are able to do talk therapy as well as medication to combat their ADD. From our readings it sounds like a combination of the two has the best results, but that insurance companies may not always want to pay for the talk therapy. Plus, it must take a lot of commitment from both the parents and the kids to attend talk therapy. Kids are so busy with various activities, that adding yet another appointment that probably has a significant cost associated with it, isn't probably easy for many people. But, from what we've read, it seems like the best option is to combine the two therapies.
ReplyDeletePeople worry about over medication, but I have to say that it's hard for therapy to work if the child can't hear/focus on what you're saying. If you can't even reach the kid through the tantrums and mood swings, how are you supposed to help? The point of these medications is to calm the child down enough to gain the habits and knowledge of normal life. Once the therapy is working, they should be weened off the medication. The problem is people never stop takiing it and get help to live without it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the medication can be a good thing so long as it is being used in combination with another treatment such as therapy.
ReplyDelete