Group For ADHD - Ask the clinician
Do college age students diagnosed with either ADHD or Learning
Disabilities have rights to accommodations in college. If so
what is the procedure?
It is controversial. Rights of college aged students are typically protected
under the American With Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law not a
education law. The crux of the controversy is whether this law applies to all
schools or just public schools and to what extent. This is why seeking the
advice of a civil rights attorney is helpful in this area. Generally speaking
different schools have degrees of accommodations and each have different procedures.
However, all schools require formal documentation of the presence and history
of the disability. If this is something important to you, then it is advised
to inquire with the schools concerned, as to what their policies regarding
accommodations for students diagnosed with ADHD or Learning Disabilities are.
If they offer no accommodations then it may be prudent to search for a school
that does meet your needs.
My 6
year- old child was recently diagnosed with Learning Disabilities
and I am feeling very guilty. Is it my fault? Could
I have done anything to prevent it?
No. It is clear that you didn’t intentionally give your child a learning
disability. Currently the exact cause of Learning Disabilities is unknown.
It seems that the interaction of biological and environmental factors contribute
to the development of these learning issues. At any rate it is more productive
to concentrate on the rehabilitation of any type of disability than on whom
or what to blame. It is beneficial for you to learn strategies to help your
child. For example, you can learn to advocate for your child in school. You
can also learn about the services that are available for your child. In addition,
it is important for you to discover support services for yourself. You will
need help to hone in your own skills in parenting a child with special needs.
There are books and programs that will offer you skills to use at home which
reinforces remediation of your child’s difficulties. And finally, you
will probably need some help in dealing with your own frustrations and concerns.
Is ADHD more prevalent in this generation? If yes, then why?
The real question is whether the diagnosis of ADHD is more prevalent to which
the answer is yes. It is not clear whether the increased rate of diagnosis
is due to more occurrences or whether it is due to increasingly sophisticated
diagnostic tools. Recent research has provided more knowledge about the nature
of the disorder and consequently heightened the awareness of ADHD. An advantage
of such research is the development of improved instruments that are more
sensitively attuned to symptoms of ADHD. Therefore, many children who used
to be labeled as simply lazy or unmotivated are now appropriately recognized
as suffering from ADHD. The disadvantage of this heightened awareness is
that diagnosticians tend to over-generalize the symptoms of ADHD criteria.
Attention and concentration problems can also occur due to emotional stress,
anxiety, and depression and not just the neuropsychological impairment of
ADHD. Due to the increased awareness of the disorder, clinicians may often
rely too heavily on their subjective judgment and less on objective psychometric
tools. As a result, many kids are being given the “title” of
ADHD with less accuracy hence the increased rate of diagnoses. Regardless
of a formal diagnosis, if your child is having trouble, it is always a good
idea to seek help.#
Group for ADHD is a private
mental health clinic in Manhattan, founded by Lenore Ruben,
LMSW, CHT, EMDR, and Orly Calderon, Psy.D., a NYS licensed
psychologist.
The mission of Group For ADHD is to create effective
methods of coping with ADHD and LD by focusing on the individual’s
strengths.
Please email your questions to: info@GroupForADHD.org
subject line: Ask the clinician.
