https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/overdiagnosis-children-getting-dangerous-0zqzlqt6p
If my husband and I weren’t temperamentally sceptical, research-minded, older-than-average parents, would we take this diagnosis to heart and start making steps to change our child’s life? Would we be thinking about special schools, special funding, occupational therapy or medication? Bet there’s a pill that would dim those meltdowns. In doing so, would we take away a place or divert resources from a family who really do need support? Might some parents decide that there are advantages in having an SPD child? More time in exams, more support in school, more money. The disability living allowance page on the Citizens Advice website reminds parents that “DLA isn’t just for children who are physically disabled. It can be given for a wide range of medical conditions including behavioural and mental health conditions as well as learning disabilities and developmental delay.” Would our daughter grow up thinking that she couldn’t cope with the things that “normal” children with “normal” sensory responses take in their stride? Would her responses grow lesser or more extreme if we made an effort to identify, even avoid, things that set her off?
No wonder kids, believing the world isn’t “made for” them, refuse to go to school and young people find themselves languishing at home. Somehow or other you have to make your way through the world, whether it’s made for you or not. And what has instant, checklist diagnosis meant for children and the parents of those children who say they don’t feel like a girl or don’t feel like a boy? It’s one thing for me to query SPD, far harder for a mother to challenge the dogma of trans. Statistically and anecdotally, I knew that children were being diagnosed with ADHD, autism and a range of other learning and mental-health difficulties at a rate we’ve never seen before. I had no idea it was happening so young and on such short acquaintance with the child.
https://archive.ph/j9A6y
HebrideanUltraTerfHecate
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2026-04-25 12:48:30 UTC
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"content": "https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/overdiagnosis-children-getting-dangerous-0zqzlqt6p\n\nIf my husband and I weren’t temperamentally sceptical, research-minded, older-than-average parents, would we take this diagnosis to heart and start making steps to change our child’s life? Would we be thinking about special schools, special funding, occupational therapy or medication? Bet there’s a pill that would dim those meltdowns. In doing so, would we take away a place or divert resources from a family who really do need support? Might some parents decide that there are advantages in having an SPD child? More time in exams, more support in school, more money. The disability living allowance page on the Citizens Advice website reminds parents that “DLA isn’t just for children who are physically disabled. It can be given for a wide range of medical conditions including behavioural and mental health conditions as well as learning disabilities and developmental delay.” Would our daughter grow up thinking that she couldn’t cope with the things that “normal” children with “normal” sensory responses take in their stride? Would her responses grow lesser or more extreme if we made an effort to identify, even avoid, things that set her off?\n\nNo wonder kids, believing the world isn’t “made for” them, refuse to go to school and young people find themselves languishing at home. Somehow or other you have to make your way through the world, whether it’s made for you or not. And what has instant, checklist diagnosis meant for children and the parents of those children who say they don’t feel like a girl or don’t feel like a boy? It’s one thing for me to query SPD, far harder for a mother to challenge the dogma of trans. Statistically and anecdotally, I knew that children were being diagnosed with ADHD, autism and a range of other learning and mental-health difficulties at a rate we’ve never seen before. I had no idea it was happening so young and on such short acquaintance with the child.\n\nhttps://archive.ph/j9A6y",
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