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NOVEMBER 2005

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.

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