Cries Unheard: A New Look at Attention Hyperactivity Deficit Disorder

This book offers a new perspective on the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) debate, seeking to redress some misconceptions regarding the current interpretation of children's problem behaviours. It is argued that while a range of children's behavioural characteristics may be viewed as 'symptoms' earning the child the diagnostic label of ADHD, such symptoms are not sufficient by themselves to diagnose children as ill, and much less to justify medicating them. Issues explored in the book include: how changing social and economic parameters have led to an increase in diagnosis of ADHD in children; how parents are pressured to seek medication for their children in order to ease problems of classroom management; the link between a decline in the provision of services for children and an increase in their medication; the myth that children do not remember painful and traumatic experiences; and the impact of a mother's depression on her infant. [Back cover, ed].