| Dr Valerie Harwood . . . one of the signatories to a letter warning o... Dr Valerie Harwood . . . one of the signatories to a letter warning of problems associated with draft ADHD guidelines |
Education academics sound alert over draft ADHD guidelines
19 Aug 2008 | Bernie Goldie
Leading Australian education academics from seven universities, including UOW Senior Lecturer in Educational Foundations Dr Valerie Harwood, have warned the Federal Government that the number of school children labelled with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) will escalate dramatically if new draft guidelines are accepted.
Dr Harwood is one of 14 educationalists who have issued the warning in a joint letter to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, following the release for public consultation by The Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP) of draft guidelines on ADHD.
While the signatories to the letter applaud the Rudd Government for committing to a much-needed revision of the guidelines for ADHD they had to draw the government’s attention to “some alarming policy setting and funding implications”.
Dr Harwood said that proposals to train teachers to watch out for ADHD would lead to excessive diagnosis and draw funding away from students with more serious disabilities.
The educationalists argue that such an approach would encourage teachers "to act as proxy-diagnosticians by looking for evidence of particular deficits, perhaps missing vital signs which may indicate other difficulties at home or with learning".
They add: "Children with learning difficulties and poor social skills will be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder that may remain with them for the rest of their lives."
They also criticise the RACP's recommendation to link ADHD diagnosis to extra funding, arguing that this will only encourage over-diagnosis of ADHD by schools in a bid to gain additional money.
The educationalists cite schools in the US where diagnosis of health impairments grew by 600 per cent in one decade after schools were able to receive funding for ADHD-diagnosed students.
The jointly-signed letter warns: "If Australia were to follow the RACP's recommendation to include ADHD as a disability category eligible for additional support funding, special education budgets for all Australian educational jurisdictions would skyrocket.
"Schools and educational systems will not be able to cope with the demand and as such, each additional 'supported' child will receive less…
"In the end, children with significant disabilities (cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual impairment) will not receive the support they require and the segregation of students with high-support needs will continue to increase."
The signatories to the letter argue that a "more educationally and fiscally responsible approach would be to provide targeted funding for which individual schools and teachers could apply to support their access to professional development in the area of inclusive educational practice”.
They also argue that equipping teachers to "teach in increasingly diverse classrooms is sustainable -- training them in an ad hoc manner on what to do in response to an individual diagnosis is not”.
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