Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/suffer-the-children/201203/why-french-kids-dont-have-adhd

by iwh • 13 years ago

16 4 13 years ago

crs• 13 years ago

Linked at the bottom of this article is the counter point: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/here-there-and-everywher...

tokenadult• 13 years ago

Who here has a lot of close personal acquaintance with French children growing up in France? What is the actual behavior you have observed there?

bsaul• 13 years ago

It's quite true ( and the fact that this condition is little known to french people, meaning many child having it probably go undiagnosed), and you also have to take the educationnal system into account, which follows the same trend : child in school are much less encouraged to express personnal opinions and work on personnal projects.

To sum up i would say it really is a combination of three things : - different school of psychology ( more focused on diagnosing psychoanalytics backgrounds seeing as the "real root" causes rather than neurobiological ones) - different educationnal / parenting culture providing a more "framed" environment ( at the expense of personnal initiative development) - general public ignorance for this condition ( maybe a consequence of the previous two)

Ps : french, nephews and nieces, personnal interest in psychology.

anon1685• 13 years ago

It cannot be denied, and to my understanding most ADHD research seems to support this, that the social environment and family circumstances have a great influence on the child's behavior. As a parent to two pretty active pre-schoolers, I can attest that their behavior will frequently mirror that of their parents and other significant adults. In other words - if their father behaves in a calm and patient manner, they will tend to do the same, subsequently if not immediately.

Also, the education system in the western world has become increasingly standardized and formalized in the last few decades, especially in primary education, to the point that all kids from kindergarten on are expected to conform to a standard of behavior and development. Unfortunately, not all kids are the same. Some find it harder to sit down for prolonged periods, some have a healthy amount of energy and need an outlet, like those puppies who can go out in the yard and chase their own tail for half an hour.

This raises a lot of questions, not only about ADHD, but also about retarded mental development or other disabilities. I believe for those kids, the worst thing one can do is to label them as ADHD and medicate them. They just need a different approach, or a different rhythm.

To me it seems that the real difference between countries like France and countries like the US really has to do with the way so-called abnormal kids (or adults for that matter) are received in society. Based on my experience, it seems that the French are more tolerant.

Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD

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