I was brought over to New York to evaluate five children ages from 7 to 13 years old, all from different schools. During the evaluations I was told that all 5 children were being medicated with Ritalin due to behavioural and concentration problems and were showing signs of ADD/ADHD.
When the evaluations were completed, I explained to the parents that the evaluation showed that their child’s poor Hebrew academic performance in school was due to underdeveloped scholastic skills which had been overlooked. In these cases, medication was being used as a band aid to cover up, albeit unintentionally, the child’s academic deficiencies.
I would like to preface here, before some readers get disgruntled by my lack of enthusiasm in using medication to help children achieve in school, that of course there is a place for using medication, but only in extreme circumstances and where each case needs to be scrutinized carefully.
The question I would like to ponder here, is whether medication is being overly prescribed to students, and whether underlying academic issues could be at play here which provide the fodder for a child to misbehave or lose focus.
In one of my previous visits to a certain well established city, I met with a number of top Menahelim. One of them asked me to evaluate a 13 year old child whom they were particularly struggling with and had advocated for the child to take Ritalin, and he had been taking it for the last five years. After evaluating the student, I explained to the Menahel that in my opinion, the reason why the student could not focus on his learning, was because he could not identify at least half of the Alef Bais. This scholastic deficiency was being played out in behavioural and concentration problems in class. But how was the boy expected to be able to sit and focus on text he considered to be “Chinese”. The principal had been unaware of this underdeveloped skill the boy had, and medication, which was a short term solution, was being substituted for a life long problem.
We, as parents and educators, have an obligation to find the source of why a child is proving to be an under achiever, and, as mentioned, this will be discussed in a future article. To reiterate, there are those circumstances where medication can help a child. But, are we being too liberal and acting irresponsibly when offering this medication to our children?
I have had discussions with Menahelim who have told me that they strongly push parents to give their child medication, and would suspend the child if the parents refused to give it, since they felt it was to the advantage of the student, improving their student’s behaviour, concentration and scholastic abilities. In fact one Menahel confided that 30% of his student body were being medicated. But from the above few examples I have mentioned, and there are many more I have not written about, we can see that very often medication is covering up under developed deficiencies, and what appears to be a chemical deficiency such as ADD or ADHD, it is really under developed skills which could easily be addressed.
The question remains, if we are using medication to band aid behavioural or concentration problems without addressing the underlying academic issues at hand. Is medication the true salvation or is it a quick fix for a deeper problem?
Rabbi Dovid Abenson is the founder and director, author and lecturer at Shaar HaTalmud, a unique yeshiva based online program, featuring evaluations and remediations, working with students to upgrade skills in Hebrew reading, chumash/rashi and gemara studies, consulting school principals world – wide, to improve their ability to discover students who possess under-developed skills. He can be reached at [email protected]
or 1-877-HATALMUD (428 2568).
Thank you for pointing out this critically important detail. Our son was misbehaving in school, and we were advised to medicate, because he tested so high in his skills and was not performing efficiently in school. Not only are there scholastic deficiencies, there are also ‘focusing’ deficiencies – smart kids sometimes love to daydream, and they also need help in developing focusing/adjustment skills. Running to medication is pathetic and we do not know the long term effects, but we do know that long term effects of medication usually have side effects. hatzlocha to all.
This is a hot topic especially for parents that are forced to medicate because they are under immense pressure from the menahel of their child’s school. As a parent of a child who is academically challenged, I cannot begin to describe the hellish nightmare we went through with not one but many menahelim. Unfortunately in my opinion I think there are too many menahelim that have absolutely no idea as to what they are doing. Push medication because they are being selfish- it’s an easy remedy to subdue a child. Makes their job so much easier. On the flip side there are also many menahelim that are not looking to make a name for themselves but rather they genuinely care about the success of the children in their school. If only there were more of those….
To the author – How do we know that there were (possibly severe) behavioral/attention problems in addition to the lack of knowledge of Aleph Bais? If the Rebbe could see consistent lack of self control in every area wouldn’t this indicate a need for medication – in addition to the need for remediation so the child could learn the Aleph Bais?
I could not agree more.
There are many Menahalim of High Schools as well that all they talk about is medication. They have 50% -70% of the kids on pills. It is not an exaggeration. The pressure they put on the parents and kids to take the pills is out of control. They claim that you are in denial and that there is nothing to be ashamed about. In reality, they are weaker students that need a different curriculum.
This drugging of children has reached epidemic proportions.
Ritalin and other Meg’s are harmful. For parents who feel that in addition to reading deficiencies there are serious health problems requiring meds they should try to eliminate reading problems first and if health issues persist then and only then medicate the child and try to learn how and teach the child how to reduce and eliminate life-long chem dependency.
While I agree that medication is probably only needed in very extreme cases, children are not educated individually. They are in classrooms- one of over 30 children. Ideally, if we could educate our children in small classes we could have a discussion about not medicating children. But since this is not a reality, our children are on a narrow one track system. If they can’t conform due to any reason- lack of skill, behavioral issues, personality- anything, they can not succeed.
Medicating children is only the symptom. The problem is our one track, over loaded classrooms. This goes for boy and girls, elementary and high school. We are squeezing everyone into a box.
Some of the brightest most creative kids are also considered by some as ADD or ADHD, but if they are allowed to channel their energy by letting get out of their seats during class.or giving them something to help them use some of their extra energy, then they can learn better and use their creative minds without drugging them up. Perhaps Hashem designed kids to be active and our system of making them sit so long during class is the problem.
ADHD is a diagnosis made by a phsychiatrist not a menahel or a pediatrician. With the diagnosis comes further guidance. Medication will take care of 50% of the problem and perhaps a neuro phsyche evaluation will clarify what exactly his learning disabilities are. Behavior therapy is also a huge help for the parent and child.A child that has adhd and treats it has a great chance at success.
While I agree with the author on some of his points I must add to them as well. Many menahalim, rebbeim, and teachers who face many obstacles with kids are unsure and under trained on how to deal with it. Problems that manifest as behavioral and academic may come from underlying issues of attention. My child was that kid who we recieved many phone calls that he is falling behind and acting out. After many years of interventions and therapist that did not go anywhere we were also told to medicate. A friend told me to try one more time OT and see if maybe changing therapists can help.We were reffered to an occupational therapist who after a full evaluation, he recommended that results indicate decreased sensory processing and not to jump to madicate for ADD/HD or a learning disability . B”H after just a few sessions and alot of carryover strategies, my son has made tremendous progress. He is able to focus and attend to tasks and has made huge gains in all areas that he fell below in school. What I have learned is that medicating is the last resort and that matching your child with the right therapist is ultimately more important than most experienced, biggest name, and hardest to get into.
If 50-70% of the children in a school are medicated, the problem is the school and not the children. The teachers are not trained to deal with children. Medicating them is the solution to their own deficiencies,not the children’s. Perhaps it’s time to have scholastic studies in high school as well as Torah.
I believe the Lakewood Scoop is doing a huge disservice to the Lakewood community by posting this type of anti-medication propaganda. To me, it is akin to running anti vaccination articles, and never providing the readers with the true medically and scientifically time tested and proven research that supports the use of vaccines, and in this case ADHD medicines.
If a proper and correct diagnosis of ADHD is given by a mental health professional (not a regular pediatrician, and certainly not by a teacher or principal), the only known way to treat it is with medication. The side affects can be (but certainly not always) difficult, and there are many different medications and ways to manage them so that the side affects are minimized or even eliminated. The affects of not medicating when necessary can be seen by anyone taking a walk on the street in areas where delinquent young men and women congregate. Not that every failing student, and subsequently failing human being is a product of untreated ADHD, it is a fact that very many are.
Articles like this only raise the panic level of parents who are faced with a challenging child, and therefore refuse to investigate whether their child needs medication or not. Often (I have seen this happen) parents are asked to get a proper evaluation to determine whether there is ADHD they refuse, repeating all this hogwash about their child just needs understanding, love, space, a different environment, a different way to learn etc etc. And they resist until their child is in 8th grade or beyond. Then the child (having reached maturity as a failing student) begins to transform from a failing or challenged student to a rebellious child, and then, again in panic, they get a prescription for meds… And then lo and behold, it doesn’t work!!! Then they say, “see, that wasn’t the problem, its the school, its the rebbi” or my favorite, “the system doesn’t work for him”.
No, it’s not the school, the menahel, the teacher, the rebbi, the neighbor, the computer, the video games, the books, the library, or the Blueclaws! It’s just too late.
If Rabbi Abenson can explain why a child with nothing wrong with him can develop a reading problem, kudos to him. If a child is of moderate intelligence, doesn’t have dyslexia, a severe processing disorder, severe emotional problems, and is in a classroom in Primary and first grade and doesn’t pick up kriah, and you believe its not possibly/probably ADHD, you are delusional. If it is ADHD and you convince yourself that medication is out of the question you are creating a monster.
If one parent refuses to investigate whether medication is the correct treatment because of this type of article, דמו בראשו!!
Wow R. Aberson you are right on a target ones again. As I wrote before- how come you are the only one who really see problems in our school system? I could tell you from personal experience that my son was prescribed medication by pediatrician without even seeing him. He had hard time focusing in class, he had hard time compenhanding what teacher said or what he read . Ofcose he did distract class because of that and so on… I only told the doctor the facts and that the school pressuring me and he just said that its look likes symptoms of ADD and give me prescription. Since I am not very experience in this area I thought its normal thing to do ( I do trust my doctor with other diagnosis) but here I didn’t realize that its not regular pediatrician who decides that. And child needs very thorow evaluation with a professional who specialize in this. In the end we try medication for few days my son had terrible side effects and that was end of it. He refuse to take it. Since I didn’t even know that this for sure going to solve the problem and just drugging my son for no reason I didn’t want to force him to take. He was old to understand whats going on. I believe that he probably had some learning disability that were not detected.or just needed different approach .( like challenging his extra energy in right direction) The school was not very Happy with us… And asked us to leave….I wish I would have a happy end to this story…. I hope we’ll YE”H.
A lot of kids with ADHD have reading difficulties! What came first the chicken or the egg?
If those adhd children(I have more than one) would be raised on a farm they probably wouldn’t need medicine but living in the society we live in, and the school system our children attend,unfortunately make medicating our children the only solution!
You would be surprised that our son ,who is aleph student( bright, smart, has sharp mind) was asked by the menahel to take medication too. He was distracting class and most probably just needed extra work and some more challenge, which Rebbi didn’t recognize, ( or didn’t want to deal with).we were told that something wrong with our son and it’s a matter of him staying in school or not…( remember he is best student in class) we as parents stood our ground and being very firm with that our son is fine and no way we will give him medication drugging him. and it’s the Rebbi and menahel ( who should know better! With so many years of experience should know what to do!…) who has to come up with some creative ideas and solutions. In the end we “won” and BH our son was doing OK. When its was time for Mesivta and we got plenty calls from very prestigious yeshivas that they want our son I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if we went along with idea to give him medication then…. Who knows.. I wanted so badly to call that menahel ,who was so sure that he is right, to tell him that our son is doing great and BH we are very proud of him! Please everyone in the teaching field don’t take that responsibility on your shoulders ! You have to really have best interest of your students in mind when doing such a desition.
To “stop the propaganda” . you 100% right if diagnosis is given by a mental health professional its should be treated with medication and it not other option. But in my opinion , R. Abenson is trying to say that it’s being abused. If child not typical and has some issues he right away labeled problematic and ofcouse needs medication. What he saying is Its not always the case and parents have to be very careful with making such a serious decision.
The poor kids are already “medicated” at home and school with diet sodas, all kinds of sugar, GMO corn syrup, milcihig and fleishing antibiotics, preservatives, colorings and multi-syllable ingredients that you need a PhD to grasp, and on and on. Not to mention the Chinese chemicals in sheet-rock, candy, flooring, toys and the air we breathe. These “medications” is absolutely proven to cause and exacerbate the very conditions mentioned in the article. Talk about putting the cart before the donkey. Who ever heard of these “illnesses” just 20 or thirty years ago?
There was a student that made a lot of problems in class; he fought with classmates, made a lot of noise
The teacher tried a lot of things, but nothing helped.
He decided to tell the father about his son’s behavior.
Father: What do you want me to do?
Teacher: Maybe take him for a check-up.
Father: How is that going to help?
Teacher: Maybe the child should take Ritalin (a calming drug).
Father: How am I going to get this Ritalin?
Teacher: No problem, I’ll get it, and the child should take the pill every morning and everything will be o.k.
Father: Who is going to remember to give it to the child every day in a house full of children?
Teacher: I’ll worry about it. I’ll make sure he takes it every morning.
Father: But I don’t want the whole class to know about it.
Teacher: No, no, I’ll make sure that no one sees. I’ll put the pill in the teacher’s room next to the coffee machine. Every morning I’ll send your son to make my coffee and at the same time he’ll take his pill. Like this no one will know.
The father agreed to the plan. Every morning the teacher prepared the pill next to the coffee machine and went into class. After a few minutes the child would come in with the coffee, and everything went fine.
And now the atmosphere in the class was calm. The child wasn’t sent out of class and there were no fights!
After a few weeks, the mother asked the child: Nu, what’s doing in class?
Child: Great!
Mother: What happened that everything’s so good?
Child: It’s very simple. Every morning the teacher sends me to make his coffee. I go into the teacher’s room and there there’s a special pill! I put the pill into the coffee and after he finishes to drink it, everything in the class is 100%!!!
“Stop the propaganda” is right on target and couldn’t have said it better. Thank you
My teenager was put on a drug called Vyvanse. Already underweight from the beginning, she lost almost 20lbs within a few months. Only later did I find out that Vyvanse is undergoing clinical trials as a diet aid.
Want to see scholastic problems? Read TLS posts. Oops, gotta go, it’s time for the afternoon Shtus classes. Oh wait, I mean recess.
I am not here to decide if it is being abused or not. What I do want to say is that, ADHD is very real. And all those who do not have experience should get off their high horse of judging, and keep their opinions to themselves. Once someone goes through, maybe they could get a picture of what is really going on. A child, who doesnt fit the cookie cutter mold. Just cant sit or focus or accelerate in school. Trying different doses until you get there. The side effects, the weight loss, the nausea. You think we want this suffering for our children? You think we haven’t tried everything else? Only to have to turn to the world of medication. But where would they be without it? Roaming halls, becoming losers. With no self confidence, no ambition and lots of self doubt. Don’t give up my dear adhd families. Let the judgers judge, they have no idea.