http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/198077.php
This is a link to a brief article regarding the possibility of ADHD being misdiagnosed in nearly 1 million US kids --- the focus is on recent research showing that a majority of children diagnosed with ADHD (another article I read recently said about 60%) are the youngest in their class. While there is surely more research to be done on this issue - for me, this information really brings to mind the need to not jump too quickly to 'what is wrong with this child' but first and foremost look at 'what are we asking of this child' and are we asking more than what is developmentally reasonable. Even more compounding to this is the idea that there are undoubtedly children who are among the youngest in their class and who legitimately have ADHD, and very well have expectations on them beyond what their developmental stage and their learning / mental health difficulties allow.
Of course, the answer is not as easy as having them just stay back a year or delay starting school, as there is also conflicting research on the those benefits. In reality, I don't believe there is a clear-cut easy answer. Undoubtedly, how children are evaluated for and diagnosed with ADHD is often of concern. It is imperative that diagnoses are made by qualified professionals who use multi-informant and multi-process methods of evaluation versus an 'eye ball' evaluation or medication trial and error without assessment or other intervention. Additionally, I believe it essential that we continuously look at and build upon how we teach children, what we ask of them, where they are at developmentally, and how we can make classrooms work for kids just as much as we expect kids to work for their classrooms.
