Will be interesting following this thread to see what the numbers are.
I’ve always felt that some boys are misdiagnosed because they dont fit neatly in some classroom situations and the teachers are not adequately trained to know how to manage those kids. Here is my experience.
Our S started 1st grade in public school and within a few months we are called in to a parent teacher conference on our son’s behavior. Seems he was constantly blurting out answers to questions without raising his hand or being called on. The teacher found this too disruptive without mentioning any attempts to redirect his energy. What they did suggest was that we take our S to a Dr so that he could be prescribed medication to “take the edge off of his behavior.” That day has now become known as the day that I asked our son to leave the the room so that I could, in no uncertain terms, tell the teacher and administrators to “pound sand”.
Soon after that day we enrolled our S in a wonderful private school after meeting with teachers and administrators that explained to us how they felt our S could have his energies directed in a positive way. We were excited. They met with our S and basically said “when we ask a question of the class, we know you already have the answer. Give the other kids a chance and if no one has the answer I’ll immediately ask you - that will be much cooler right?” It took a little while but it did work out. They also encouraged him to take up chess - a game where he would not automatically know the answer, but would have to think long and hard about individual moves and the implications that one move has on future moves. A few years later he was the grade level chess champion in our state.
He could have been placed on medication early on. No telling what would have become of him. Instead he graduated HS with 4.0 UW GPA, 2400 SAT (at the time 2400 was the max score), 4 perfect SAT Subject tests. Attended Stanford for BS/MS in CS and now living the dream of a single AI/ML engineer in a silicon valley start up.
I wonder what has become of others who might have deferred to the public school teacher?
He still plays the occasional chess game.