by Linda J Banks

Created on: March 23, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

Would Tom Sawyer have been medicated?

Tom Sawyer was a very intelligent boy who also had a streak of orneriness, was inattentive at school and was prone to impulsive behaviors. We laugh while reading his antics, but in today's world, like approximately 25% of school-age white boys, he might have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and prescribed medication. Because most research suggests that ADD or ADHD is present in only 3-5% of the population, is it possible practitioners and parents are over-diagnosing and missing the true cause or issue (http://borntoexplore.org)? Although any child could be diagnosed, the incidences of diagnoses are higher in boys than girls.

There is no doubt that ADHD and other behavioral disorders exist. There is no doubt that medication can produce a very positive affect on both children and adults with disorders. The purpose of this article is to identify if are we assigning a label to anyone who meets behavioral criteria way too quickly? Unlike most illnesses, behavioral disorders cannot be detected with a blood test that comes back with a plus or minus sign. This makes behavioral diagnoses much harder than one for physical disorders like anemia or high cholesterol.

Criteria for behavioral disorders can include inattentiveness, inability to sit still, poor handwriting skills, trouble concentrating and impulsivity, among others. Unfortunately, these criteria could also be attributed to many other causes including high intelligence, different learning styles, boredom, or just plain boy behavior. It is important to note that poor grades do not necessarily represent a lower intelligence level.

Walk a child of each gender passed a mud puddle. Who is most likely to try to jump in it and get dirty? Sit a boy child and a girl child down with a coloring book. Who is most likely to sit still and color within the lines and who is most likely to make paper airplanes and try to hit someone with it? Unlike most stereotypes, I was the girl who would try to jump in the mud puddle (bonus points for hitting my brother with the splashing mud and a week of being grounded if I hit a parent so aiming was important) and make paper airplanes, but just because I was the exception doesn't mean the general consensus is incorrect. Boy behavior is generally different than girl behavior. Boys, especially as the testosterone level grows, are more prone to get physical, wrestle, play rough, get dirty and have physical accidents due to higher impulse levels.

It takes a very

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