I haven’t come across the term sensory integration disorder.  I imagine there are many bona fide neurological conditions that might impair sensory integration, but I have no first hand information on this.

You make a good point concerning human “energy,” and I have no doubt that some individuals have more of this quality than others. Whether this is the result of genes, fetal environment, or learning is a more difficult question.  Probably a combination of all three. 

But – and for me this is the critical issue – each child has to acquire sufficient impulse control to sit in a classroom and learn.
 
Which brings us to the other very good point you made – the cookie-cutter society.  The purpose of school is to teach children reading, writing, arithmetic, history, etc..  But one of the effects of schooling is that children become conditioned to accept drudgery and routine as an integral aspect of ordinary daily life.

This is simply a fact.  But it compels us to ask the next question:  is this good or bad?  Some people say it’s dreadful – we should be helping each child to find his/her individual direction.  Others say no – we must prepare children for the tedious drudgery of life!  Interesting stuff.  One could write a book on that topic alone.  In fact, I imagine people have.  I would come down somewhere in the middle.  Yes, we should encourage children to find their areas of passion – but we should also prepare them for the fact that (for most of us at least) there’s a lot of routine slog work in between
the flashes of brilliance. 

Back to ADHD.  For our classrooms to work, children have to obey the teacher’s instructions.  They have to pay attention to the teacher, work the lessons as directed, etc.. These are skills, and most children have acquired these skills in rudimentary form by the time they arrive in kindergarten.

Now your point is that for some children (the high energy individuals) acquiring these skills is more difficult than it is for others.  And in this I agree with you.  But they still have to acquire the skills.  Which basically means that their parents may have to work harder than parents of other children to get them to the same place.

But this inequality in basic disposition is true of virtually every human ability.  Some
children have a kind of native ability in music.  Other children have to work very hard just to keep up with them.  Some are “naturally” good at sports, others have to struggle.  Some learn to read without effort.  For others it’s very taxing.  But
there are basic skills we all have to acquire in order to have some success in
life.  A surgeon experiencing a burst of high energy can’t just say to the team, “Hey, guys, I’ve gotta dissipate some energy.  Hold everything until I jog a lap around the hospital.”  He has to have the discipline to finish the job – or finish the shift or whatever – then do his jumping jacks.  I realize that this is a little facetious.  The point I am making is that a person who hasn’t developed this kind of discipline could
never become a surgeon.  And this is the real tragedy of the pills.  In the old days, these “high energy” individuals were trained to sit still, pay attention, complete tasks etc..  And they could grow up to be successful surgeons, engineers, school teachers, etc.  Today they are given pills which make them more manageable, but often they never acquire the basic skills needed for success in any field.

Once again, thanks for a very interesting comment, and best wishes.

Also I know adhd is extremely over diagnosed and is not really an
illness, but I do believe we are all different and some people may have
WAY more energy than others. That excess energy makes it hard to fit
into our cookie cutter society. Adhd is just a label that people tend to
throw around all willy nilly, but I know many people who were given
that label. The common denominator I have found was ‘energy’ they
couldn’t get rid of. My husband was even put on riddlin.(I don’t know
how to spell that). He always described it like he just got way more
excited than most kids and it would build up. My friend she was
‘diagnosed’ she described it as balls of energy throughout her body that
no matter what she did wouldn’t go away. My son would probably get
‘diagnosed’, which is not going to happen. He is about to be six and he
told me “there’s alot of energy in there, but all the doors are shut.
All these people had
good disciple and parents. My friend was also
a great student. All I am saying is maybe the diagnosis of adhd is a
little ridiculous and overused, but maybe there are some people who do
have “something” who never get the real help they need. Again love your
site and thank you for reading this.

You point out that most children can be seen as meeting the DSM criteria for ADHD. This is one of my major criticisms of the system. The criteria are so elastic that virtually anybody can be embraced.

Your identification of sleep deprivation as a major issue is profound. In my view, lack of sleep plays a major role in many childhood problems. The APA position is that children behave dysfunctionally because they have mental illnesses. My position is that the reason for dysfunctional behavior is almost always something much more mundane, such as ineffective discipline, or, as you point out, insufficient sleep. Tragically, the APA has already trumped this position, by including lack of sleep as a mental disorder in its own right! And of course, the treatment is: sleeping pills. So the dysfunctional behavior is a mental illness, and the lack of sleep is another mental illness! And business is booming for psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies.

I am glad that your parents had the good sense to reject the “official” medical wisdom and that they didn’t send you down the “primrose path” of diagnoses and drugs. The pressure on parents to toe the line in this area is truly enormous. Parents are told that the child has an “illness” and needs “medication.” “If your child had diabetes, wouldn’t you want him to have insulin? Well this is the same kind of thing.” Etc., etc. The vehemence with which these spurious positions are promoted has to be seen to be believed. So your parents did well to resist this.

Finally, you mention sleep routine. In my view this is a critical component of child-rearing, but one which is often neglected. Children are allowed to stay up very late perhaps to watch a TV show or to finish homework that should have been done earlier, etc. But they still have to get up early to catch the school bus. The results are as you describe.

Once again, thanks for your comment. I’m glad things are going well for you.