Extract from this package: "Before I became an educational psychologist I was, for about five years, a member of a behaviour support team. We worked intensively with children, each of us having around six on our case-load; each child was visited twice per week. It seemed that there was perennially a restless child as part of the weekly case load, known affectionately within the team as "Wiggle bums". Observing these children was quite an experience, for instance, when seated on the carpet at the beginning or end of the day they would wiggle from one side of the carpet to the other in about 15 minutes. To be honest, I cannot remember any member of the team thinking this was difficult with regards to intervention; we had a clear approach and just got on with it.
I distinctly remember a member of the team coming in one day and telling us about this thing called ADHD, and that many children in America were taking some form of medication for this disorder. The speculation was that it would catch on over here soon enough.
The approach we took with our "Wiggle bums" was fairly straight forward; a relaxation technique was taught to the parents to use with the children on a daily basis, and a concentration development and social skills development programme was put in place. The children were seen twice per week for about 40 minutes on each occasion; this didn't work with every child, but the success rate was substantial."
As an educational psychologist and with the benefit of substantial extra training and experience, I would be of the opinion that many of those "Wiggle bums" would now be diagnosed as having ADHD.
I have seen at first hand on many occasions the dramatic effect medication can have on children who are diagnosed as ADHD. I would have no hesitation in allowing my own child to be medicated for this condition taking into account the full cost and benefits. However, I would not under any circumstances allow my child to be medicated without a more conservative approach be tried first.