Millions of children are being overmedicalized.
Seven million American children have been diagnosed as having ADHD. Two million of them are prescribed medication as a result. Sadly for these children, there’s growing evidence that this medication damages the brain’s motivational centers.
There’s also abundant evidence that this medication is unnecessary. According to studies dating back to 1978, enabling these children to be more physically active resolves their attention issues in school.
Children labeled ADHD are normal.
The key to stopping the overmedicalization of children labeled “ADHD” is to establish that they are indeed normal, and need no medication to do well in school. That’s where the Teska Type System™ comes in.
The system is based on the fact that your natural, inborn levels of testosterone and oxytocin form the core of your personality. Some personality types have naturally-elevated levels of these hormones, and kids of these types, we believe, are the ones who get overmedicalized.
Higher levels of testosterone makes boys more active. They also make girls more outgoing. Higher levels of oxytocin make children of both sexes more social. So, when kids with naturally-elevated levels of these hormones are told in school, “Sit still, don’t talk,” they’re being told to suppress their deepest natural instincts.
Let’s change our schools, not our children.
A certain amount of stillness and quietude is necessary for learning. Schools today, however, have taken this to extremes. Recess time has been drastically cut over the past 20 years.
This is especially harmful to kids of Fighting, Hunting, and Dancing personality types, who need lots of physical activity and socialization to thrive. When they can’t get it in school, they become agitated and disruptive, and schools respond by having them overmedicalized.
It’s current school environments that are abnormal, not the students identified as such. When we change our schools to emulate the conditions that we humans evolved to live, work, and learn in, the behavioral issues we now try to medicate away will disappear.
Dyadic is resolved to help these children thrive.
Dyadic is proposing a research study to NIH’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The study, if and when it’s funded, will test this hypothesis: the scientific basis of the Dyadic Type System™ is valid for children in grades 5-8.
If the study proves the hypothesis, we’ll apply for funding to conduct a second study to answer these questions:
- Do children of certain personality types need more activity to succeed in school?
- Do children of certain types need more socialization to perform at their best?
- Are children of certain types pathologized, and medicated unnecessarily?
- If so, how do we change the school environment to help children of these types?
If the answers indicate a strong use case for our system, we’ll create a set of personality profiling tools and training materials for schools. These materials will enable school staff to ensure that no students are misunderstood in ways that lead to overmedicalization.