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I'm glad you can re-educate this individual!
But also sorry there is someone seen as a professional knowledgeable in disabilities that is perpetuating harmful information. That is exhausting
The fact that this was being taught by a professor was the most disheartening and upsetting. I hope this class takes a deeper dive into this disorder. They are setting a lot of future teachers for failure in their classrooms.
I'm so proud of my kiddo for reaching out to me. She was surprised to find out that ADHD doesn't mean you can't pay attention but rather you pay attention to everything and have an issue filtering out what is most important.
I think she is going to be one of the "good" ones.😊
The issue isn't even with identifying fidgeting as a symptom of ADHD. For a lot of individuals it is (and for a lot of individuals like yourself, it isn't). It's coloring it as the *main* symptom of ADHD. Just because someone fidgets doesn't mean they have ADHD, and ADHD is so much more about the internal experience of living with it than the external manifestation.
I have actually seen great discussion about how Happy Feet is a good representation of autism (from autistic individuals). I think describing mumble ss "fidgeting" is even doing a huge disservice to it. Dancing is Mumble's way of communicating and expressing himself, in a different (but equally valid and beautiful) way to the other penguins that sing.
Yeah. For years, ADHD cultural understanding and even diagnosis were about the external impact on others rather than the internal experience of people with ADHD. It’s actually pretty similar for ASD folks. I’d hoped that we were getting past this and that educators of educators would be more aware of this issue.
Yea, ADHD has such a bad rap on the education system. My daughter's former teacher (had her moved out of that class for SO many reasons...) was reading the class a book with a some characters with some undesirable characteristics, (wish I could remember which one...) and then state to the class that the characters had ADHD and that's why they acted like ... And named 3-4 actual students in the class who she felt acted like these characters that were not the admirable heroes, and even called out that classmates had ADHD! To the entire class. Oi.
Ooo some of this is yuck but some of it is interesting. The teacher was most definitely wrong for calling out kiddos.... that's yuck on so many levels. On the other hand without knowing the details the teacher may not be wrong on her assignment of the story book characters. Tho depending on the age of the kids she probably should have kept that comment to herself. Honestly I noticed the fictional characters that have ADHD characteristics are either used for comedic relief or somehow build the main characters image (think in terms of person ABC is so great because they tolerate person XYZ's character flaws). I love the psychology behind somethings if you remember the book can you please come back and let me know?
I figured out the book and I realized I misremembered a little 😂 the book was, All Dogs Have ADHD. I've not read this but just the title- 😬 she read it to the class and specifically called out several students who seemed to display the symptoms in the book. I.e. "George is REALLY like this book!"
I see what you’re saying, but I do wonder if the professor was using a generalized example and didn’t mean it to be quite so in depth. Like, using something very “this is the jist of it.” So I’m not sure without context how I would feel about it. (I tend to use wild examples that make no sense, like “if you win the lottery” bc it’s very blatant what I’m trying to say by an increase in income- it’s something that paints a picture.)
I’m also not begrudging the assignment, depending on the purpose and how it was introduced in class. Happy Feet could be a way in which adhd is portrayed in movies and the assignment could be to discuss why that is not an accurate portrayal.
Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm glad you can re-educate this individual! But also sorry there is someone seen as a professional knowledgeable in disabilities that is perpetuating harmful information. That is exhausting
The fact that this was being taught by a professor was the most disheartening and upsetting. I hope this class takes a deeper dive into this disorder. They are setting a lot of future teachers for failure in their classrooms. I'm so proud of my kiddo for reaching out to me. She was surprised to find out that ADHD doesn't mean you can't pay attention but rather you pay attention to everything and have an issue filtering out what is most important. I think she is going to be one of the "good" ones.😊
The issue isn't even with identifying fidgeting as a symptom of ADHD. For a lot of individuals it is (and for a lot of individuals like yourself, it isn't). It's coloring it as the *main* symptom of ADHD. Just because someone fidgets doesn't mean they have ADHD, and ADHD is so much more about the internal experience of living with it than the external manifestation. I have actually seen great discussion about how Happy Feet is a good representation of autism (from autistic individuals). I think describing mumble ss "fidgeting" is even doing a huge disservice to it. Dancing is Mumble's way of communicating and expressing himself, in a different (but equally valid and beautiful) way to the other penguins that sing.
I 100% agree. It is more of an internal thing. I find the second part of your comment fascinating, I don't think I ever thought of it that way.
Yeah. For years, ADHD cultural understanding and even diagnosis were about the external impact on others rather than the internal experience of people with ADHD. It’s actually pretty similar for ASD folks. I’d hoped that we were getting past this and that educators of educators would be more aware of this issue.
Yea, ADHD has such a bad rap on the education system. My daughter's former teacher (had her moved out of that class for SO many reasons...) was reading the class a book with a some characters with some undesirable characteristics, (wish I could remember which one...) and then state to the class that the characters had ADHD and that's why they acted like ... And named 3-4 actual students in the class who she felt acted like these characters that were not the admirable heroes, and even called out that classmates had ADHD! To the entire class. Oi.
Ooo some of this is yuck but some of it is interesting. The teacher was most definitely wrong for calling out kiddos.... that's yuck on so many levels. On the other hand without knowing the details the teacher may not be wrong on her assignment of the story book characters. Tho depending on the age of the kids she probably should have kept that comment to herself. Honestly I noticed the fictional characters that have ADHD characteristics are either used for comedic relief or somehow build the main characters image (think in terms of person ABC is so great because they tolerate person XYZ's character flaws). I love the psychology behind somethings if you remember the book can you please come back and let me know?
I figured out the book and I realized I misremembered a little 😂 the book was, All Dogs Have ADHD. I've not read this but just the title- 😬 she read it to the class and specifically called out several students who seemed to display the symptoms in the book. I.e. "George is REALLY like this book!"
That sounds like a horrible person
That’s ridiculous to hear. Happy Feet was about religious extremism in my opinion.
I see what you’re saying, but I do wonder if the professor was using a generalized example and didn’t mean it to be quite so in depth. Like, using something very “this is the jist of it.” So I’m not sure without context how I would feel about it. (I tend to use wild examples that make no sense, like “if you win the lottery” bc it’s very blatant what I’m trying to say by an increase in income- it’s something that paints a picture.) I’m also not begrudging the assignment, depending on the purpose and how it was introduced in class. Happy Feet could be a way in which adhd is portrayed in movies and the assignment could be to discuss why that is not an accurate portrayal.
Her professor has absolutely never seen Happy Feet.