ADHD, low performance and school failure
Low performance, failure and school dropout, understood as the group of students who have serious difficulties in passing ESO and who, subsequently, do not follow post-compulsory education, is a very serious problem that affects our country , with percentages much higher than those of most other developed countries. This fact forces us to reflect on the serious conceptual problems that affect our educational system and, also, on the characteristics of the current psychological and psychiatric resources that are offered to children and young people with learning difficulties.
According to data from the Department of Education of the Generalitat de Catalunya, 17% of Catalan students will finish their compulsory studies with a school failure , a percentage clearly far removed from the Northern European average, which is between 4% and 7% of students. When these percentages are transformed into real numbers, the magnitude of the problem is more clearly evident, since it means that of the 1,020,000 students enrolled in primary education and ESO during the past 2021-2022 academic year in Catalonia, approximately 170,000 will finish ESO with a school failure.
There are primary and secondary school students who, despite having a normal or high IQ, study with great difficulty because they have problems with attention, concentration, speech, reading, calculation and understanding written texts.
Along with school failure, it is necessary to highlight the premature abandonment of studies which, in our country, is estimated at 16%-17% among native students and 25%-30% among students of immigrant origin, or the very high group of young people who "neither study nor work", which the latest OECD report from 2021 places between 20% and 22%.
Second chance schools: educational success against school dropout
The fact that such a large number of primary and secondary school students fail and drop out of school necessarily implies the prior existence of a very high level of "low academic performance", without declared percentages, which are primary and secondary school students who, having a normal or high IQ, for which adequate academic performance would be expected, study compulsory studies with great difficulty and poor academic performance, because they have significant difficulties in attention, concentration, speech, reading, calculation and comprehension of written texts.
Low performance, failure and school dropout have a multifactorial origin , in which family characteristics, socioeconomic conditions, cultural and migratory determinants, the quality of educational centers and, also, the various genetic and psychobiological factors directly related to learning intervene.
Neurodevelopmental disorders, the forgotten factor in learning problems
Unfortunately, our educational and healthcare systems, which are very competent in identifying and addressing the educational, family, socioeconomic and cultural factors that surround students with learning problems, do not adequately assess the psychopathological factors directly involved in this problem, among which the set of neurodevelopmental disorders (ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, communication disorders, autism spectrum disorders, etc.) stand out.
This lack of assessment of neurodevelopmental disorders is reflected in the evident underdiagnosis in our school population and in the consequent lack of implementation of specific treatments during the childhood and adolescence period. In a recent study published by the working group of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and the Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Hospital, it is described that in the public schools of Catalonia Only one or two students in ten who need it are identified and treated, and, in charter schools, only three or four students in ten who need it. (Bosch et al., 2021). The rest of the students with these undiagnosed and untreated disorders are prone to low performance and school failure, to have significant difficulties in accessing employment and to present multiple behavioral and addictive problems. (Pagerols et al., 2022).
How to know if my child has a learning disorder
It is important to note that if neurodevelopmental disorders have not been identified, diagnosed or treated during compulsory schooling, when these students reach adolescence they are often misdiagnosed as anxious and depressive or also as having a borderline and antisocial personality, which makes adequate treatment difficult and prevents the prevention of serious associated behavioural complications.
Students with undiagnosed and untreated neurodevelopmental disorders are prone to academic failure, difficulty accessing employment, and behavioral and addictive problems.
This lack of diagnosis and treatment is more evident in groups of children and young people in care or with sociocultural and immigration problems, and this clearly contributes to them presenting more academic and behavioral difficulties than the general population, which clearly hinders their subsequent socio-labor integration.
The prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders in Catalonia is between 18% and 22% of the school population, that is, one in five students, percentages similar to those of all the developed countries where it has been measured. Within this large group of disorders, attention deficit disorder, with or without hyperactivity (ADHD or ADD), stands out due to its frequency of presentation, with percentages that range between 7% and 9% of the child and adolescent population and with symptomatological characteristics already described in detail in the ADHD portal of Som Salut Mental 360.
The relationship between ADHD and poor school performance
ADHD, with its great attentional, impulsive and hyperactive complexity, makes it extremely difficult to achieve adequate academic success, since it is very difficult for the affected student to acquire the minimum knowledge required by the current educational system to successfully complete their studies. Good school performance requires the student to have full attention, concentration and abstraction capacities , together with the ability to voluntarily limit their needs to move and play, typical of their age, during the sequential periods of 40-45 minutes that correspond to classes. The student with ADHD quickly "disconnects" from what the teacher or professor explains, and loses all possibility of taking advantage of the subjects explained and, bored and unable to stay still and attentive, they distract themselves by entering their imaginary world or interfering with the work of their classmates.
ADHD, a common disorder in the child population
ADHD is very often accompanied by a learning disorder, such as dyslexia or dyscalculia, which requires a differential diagnosis and a more complex therapeutic approach than that needed for ADHD without comorbidities, since specific treatment for ADHD will not be enough to solve the academic and behavioral difficulties that these students present. For the same reason, when a learning disorder such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, etc. is detected, it is very important to always screen for the presence of ADHD before programming a treatment exclusively aimed at the learning disorders , since the frequent comorbidity between these disorders and ADHD requires specific treatments carried out by highly qualified professionals.
The student with ADHD quickly "disconnects" from what the teacher is explaining, and loses all possibility of taking advantage of the subjects explained.
Thanks to the continuous awareness campaigns being carried out by associations of families with affected children, along with the continuous warnings from teaching and healthcare professionals who work in this field, students with ADHD and marked hyperactivity and behavioral disorders are increasingly easily detected, diagnosed and treated, accepting that their academic difficulties are the result of a psychobiologically based problem and not the result of being "lazy", "badly behaved" or "lacking will" towards their studies.
ADD, an underdiagnosed and undertreated disorder
Unfortunately, the same is not true of ADD, that is, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a less well-known pathology in the social sphere, since by lacking the hyperkinetic and impulsive symptoms typical of ADHD, symptoms that tend to be the ones that most bother adults, the student is less disruptive in the family and school environment, and this means that less attention is paid to him .
However, it should be remembered that ADD is one of the main causes, unfortunately very little diagnosed and treated, of low performance and school failure in students with normative behaviors. In the childhood and adolescence period, if ADD, which occurs without hyperkinesia or behavioral alterations, is not accompanied by dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia or any other learning disorder, it tends not to be diagnosed and, as a result, the student "who does not learn but does not bother", is considered to have a low intelligence quotient (IQ). This means that most of the time specific treatments for attention disorder are not instituted, with the result that school failure for these students is practically assured.
The student "who doesn't learn but doesn't cause trouble" is considered to have a low IQ. This means that most of the time, specific treatments for attention deficit disorder are not implemented.
The solution to the low academic performance of students with ADHD or ADD involves, whenever possible, initial detection in the family and in nursery schools , a correct diagnosis when the student begins primary education and the establishment of cognitive-behavioral treatment or, if necessary, medication, which follows the guidelines and indications set out in the scientific, national and international guides that deal with this problem. The final objective is to allow the student to have adequate attention, concentration and abstraction skills, necessary for correct school performance and, in the case of ADHD, to simultaneously achieve the containment of non-finalistic motor activity and the control of pathological impulsivity.
It is considered that it will not be possible to improve school performance and, therefore, avoid academic failure and dropout in our country, if a mandatory and routine approach to ADHD and ADD is not carried out in schools during the primary education period, carried out in the context of a comprehensive and holistic diagnosis and treatment program for neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescents.
Featuring
