Lax parents blamed for 'attention deficit' behaviour

11.45am - By MAXINE FRITH

LONDON - Hundreds of thousands of children prescribed the anti-hyperactivity drug Ritalin may simply be the victims of lax parenting, according to new evidence reported today.

The work of a British expert has cast doubt on the existence of conditions such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and will fuel the controversy over the spiralling use of Ritalin.

Behavioural expert Warwick Dyer claims parents need to accept more blame for their children's "disorders" and move away from the chemical cosh of prescription drugs.

In a remarkable breakthrough, he has developed a programme that focuses on the way parents behave towards their children - and in the last five years has claimed a 100 per cent success rate.

Incredibly, he never sees the child involved, and has just one face-to-face consultation with their parents.

The rest of his work is limited to a daily telephone briefing with the parents on how to treat their child.

Mr Dyer's theory is based on simple ideas such as a rigid system of sanctions and rewards for good and bad behaviour, with an insistence on politeness towards parents - and a demand that mothers and fathers control their tempers as well.

Mr Dyer said: "I am open-minded about whether ADD exists or not, but what is certainly clear is that a lot of symptoms ascribed to such disorders are in fact easily confused with basic behavioural problems that don't need to be treated with a drug.

"Parenting is not a democracy. You need to give your child what they want - love and attention - but on your terms, not theirs."

Mr Dyer's work is now the subject of a television documentary, to be broadcast tomorrow.

One in 10 children is now diagnosed with ADD or the related Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Ritalin is an amphetamine with a similar potency to cocaine, and prescribing in Britain has soared one hundredfold in the last 10 years.

In 1990, just 3,000 children were on the drug; today, there are 345,000 taking it, costing the NHS more than (pounds sterling)3 million a year. The drug is being now given to children as young as 18 months old.

Now a growing lobby of parents, doctors and other experts are questioning whether ADD or ADHD exist.

Mr Dyer was a primary school teacher in the east end of London until he retired and set up the Behaviour Change Consultancy.

He now sees around 30 families a year, and claims his techniques work with everyone, from the youngest children to teenagers.

Mr Dyer said: "The problem is that a lot of parents simply aren't being parents.

"In the last 20 years, parents have started talking to their children a lot more, but they have stopped being in control of them.

"They have tended to examine how they were brought up and reject what they thought was bad, but they haven't taken on what was good.

"Children are instinctively artful and will try to put themselves in control of their parents. I put parents back in control."

Mr Dyer also demands parents lavish time and attention on their children.

He said: "Some parents still hark back to their pre-child life and sometimes act as if they don't have children.

"Your child needs love and attention. The programme is not based on the idea of spare the rod, spoil the child.

" It's about giving children the right to make choices about their behaviour, but teaching them there are consequences with rewards and sanctions."

His "back to basics" approach worked to stunning effect with Fred and Diane from Essex, and their seven-year-old daughter Georgina, who are featured in the Cutting Edge documentary.

Georgina had been prescribed Ritalin and had been diagnosed with special needs because of her appalling temper tantrums and violent behaviour.

She was expelled from her first playgroup at the age of two and a half, and her parents were so desperate that last year they had decided to put her into care.

But within weeks of adopting Mr Dyer's techniques, Georgina's behaviour had improved.

Fred, who runs a wedding video business and Diane, a civil servant, had to spend seven months in daily phone calls to Mr Dyer, where they had to describe her behaviour in detail, and accept castigations from the expert when they deviated from the sanction system.

At one point he told the couple: "It's not her fault that you can't control her. She has wrapped you around her little finger.

"You aren't accepting that there isn't anything wrong with your daughter."

By the end of the seven months, Georgina was having less than two tantrums a month and while her special needs diagnosis was being reviewed.

Diane said: "The change has been incredible. This has all been done without Ritalin. Before, I hated her. Now, she is a normal child. I feel guilty when I look back to how I treated her before."

Janice Hill, of the Overload Network, said: "Warwick Dyer has shown that the idea of ADHD is a myth.

"Children are being given a drug that has the same pharmacology as cocaine when in fact all they and their parents need are help with their behaviour.

"Doctors should stop dishing out Ritalin and start using safe alternatives which have been proven to work."


- INDEPENDENT