One View: A Spanking Might Beat Ritalin

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I Have ADHD, and never was on medication, but got paddled everytime i acted the maggot. I graduated from College, and everything is hunky dorey. I thank my teachers and parents for redening my behind. If I ever have a child with ADHD, I will raise them the way I was raised. Ritalin is way over prescribed. Rembering back to when I misbehaved, I knew exactly what I was doing was wrong. How do I put it, I suppose the thought of a good old paddling made me try extra hard to stop me from doing bad things. Smacking/paddling should always be a parents and children's right.

Arthur Jameson of ID 5:33PM September 30, 2012

One more point. We have laws that allow the destruction of the developing human in the womb but find it deplorable that a parent would spank a child's bottom to get that child on track. Kill it before it takes it's first breath on its on. Otherwise, you may be stuck with a jail sentence for training your child how to be orderly and respectful and a responsible future citizen. No jail time for killing the developing child before it leaves the womb - no crime. Spank it on the bottom and go to jail - now you're a criminal. I'm an MD and I see no logic here. This nation is getting crazier and crazier. That's my medical opinion. Can we stop listening to these academic idiots before this society is completely tanked. Pretty Please!!!

DrDrDr of IN 3:24AM February 05, 2012

Thank God for spankings as a child. It let me know where the boundaries were and the consequences of crossing those boundaries. A good swatting on the behind will not lead to shaken baby syndrome. It is not abusive. What is abusive is to let a child run amok on society. When he or she gets older and continues that same bad behavior we just throw them in jail or even execute them depending on what harm they exacted on their fellow countrymen. I'm not talking about mental retardation which includes autism.

DrDrDr of IN 3:09AM February 05, 2012

America is the most violent nation on the planet. We house more citizens in prison than any nation on earth. It is likely that our citizens murder one another more than any place in the world (not speaking of ethnic wars in foreign lands). Yet we hypocritically stop parents from spanking their own children. This children really have nothing to fear from their parents compared to the physicsl trauma inflicted on them by peers or street gangs. Take the path of least resistance - safer to defie parents than peers. What can the parents really do to an unruly child? Well, the answer get some academic idiot to label the kid as adhd, then drug the child up with stimulants. Yeah, can't get in trouble for drugging the kid up. Problem is that we really do not know the true effect on these kids later in life after being on stimulants for long periods beginning in childhood. Maybe these kids will crave stimulants in the future - can anyone say 'Meth?' We have destroyed the minds of these youths for behaving in a normal childlike manner. What about animal studies? Look in the animal kingdom, see how cubs are wrestling, rolling and jumping around on top of the other. Maybe we should drug the teachers and the parents. It seems that there is where the true problem lies. ADHD is a diagnosis that will only escalate in American society because we have professional idiots that get paid to write and publish nonsense and crest diseases like ADHD and fibromyalgia. Let's wmquit doping up the kids. Future generations will likely consider us barbaric and even criminal for what we've done to these helpless kids by drugging them up when a good spanking and scheduled frequent exercise breaks would have been more efficacious, cheaper, and without the side effects of drugging these kids. Just like the housing bubble bursting, I can foresee thus ADHD coming to a nasty head in the future. The sons will pay for the sins of the fathers.

DrDrDr of IN 2:58AM February 05, 2012

It was certainly interesting for me to read the article. Thanks for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read more on this site soon. By the way, pretty nice design you have here, but don’t you think design should be changed every few months?
Mary Stone

london escorts elite of AL 2:17PM July 06, 2010

Sorry Guys- I was diagnosed with ADD at age 46- I actually do know the territory- and you "paddling fetishists" are not "part of the solution" you are ALL of the problem.
The truth is that like people who are prone to depression or anxiety, ADD sufferers are highly emotionally sensitive ( but you are too sure of yourselves to even notice) and this sort of "paddling' treatment is extraordinarily wounding to sensitive children, who are actually bending over backwards to be the best they can possibly be.
I hate to say this but Mr Kingston is actually the kind of person I used to have nightmares about. I actually thought he and his ilk had something of value to offer, and tried to make myself conform to his twisted values.
The funny thing is - I was prescribed Dexamphetamine and I woke up and saw I was actually right all along. In a society where social control is maintained by sleight of hand- thugs like him have every reason to fear a drug that allows people to think clearly. I for one am quite clearly outside the matrix now.

Barliman 8:27AM June 04, 2010

It seems in our self-absorbed, "I want to be your friend, not your parent" society we've forgotten who is the parent, the adult, the caretaker, the protector, the judge-jury-and executioner and who is the child.
My son is not a "typical" child, but one with autism and ADHD. He is unable to emote and is unable to self-soothe and he acts out in manners that others seem as "bad" or "spoiled". I have no qualms about giving my son a spanking on his tushy when it is called for. The mere hint of a spanking will do two things. It let's me know if my son is in an "Autistic seizure" or being a 4 year old and if it's a tantrum he's having for NOT getting his way, he's getting a spanking if it's called for.
I reinforce his good actions and behaviours with positive reinforcements and my son knows when he's done something good and is happier for it. But he also knows when he's done something wrong and understands the punish will fit the crime.
I had spankings as a child and I do not need counseling, I do not feel the need to rehash memories that might have made me sad, I do not feel the need for tell someone they hurt my feelings when I was a child.
It's this very thinking that a spanking will cause our children to be bullies, criminals or psychologically tormented and or unbalanced at the very least. What the heck has happened to our society? I'll tell you what's happened: We've become lazy and selfish and don't want the responsiblity of raising the children we have into resposible adults. Wake up people...not doing anything is what's causing all of this!!!

Jennifer of PA 7:38PM April 16, 2010

One issue here with the theory is a recent review and meta-analysis (a study of studies) by SA Burt in 2009. It has determined that the family environment does not affect the development of ADHD-- it is rather unique in the realm of child psychiatric disorders that way. Also, recent Scandinavian research shows that the treatment of children with stimulants is the variable most correlated with adult employment. That does not say that "ADHD kids are not changed by their environment", just that changing their environment won't change the ADHD. The other disorders that go along with it, like conduct disorder and depression and oppositionality, those are things that change with the environment, and they need to be treated with positive effective discipline.
I agree that punishing consequences are necessary, but the problem with punishment is that it does not change the frequency of the behavior in the absence of the punisher. Only positive reinforcement, and the formation of a conscience can do that. A verbal reprimand allows the child to better internalize a coherent and generalizable rule better than a spanking.
There are some comments on the rate of diagnosis of ADHD, and these are the things I would say: 1) ADHD is a variable on a spectrum. It is not a world of black-and-white, but there are shades of grey. There are kids with great, average, and bad attention regulation. The 5-8% with the worst attention regulation are labled ADHD, if we expand that cut-off to 10%, then we will see more diagnosis-- and probably over-diagnosis, if we restrict it to only the worst 1-2%, then a lot of kids needing help won't get it.

Dave of AL 12:57PM April 16, 2010

We have a son that is now 4, and he is both ADHD and Autistic. While in the beginning, I implored "no spanking", we found that it was not the correct move. While we tried the timeout, we found that since our son has 0% self soothing ability, the timeout only made things worse. He would enter a timeout with the proper hesitance, but as the timeout went on, he was unable to calm down and actually got worse. His behavior took over and he could not remove himself from the timeout, even though it was only 3 minutes , or less, long. We were then left with a terrified child stuck in a place he could not get out of.
We initiated with spanking. Now, we usually only need to give the implication that he will be spanked if the unwanted behaviour continues. It rarely gets to the point that we actually have to spank. But, as much as it hurts us to do it, spanking has been the only way that we can seem to make an impression on him. We are only talking about a couple of swats on his behind, by the way.
Also, just to say it... we constantly use positive reinforcement techniques. And the practice of sending him to his room holds only sheer terror and torture for him. That we will not allow to happen!
If anybody has any better ideas of how to reinforce positive behaviour in a child that does not have empathy and can not understand the meaning behind a time out, we are open to suggestions. Unfortunately, there is no handbook to parenting, and a child that is atypical with both ADHD and Autism does need different, sometimes, seemingly outlandish behaviour modification.

David of PA 9:43AM April 16, 2010

I am a single mom and I found that when my son was a toddler and misbehaved that spanking him just made him hit me back. Time-outs didn't work that well either. He is 8 now and getting him to do anything that he doesn't want to is like pulling teeth! My teeth :( I have noticed lately I have been doing the positive reinforcement and it does seem like he behaves a little better. I'm going to continue with that and hopefully we will both be happy :)

Debbie of CA 6:53PM April 15, 2010