By Barbara Pierce
Over the past decade there has been a huge increase in the number of children diagnosed with special needs, according to data from the CDC. There is an alarming rise in the number of children assigned a mental health diagnosis.
Pew Research Center data collected in 2022, found that New York state, with 20.5% children in special ed, was the highest in the nation. Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that conducts research, analyzes data and informs the public about issues.
“These differences by state are likely the result of inconsistencies in how states determine which students are eligible for special education services and challenges in identifying disabled children,” according to Pew.
Yes, there are challenges identifying disabled children and some emerging evidence suggests that perhaps children are being over-diagnosed with special needs.
“Whenever there is a surge in any behavioral or mental health conditions the question of over-diagnosing comes up,” said Shawn Cusworth, director of Behavioral Health, The Neighborhood Center, Utica. The Neighborhood Center provides professional mental health clinical services for children and their families.
“I usually have the same opinion about it, which is ‘maybe, maybe not’,” she added. “It’s difficult to determine, because diagnosing these conditions is not black and white. There’s no blood test or brain scan that shows definitively what, if anything, is going on with a person’s mental health.
“It’s especially hard in regard to children because there are a lot of people with opinions about what is ‘normal,’ but is viewed as abnormal by parents or schools and what is actually a disorder.”
Many of the symptoms associated with these disorders are similar to everyday childhood behaviors. Ordinary childhood behavior is often mistaken for ADHD, bipolar disorder or autism spectrum disorder.
Detecting a child’s mental disorder can be difficult because many behaviors that are considered symptoms of mental disorders can also be a normal part of a child’s development.
For example, how do we differentiate between a child with Asperger’s syndrome and a child who is simply introverted, brainy and single-minded? Or the child who is among the youngest in his class and is more likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis because his relative immaturity and resulting behavioral problems may seem like symptoms of ADHD when they are, in fact, due to his young age.
It is not that there are more children with problems, but there are reasons we are identifying more of them than did in the past, Cusworth said.
“One reason is the impact of the recent surge of open discussions regarding mental health issues,” she said. “More than ever, we’re seeing athletes, celebrities and other public figures openly discuss their personal struggles related to mental health. I believe this has reduced some of the stigma around it and led more parents and/or children to seek diagnosis and treatment that otherwise would not have done so.”
Also, there is much more screening going on in schools now than there used to be, she continued. These screenings may be catching a lot more kids who are struggling and connecting them with a full evaluation that leads to a diagnosis.
Research coming out now overwhelmingly confirms the negative impact that social media has on the mental health of children, she added. It stands to reason that prevalence rates would be up for this generation who has been raised with a high degree of social media in their lives.
“I think we’ll be learning new things for a long time about the impact this has on mental health and brain development,” she said.
“I’ve talked to school guidance counselors who have been doing the job for a long time and some say they have never seen anything like what they see now. I recall one saying that in the past he would get a kid in his office having a panic attack maybe once or twice a year and now it seems like it’s once or twice a week,” she added. “Those in the field are definitely seeing more problems, particularly anxiety.
“To sum it up, it’s my opinion that there is probably always some degree of over-diagnosing going on in mental health due to evaluations that are not thorough, comprehensive and or not using standardized assessment tools and diagnostic criteria.”
However, there are many reasons to believe that more children are getting diagnosed legitimately. If you are concerned that your child may be misdiagnosed, the best thing to do would be to get educated regarding what constitutes a good evaluation and try to obtain it, she said.