Bad Behaviour and Academic Performance- is there a connection?

Bad Behaviour and Academic Performance- is there a connection?

That is the question asked by two new studies reported recently. One of the studies claims that students who entered kindergarten with behaviour problems did as well as their peers in their academic work. The second study reports a delay in the development in the brains of children with ADHD and not a fault in the brain.

According to the first study, researchers analyzed social behaviour of more than 1600 children and could not find correlation with their academic performance in maths and reading. They do however mention that there was a correlation between math and reading scores at age 5 and 6 with academic success in grade 5.

In the second study as reported by Bendict Carey in the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/health/13kids.html?_r=1&ex=1353042000&en=8978d8eab97808aa&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin ), “government psychiatric researchers compared brain scans from two groups of children: one with attention deficit disorder, the other without. The scientists had tracked the children — 223 in each group — from ages 6 to 16, taking multiple scans on each child. In a normally developing brain, the cerebral cortex — the outer wrapping, where circuits involved in conscious thought are concentrated — thickens during early childhood. It then reverses course and thins out, losing neurons as the brain matures through adolescence. The study found that, on average, the brains of children with A.D.H.D. began this “pruning” process at age 10 ½, about three years later than their peers. “
Needless to say these reports have raised questions and more anxieties among child development specialists, teachers, educators , parents etc.
One of the big concerns is that the first study may sound as if it is implying that schools do not need to worry anymore about putting resources into behaviour modification programmes for young children, but should focus on improving their math and reading programmes instead; and maybe the behaviour problems are not as significant in the classroom. I think this is hopeful if it only gets the ‘experts’ to take another look at what they have been labelling as behavioural disorders and how they have been treating them so far. Hopefully now we may get more teachers in the class accurately and effectively addressing emotional needs of young children, and not just labelling every emotional distress cry for help as an emotional disorder of varying acronyms.

The second study may lead to the conclusion that children will grow out of the symptoms and effects of ADHD and perhaps different concession must be made for them, perhaps they will be treated as ‘slow learners’ instead. The hopeful part is that the medicating of children may decline drastically. This will be a relief to a lot of parents and educators and other specialists. And to keep hope alive, maybe these children will get the help they truly need with their learning challenges.