ABSTRACT
Parents might observe and identify possible ways that day-to-day functioning reinforces the child’s problematic behavior. It is important that both helpers and parents cast a skeptical eye at the psychiatric method and frankly doubt whether the current system of “diagnosing and treating the mental disorders of childhood” is a scientifically sound, helpful, or legitimate approach to dealing with children’s feelings and behaviors. Parents are bombarded by the mainstream view, promoted by pharmaceutical companies, academic researchers, mental health professionals, professional organizations, a naive or indifferent media, and their own friends and family members, that “mental disorders” exist in the same way that “physical disorders” exist. The number of children being diagnosed with a mental disorder and being put on so-called psychiatric medication is increasing rapidly. Parents might set firmer limits on the extent to which they will accommodate their child’s behaviors during times of troublesome responding, and thus require the child to meet them halfway.
