‘It’s important not to let anyone label you.’

I’m sitting in the audience at a kids show recently (Operation Ouch, anyone with kids will know what I mean. Who doesn’t love Dr Chris and Dr Xand?!) and heard a story about Dr Xand’s poor school reports and multiple detentions, and this was his advice to the primary school aged kids clinging to every word.

There is always debate about ‘labels’. Should we provide a diagnosis for our kids or will it create a stigma that’s impossible to shake?

I can’t answer that, it’s such an individual choice. What I can say is from my experience and talking to psychologists, the advantages of a diagnosis are:

• It provides a reference point for teachers and other adults interacting with your child to research and understand how to work with your child
• It enables you and your child to have a frank conversation about the difficulties they are experiencing – that they are not alone in feeling this way and that there is an explanation
• It allows you to access support services more readily.

 

But, there’s also a risk a label will be used against a child. As Vicky Plow explains:

Labels that focus on the difficulties a child is having do so at the expense of recognising their capabilities and strengths in other areas. Such labels can be very difficult to see past, even though they are only one part of a child’s identity. This can result in lowering adults’ expectations of children and unduly influencing their interpretation of a child’s actions.

 

So how do we make sure our kids end up like Dr Xand, dismissing the label of disruptive child and continuing his education regardless?

Maybe we need to reframe the question. Maybe a ‘label’ is not the same as a diagnosis, or it doesn’t have to be. You can have a diagnosis and then work hard not to be labelled by it. It’s about understanding your strengths, so there’s more than the ‘bad stuff’ to talk about. Building kids resiliency skills is also crucial. They will have to advocate for themselves throughout their whole life. Having a support network of people who get it is also critical. Kids how are having learning or other difficulties often need a whole lot of patience and understanding, so having people around who provide that could make all the difference.