Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash Hello everyone, Dr. Christine Powell here with another edition of my newsletter turned blog post.
If you feel like every other parent at the soccer field is talking about a new ADHD diagnosis, it’s not just your imagination. According to recent CDC data, nearly 1 million more children in the U.S. were diagnosed with ADHD in 2022 compared to just six years prior.
Why should you care? Because this isn’t just about “labels” ; it’s about a fundamental shift in how we understand the human brain. Whether your child has a diagnosis or not, the “ADHD-ification” of our world affects how our schools are run, how our workplaces function, and how we view success. As an educational therapist, a mom to a child with ADHD, and a woman navigating life with an ADHD brain myself, I’ve seen this surge from every angle.
We aren’t in the middle of a medical “trend.” We are witnessing a massive, global “catch-up.” We are finally learning to see the brilliant, scattered brains that we used to dismiss as “difficult,” “lazy,” or just “daydreamers.”
The Research: Why the Numbers are Climbing
I, like many other researchers, have blamed “too much screen time” on the uptick in ADHD symptoms, but the science is far more nuanced. Recent studies from 2024 and 2025 point to three specific reasons why our tribe is growing:
🎯Finding the Girls: For decades, the medical world only looked at the “hyperactive boy” stereotype. We now know that in girls, ADHD often looks like internal restlessness, chronic overwhelm, or extreme perfectionism. We are finally correcting a 30-year-old oversight in how we identify neurodiversity.
🎯The “Relative Age” Effect: Fascinating 2024 research confirms that children born just before the school age cutoff , meaning the youngest in their grade, are significantly more likely to be diagnosed than the oldest. This suggests that our school system cut off dates sometimes pathologize a brain that simply needs a few more months to mature.
🎯The Pandemic “Stress”: When the world moved to screens and the structure of the traditional school day vanished, the “mask” many of us used to hide our struggles slipped. For many parents, seeing their child struggle in real-time at the kitchen table provided the final, undeniable piece of the puzzle.
What This Shift Means for Parents, Teachers & Students
🙌🏻For the Parents: Trading Guilt for Strategy
As a parent, a diagnosis can feel like a heavy label, but I want to remind you: ADHD is as heritable as height. This means your child’s struggle isn’t a “parenting fail” , it’s a neurological reality. Knowing this allows you to move from being an “enforcer” to being your child’s “executive function coach.”
🙌🏻For the Teachers: Designing for Everyone
In today’s classrooms, neurodiversity is the new normal. The research is clear: strategies that help ADHD kids , like visual schedules, movement breaks, and clear, bite-sized instructions , actually improve focus for all students. We are moving toward a world where the classroom fits the child, rather than forcing the child to fit the desk.
🙌🏻For the Students: Finding Your “Manual”
For the students themselves, a diagnosis is often the first time they realize they aren’t “broken.” I tell my students that their brain is like a Ferrari engine with bicycle brakes. They don’t need a new engine; they just need to learn how to install high-performance brake pads.
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“ADHD is not a deficit of attention, but a deficit in the ability to inhibit one’s actions and sustain attention toward goals.” – Dr. Russell Barkley
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What This All Means
We aren’t “unhinged” because we are broken; we are “unhinged” because we are breaking free from the old, rigid ideas of what a “normal” brain looks like. Whether you’re a parent, a teacher, or a student, remember: we aren’t just a statistic. We are a community finally getting the understanding we’ve always deserved.
If you found this helpful, please forward & share it with someone who might benefit.
Thx,
Christine 🧩
