How to Not Give Children Medication

Psychiatric medications have been taking the place of emotional bonding, effective socialization, and conscious parenting. The number of children taking medications for ADHD alone is now "well over three million," according to Wedge (2013). About five percent of all American children are also taking antidepressants (Wedge, 2013). Older students might be prescribed anti-anxiety medications too. Overreliance on medications in early childhood could cause any number of problems ranging from medication side effects, drug addiction, and even in some cases death. As Wedge (2013) points out, children whose emotions and cognitions are altered through medications also run the risk of growing up emotionally illiterate. This grounded theory research seeks a new non-pharmacological approach to working with children. The proposed theory seeks to promote emotional and spiritual growth in young children.

The goal of this exploratory research will be to discover ways children's emotions can become integrated into their education, learning, and maturation. "Because psychotropic medications tend to mute feelings, medicated children may grow up unaware of who and what make them feel good and what makes them feel bad," (Wedge, 2013). The goal in this research would be to reconnect children with what makes them feel both good and bad, thereby also reconnecting parents and teachers with the ups and downs of behavior management. "Spirituality" is the word used to describe the collection of processes and methods used to help children cope with challenging emotions, interfering thoughts that prevent concentration, peer problems, and behavioral issues. Distinct from religion, spirituality does not require deism but rather focuses on psychological growth, awareness, insight, and psychological equanimity.

Review of Literature

Methods like mindfulness medication have been revealing promising results in the research (Baer, 2015). Children exhibiting anxiety symptoms, for example, showed marked reduction in symptoms and learned the techniques of mindfulness meditation rapidly (Semple, et al., 2005).

Methods

Using a qualitative research methodology rather than a quantitative approach, the researchers can interview a diverse group of early childhood educators, including those who support the use of medications in their classrooms so as to have a balanced view of why medications are being used and how they are being used to manage behaviors or control emotions. Parents will also be included in the research. Ideally, the focus will be on younger students in the third and fourth grade because this is an age at which increasing numbers of children are being prescribed psychiatric drugs (Wedge, 2013). For ethical purposes, parents would not be asked to remove their children from their prescribed medications. Both children on and off medications can be included in the study.

A longitudinal study would be optimal, as researchers can follow the progress of the experimental group over the long period of time necessary to witness results from the interventions. Just as some medications take a few months to reveal their effects, so too do the practices of mindfulness and other methods of helping children become more emotionally literate.