The REAL Identity Crisis
Labels can open doors. They can also hold students back.
Next year will be four decades since ADHD became an official diagnosis.
I first learned about it when I was in elementary school — back when “big hair” rock was in.
The way it was described didn’t sound all that different from how my friends and I behaved.
So naturally, it made me wonder.
Then one of my best friends, “Hags”, was diagnosed the very next year.
His behavior changed drastically after that.
No more blurting out in class. No more falling out of his seat.
Some days it was like he wasn’t even there.
Everyone treated him differently after that - including me.
But not entirely in a good way.
It was like we all felt sorry for him, like he was sick.
One thing didn’t change though: how he did in school.
He wasn’t exactly a “good student” to begin with…
But to this day, I still wonder… what was the point?
Struggles don't end with a label.
Many learning barriers are formally recognized as medical conditions.
But sometimes that can get obscured by the perception that they can simply be “cured.”
That if we diagnose it early enough, everything will turn out just fine.
A diagnosis only explains why a student is struggling.
It’s time to move past the idea of, “If we only knew what was wrong…” to —“What can we do with what we know?”
Real support should happen with or without a diagnosis.
Instead of trying to change lives, what if we try to change moments?
Instead of naming behaviors, what if we figure out what's getting in the way?
We’ve improved awareness. It’s time to improve how we use it.
What This Looks Like in Real Classrooms
You’ll often see patterns like:
- Directions are lost during transitions
- Getting started turns into a battle of wills
- The work gets done... but not independently
- Students rush, avoid, or shutdown when it gets to be too much
Those aren’t personality traits.
They’re a result of learning barriers — the first signal that support needs to shift.
See the Next Steps "When Learning Hits the Wall"
When Learning Hits the Wall focuses on what happens after the label.
It helps identify precisely where and when students break down, identify the barrier that's in the way, and adjust support without lowering expectations.
- Recognize overload early (before it looks like “behavior”)
- Identify the first break: working memory, processing speed, initiation, regulation
- Adjust tasks to reduce breakdown — without reducing rigor
- Build executive functioning supports into real instruction
