Mental Health Approach May Be Harming Kids, Not Helping

The intense pressure on students to achieve academic perfection is leading parents and educators to seek diagnoses and accommodations for struggles that may be normal parts of development, potentially harming children's mental health, according to a clinical neuropsychologist.

Dr. Katie S. Davis, author of "Actually, You're Fine," explains that this tendency to pathologize everyday challenges can inadvertently foster feelings of helplessness and anxiety in children. She points to the example of a high-achieving tenth grader, 'Zach,' who scored a 34 on the ACT but felt it was insufficient for his college aspirations. Zach sought accommodations, such as time-and-a-half on tests, believing a perfect score was necessary, despite already being in the top percentile of test-takers nationally.

"When nothing is enough, when excellence is the minimum acceptable, we fall short," Davis writes. "And when we fall short, we reach for labels and accommodations and services to close the gap." While acknowledging that real disorders require support, she contends that medicalizing normal developmental struggles backfires, making children more miserable.

The expert notes that society's obsession with numbers and measurements begins early, from tracking children's growth percentiles to obsessing over standardized test scores. This constant comparison can lead to anxiety, where even average scores are perceived negatively. Davis emphasizes that many traits, like attention and anxiety, function best in a healthy middle range, and that excessive or insufficient levels can be detrimental.

"Most scores are also imperfect descriptors of what we can do," Davis states. "We try hard to measure and quantify our traits and abilities, but those measurements are snapshots in time... And, finally, the best predictors of success are things like perseverance, creativity, and people skills, which usually can't be measured at all."

This pressure creates a bind for parents, who may feel compelled to intervene if their child struggles, fearing a disorder, or if they excel, worrying about perfectionism or anxiety. The resulting interventions, while well-intentioned, come with an opportunity cost. Time and money spent on therapy could otherwise be used for enriching activities like sports, camps, or playdates, which can foster crucial skills like perseverance and creativity.

Davis argues that by medicalizing struggles, society may be working against children's mental health. Diagnostic labels can externalize problems, diminishing a child's sense of control and the perceived value of effort. Similarly, accommodations that allow students to avoid difficult tasks can hinder their development of coping mechanisms, reinforcing anxiety rather than alleviating it.

"We mobilize all these supports to protect our kids' mental health, but we might actually be working against it," she explains.

To combat this, Davis suggests reframing