It is easy to think that these neurological disorders are caused by environment to a great extent; and some studies show that true deprivation does cause problems in brain development that look like ADHD.
However, this kind of claim often moves over imperceptibly but surely into blaming the parents for not providing a proper environment for the child. We were once told by a well-meaning psychologist that if we were doing time-outs properly, our DS would not have the difficulties he was having (not unlike all the docs in the 1950s who blamed autism on the "refrigerator mothers"). We were "doing them properly"; they were simply not what DS needed for learning.
Our household was quite calm in my children's early days, no TV, not a lot of hustle; and yet they became neurologically interesting. Ah, well. I'm probably doing it wrong some other way.
I don't think environment causes ADHD (sorry that isn't what I meant) I just meant that for kids who have issues the environment must be harder to manage nowadays. My brother would have fed on it and probably become even more hyper, I simply could not have functioned very well in todays classrooms (although there are certain improvements that would be better for my anxiety methods). I also think the amount of time we spent outside must have meant parenting was easier. And I had a SAHM so unlike me she wasn't trying to do housework while the kids weed watching TV.
