1. my short (four years) experience in Special Education and,
2. on the "stuff" I was taught while getting my Masters in Educational Psychology,
I believe that the "Disorders" mentioned in this article MAY be real, but they are nowhere near as prevalent as the educational psychologists and educational psychiatrists and the NEA would have us believe. Remember, their living depends on this!
Special Education, at least in the school in which I taught, was a dumping ground for all the kids who did not fit into the predetermined slot which the teacher thought he should occupy.
There are kids who are difficult to teach, but there have ALWAYS been kids who have been difficult to teach. Today the teacher and school administrations are handicapped by the threat of litigation and by the threat of adverse action that may be taken against them by higher-ups in the feeding chain. The adminstration threatens the teacher. The school board threatens the administration. The parents threaten everybody with a court action.
There is also the fact that teachers want to be rid those students who don't fit the mold and want to get them out of the classroom. The various "Diseases" mentioned in the article are seen as easy ways to be rid of them.
If the kid is readmitted to the mainstream classroom, it is usually with the proviso that he be put on some drug to "correct his behavior".
OK, this has been more or less a rant, but the present practices ordained by the educational psychology/psychiartry bunch is NOT helping the education of our young people.
One big difference today is that the schools get paid extra for each kid they find that is difficult to teach.