Table 1.
Pros and cons of diagnostic labels
| Negative consequences | Positive consequences |
|---|---|
| Focus on what is wrong with the child; may ignore aspects of environment; localize problem in the child | Provides an explanation and legitimacy |
| Parents take no responsibility | Removes blame from parents |
| Child feels failure inevitable, stops trying | Removes blame from child |
| Excuse for what is really consequence of bad teaching | Removes blame from teachers |
| Leads to stigmatization, social disadvantage and exclusion | Promotes understanding and awareness of particular difficulties; legal protection against discrimination; can give sense of belonging: support groups; allows for group action; can lead to emphasis on positive attributes |
| Resources denied to those who do not meet specific diagnostic criteria; cynical use of labels to get extra funds | Leads to access to resources; in some countries may not be able to access these without a diagnostic label |
| Focus on label rather than assessment of child's specific needs; tendency to stereotype; generalizations may obscure important differences | Recognize common patterns across children with similar difficulties |
| Child may do better with skilled teaching and not need/ benefit from other intervention | Child can receive targeted intervention |
| Same label used with different meanings leads to confusion | Facilitates communication among professionals |
| Undue reliance on unreliable criteria, especially IQ | Objective criteria from formal assessment identify problems that might otherwise get missed |
| Medicalization of non-medical disorders; social problems attributed to medical causes | Recognition of biological as well as social causes of difficulties |
| Planning in terms of numbers with difficulties, rather than making changes that benefit all children | Need to know how many children affected, for planning resources and documenting progress |
| Groups studied by researchers are artificial and findings may not generalize to most children | Researchers need to generalize across groups; labels allow for continuity across research |