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Papers by Marsha Henderson

Little research exists which explores the experiences that parents and carers of children with c... more Little research exists which explores the experiences that parents and carers of children with comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have of the support available for their children, nor how they perceive the actions and inaction of the services to impact the development of those children and their siblings. Furthermore, existing literature is focused on either ADHD or ASD, despite comorbidity estimates (Leitner, 2014; Stevens, Peng, & Barnard-Brak, 2016) being high and consistent enough for the DSM 5 (APA, 2013) to now recommend that concurrent diagnoses be made where appropriate. To obtain depth of understanding of these experiences, an interpretative phenomenological analysis was performed on data collected from semistructured interviews with three participants from northern England. Three superordinate themes emerged: (1) knowledge, (2) war, (3) impact on children. Participants perceived that (1) the process of obtaining diagnosis and support is confusing and difficult, primary care practitioners and educational professionals can be under informed, parents and carers can have expert knowledge on their children’s disorders; (2) primary care practitioners and educational professionals can be hostile towards parents and carers with concerns, educational professionals can ignore the advice of secondary health care practitioners; (3) the lack of official support impacts strongly on children with ADHD and ASD and their siblings in the areas of social relationships, emotional development, and academic development. Recommendations are made.

Keywords: parents, carers, ADHD, ASD, comorbidity, experiences, support, health care practitioners, educational professionals, interpretive phenomenological analysis

Cooperative breeding is the key to the social and lifespan evolution of our species (Hrdy, 2009).... more Cooperative breeding is the key to the social and lifespan evolution of our species (Hrdy, 2009). Homo sapiens care for others’ offspring despite serious costs in energy and their own reproduction; and this behaviour is shared with only a few other primates and wild canids (Lukas & Clutton-Brock, 2012). It is implicated in our short reproductive intervals, lengthy childhood and female post-reproductive lifespans (Bogin, Bragg, & Kuzawa, 2014). The term alloparent (Wilson, E. 1975) describes any carer other than the genetic mother or father. Alloparents provide direct care for infants around 50% of the time in populations of Maya (Kramer, 2009), Ye’kuana/Yekwana (Hames, 1988), Quom/Toba (Valeggia, 2009); Agta (Goodman, et al. 1985); and Alyawara (Denham, 1974)....

Psychopathogenesis is a complex interplay between nature, or genetic contributions, and nurture, ... more Psychopathogenesis is a complex interplay between nature, or genetic contributions, and nurture, the environmental forces impacting development from conception to death. Psychopathology includes neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), affective disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD), and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia (SZ), and others. This discussion focuses on bipolar disorder (BD), a representative example characterised by both extreme mood disturbances, and psychotic symptoms, including delusions and hallucinations (APA, 2013), and thus representative of several types of psychopathology. Furthermore, there is a substantial overlap of risk with other conditions, like ASD (Sullivan, et al. 2012), MDD, and SZ (Lichtenstein, 2009); the latter, surprisingly, greater even than that with unipolar depression (Cross-Disorder Consortium, 2013). It is a recurrent, episodic condition with high suicide rates (Ketter, 2010). BD affects around 3% of the adult population worldwide (Merikangas et al. 2011) and is one of the most heritable of psychiatric disorders, estimated at 0.89–0.93 (Kieseppa, et al. 2004; McGuffin et al., 2003).

According to the UN refugee convention (UNHCR, 1992), refugees are individuals who have left thei... more According to the UN refugee convention (UNHCR, 1992), refugees are individuals who have left their country of origin due to serious fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or as a member of a social group. Asylum seekers are those awaiting refugee status. Unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) are individuals aged under 18, or who appear to be under 18 (Home Office, 2016), without a primary caregiver. Over 90% of these children are male (Refugee Council, 2017) and 86% were aged 14 – 17 years in 2015. Therefore, although a significant minority of UASC are aged below 14, this report focuses on older adolescents. In the year ending March 2016, there were 3,206 UASC applications for asylum, representing 9% of applications for asylum in the UK. This was a 57% rise from the previous year. Of 1,982 initial decisions, 73% were granted. UASC from Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Albania represented 55% of total applications.

Attention deficit hyperactivity order (ADHD) is a complex, pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder ... more Attention deficit hyperactivity order (ADHD) is a complex, pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder which affects an estimated (Willcutt, 2012) 10.5% of preschool children, 11.4% of elementary school children, 8% of adolescents, and 5% of adults. ADHD is characterised by two dimensions: hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention (APA, 2013), which can affect people differentially throughout the lifespan. Children may continuously squirm in their seats at school; adolescents may have difficulty concentrating on their lessons; while adults may change jobs frequently. Adoption studies have long indicated greater risk in biological relatives (Cantwell, 1975 ; Morrison & Stewart, 1973; van den Oord et al., 1994); twin research (Larsson, Chang, D'Onofrio & Lichtenstein, 2014) suggests around 88% heritability across the lifespan; and empirical evidence (Thapar, Cooper, Eyre & Langley, 2012; Uchida, Spencer, Faraone, & Biederman, 2015) also strongly supports familial involvement. Greven and colleagues (2015) suggested that reduced cortical volume was influenced by familial factors. A number of candidate gene studies (Bonvicini et al. 2016) have strongly indicated the additive effects of multiple genes, mediated by neural substrates, particularly within dopamine and serotonin pathways (Faraone & Mick, 2010; Green, et al., 2008; 2013). Separate research into child (Matthews, et al. 2015; van der Niet, et al.2015), adolescent (Fried, et al. 2016) and adult (Bonvicini, et al., 2016; Hasler, et al., 2014; Onnink, et al., 2016) ADHD had lead to mixed results; although an explicitly lifespan approach (Caye, et al. 2016; Larsson, et al. 2014; Moffitt, et al. 2015) is increasingly common.

Reading is the process by which we understand written text. Reading the English writing system re... more Reading is the process by which we understand written text. Reading the English writing system requires some skill, because it is alphabetic and opaque, one grapheme does not neatly correspond to one phoneme. Reading has also been described (Tree & Playfoot, 2015) as a system which enables the pronunciation of familiar words, and the generation of pronunciations of unfamiliar words. Part one of this essay discusses and evaluates the ability of three groups of models to explain how skilled readers read irregular and pronounceable non-words; how visual lexical-decision (LD) tasks are performed; and how surface dyslexia (SD) and phonological dyslexia arise (Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller, 1993). The nature of developmental dyslexia will be examined in part two of this essay. The three groups of models are: dual route models (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 1996); connectionist dual process models (CDP+Perry, Ziegler, & Zorzi, 2007; CDP++ Perry, Ziegler, & Zorzi, 2010); and connectionist models (Harm & Seidenberg, 2004; Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989). Briefly, dual route models (Appendix 1) are rule-based, and propose that regular, irregular, and pronounceable non-words are separately processed either by a lexical or non-lexical route. Connectionist models (Appendix 2), however, suggest that words are processed through a multilayer network based on statistical regularities. Empirical evidence is largely derived from LD tasks, in which participants decide whether or not a string of letters is a real or non-word; as well as naming tasks, in which they say the words aloud (Katz, et al. 2011).

This investigation uses a revised model of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to explore the a... more This investigation uses a revised model of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to explore the attitudes and beliefs of Teachers and Teaching Aassistants (practitioners) towards the practical usage of strategies developed to meet special educational needs (SEN strategies), and how these may predict their actual use in the classroom. Little research has been carried out in the UK in recent years; perhaps due to an assumption that these strategies have become universally accepted since becoming part of general teacher education; however, it is posited that teachers' attitudes towards using them may not equate with their feelings towards inclusion in general; and should be investigated in order to ensure comprehensive use. Information on twenty-four personal and situational variables was collected from sixty-eight participants and analysed through multiple linear regression. Participants own attitudes and beliefs were found to be the strongest influence on intended behaviour, contradicting previous research which has pointed to the perceived subjective norms of others being more influential.

Drafts by Marsha Henderson

The story of how a GId diagnosis got into the DSM is similar to that of homosexuality (Drescher, ... more The story of how a GId diagnosis got into the DSM is similar to that of homosexuality (Drescher, 2012), not the result of empirical evidence, but an accident of politics and history (Winter, et al., 2016). The present discussion argues that being transgender is not a mental disorder. The diagnosis also obscures the heterogeneity of TGN experience, particularly the non-binary experience, and the non-universality of dysphoria. The existence of a TGN diagnosis makes room for harmful pseudoscience.

INTRODUCTION This essay critically compares the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5... more INTRODUCTION

This essay critically compares the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5, APA, 2013) diagnosis, gender dysphoria and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD–11, WHO, 2018) diagnosis, gender incongruence. The gender dysphoria diagnosis (Appendix 1) refers to significant distress resulting from inconsistency between sex assigned at birth (SAAB) and gender identity; the gender incongruence diagnosis (Appendix 2) refers to that inconsistency (van de Grift, et al., 2016). The present discussion will refer to the adolescent and adult diagnoses only, as those pertaining to children are outside its scope. Furthermore, neither will transvestic disorder be discussed, although it is the author’s position that this diagnosis ought to be removed.

Distress and dysfunction are at the centre of modern diagnostic frameworks (Reed, 2016); however, distress is not necessarily inherent to an inconsistency between gender identity and SAAB. The present essay will argue that a large proportion of distress comes from stigma, not dysphoria, nor incongruence themselves. The present essay will also propose that these diagnoses are in fact destructive for clients and have no place in psychological frameworks; instead, they may reinforce stigma by suggesting disease within the individual. The only use such labels should serve is purely as an administrative function for treatment, to aid multi-discipline team communication and record keeping.

Training for Staff at a Northern Psychiatric Hospital, 2021

Training has been developed to support staff who work with patients at a privately run psychiatri... more Training has been developed to support staff who work with patients at a privately run psychiatric hospital in northern England to refer to transgender-diverse individuals (TGD; Saewyc, 2017) by their preferred name, pronouns, and self- identified gender (Richards et al., 2019), at all times in conversation and documentation (Walton & Baker, 2019). Primarily it will be delivered as a stand-alone session, but if successful may become part of the hospital’s mandatory three-week induction. Patients at this hospital experience complex conditions, are either adolescents of any gender or adults assigned female at birth (AFAB). The umbrella term TGD is used, being inclusive of people of non-binary genders (Coleman et al, 2012; Dembroff, 2020; Haslanger, 2000; Hembree et al., 2009; Hyde et al., 2018; James, et al., 2016; Scandurra et al., 2019; Seal, 2017; Telfer, et al., 2018; Van Caenegem et al., 2015; Yeadon-Lee, 2016).
The consequences of any individual’s unique experiences of discrimination and stigma are greater than the sum of their parts (Crenshaw, 1989; Jefferson et al., 2013): the stigma of mental health (MH) and being TGD exacerbates MH symptoms (Richards et al., 2019; White Hughto et al., 2015). Evidence indicates widespread discrimination against TGD in MH and healthcare settings in general (Bockting et al., 1998; Cicero et al., 2019; Heng et al., 2018; Kattari et al., 2019; Kattari et al., 2020; Kcomt et al., 2020; Lambda Legal, 2010; Lombardi, 2001; Mizock & Lundquist, 2016; Powell & Cochran, 2020; Romanelli & Lindsey, 2020; Seelman et al., 2017; White & Fontenot, 2019; Whittle et al., 2008), and frequent misgendering and dead-naming of TGD in this hospital has been observed by the writer. Inadequate training may be
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implicated, and although staff who spend most time with patients often receive least training (Walton & Baker, 2019), the issue is not confined to one staff group. Inadequate training in multiple medical professions has been evidenced (Bristol et al., 2018; Dubin et al., 2018; Kattari et al., 2020; Kcomt et al., 2020; Korpaisarn & Safer, 2018; Rowan et al., 2019; Safer et al., 2016; Snelgrove et al., 2012) to lead to negative consequences for TGD. Training supports staff to feel more confident and prepared (Carabez et al., 2016; Kattari et al., 2020; McCullough et al., 2017; Valenta et al., 2018; Walton & Baker, 2019; White & Fontenot, 2019), mitigates issues of power, and leads towards a more positive environment.
Therefore, a profound need exists to train staff to adhere to the correct signifiers by demonstrating that misgendering and dead-naming are damaging both to the individual and TGD community by educating them about wider TGD issues, and by informing them of relevant laws, codes and guidelines. Fundamental to the present training are the Social GRRRAAACCEEESSS Model (Burnham, 2012); Ecological Model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; 1994); and Hagan & Smail’s (1997) power-mapping technique.

Keywords: parents, carers, ADHD, ASD, comorbidity, experiences, support, health care practitioners, educational professionals, interpretive phenomenological analysis

INTRODUCTION This essay critically compares the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5... more INTRODUCTION

Training for Staff at a Northern Psychiatric Hospital, 2021