The report by Unicef, the UN children's agency, warns that materialism has come to dominate family life in Britain as parents "pointlessly" amass goods for their children to compensate for their long working hours.

While parents said they felt compelled into buying more, the children themselves said spending time with their families made them happier. Unicef UK said the obsession was one of the underlying causes of the riots and widespread looting which gripped the UK last month, as teenagers targeted shops for the designer clothes and goods. The study, which was jointly funded by the Department for Education, was commissioned after an earlier Unicef report ranked Britain as the worst country in the industrialised world to be a child. It prompted David Cameron to coin the expression “broken Britain” and fuelled calls for a raft of new family friendly policies.

In its latest study Unicef commissioned researchers from Ipsos Mori interviewed hundreds of children in Britain, Sweden and Spain, asking them about their ideas of happiness and success. Researchers found that consumerism was less deeply embedded in Sweden and Spain, which rank significantly higher for the wellbeing of children. British parents work longer hours and are simply “too tired” to play with their children whom in turn they can no longer control.

Families across the country, irrespective of social class or race, are less likely to spend time, eat or play games together, with children often left to their own devices. In British households television is increasingly used as a "babysitter”, while children's bedrooms have become “media bedsits” with computers, games consoles and widescreen TVs taking the place of dolls houses or model aeroplanes.

The report found that children from poorer families were also less likely to take part in outdoor activities than those in the other countries, opting for a “sedentary” lifestyle in front of the television or computer games. The trend was more marked in teenagers. Among the more startling examples of obsessive consumerism uncovered by the report was a mother fretting over whether to buy a Nintendo DS games system for her three- year-old son conviced that he would be bullied if she did not get him one.

In Sweden family time was embedded into the “natural rhythm” of daily life with parents sharing mealtimes, fishing trips, sporting events or evenings in with their children. While in Spain fathers tended to work long hours, children enjoyed more attention from their mothers and wider family circle.

But in Britain, some parents spoke of having “given up” on taking their children to organised activities.
The report, authored by Dr Agnes Nairn, an academic and marketing expert, said: “Parents in the UK almost seemed to be locked into a system of consumption which they knew was pointless but they found hard to resist."

She concluded that there was an "enormous difference" between Britain and other countries. She said: “While children would prefer time with their parents to heaps of consumer goods, [their] parents seem to find themselves under tremendous pressure to purchase a surfeit of material goods for their children. This compulsive consumption was almost completely absent in both Spain and Sweden.”Last night Unicef called for the Government to ban advertising aimed at children under the age of 12 and encourage parents to work fewer hours and spend more time at home. It also warned councils against cutting children's playgrounds and other facilities. David Bull, Unicef's UK director, said: “Right now politicians are grappling with the aftermath of the riots and what they say about our society, culture and families.

"The research findings provide important insights into the pressures children and their families are facing and may speak to some of the underlying issues relating to the disturbances. "It is vital that those in power listen to what children and their families are saying about life in the UK. The government needs to make sure parents earn enough to spend fewer hours in work and more time with their children, protect children’s play facilities from spending cuts and consider reforming the laws controlling advertising to children.”

It comes just six weeks after a landmark Government review into childhood by Reg Bailey, the chief executive of the Mothers’ Union, which found that parents are often complicit in the sexualisation and commercialisation of children. Last night Mr Bailey said the Unicef findings echoed his own experiences.
“I think it is an issue with the nature of our society, that so often we’ve placed a dependence on things rather than being,” he said.

Sarah Teather, the Children’s Minister, said: "We share Unicef's concerns about the rise of consumerism among children, and it's worrying to see that in some cases parents are under the same pressures.
“We are clear this needs to be tackled and are currently working with businesses and regulators to implement the recommendations from Reg Bailey's review on commercialisation and sexualisation of children.”

The original Unicef report, which published in 2007, ranked Britain bottom out of 21 developed country for child welfare. It was third from bottom for educational standards, bottom for self esteem and second from bottom for the number of teenage pregnancies. British children were twice as likely as the average to have been drunk by the age of 15, and significantly less likely to be in two parent families than those elsewhere, were more likely to have tried drugs and had one of the worst diets in the developed world.

Sue Palmer, author of the book Toxic Childhood, said: “We are teaching our children, practically from the moment they are born, that the one thing that matters is getting more stuff. “We are probably the most secular society in the world, we do not have the counterbalance of religion but at the same time we are a very driven society very into progress and making money.”

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Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash was in Winnipeg on Monday to receive the St. Boniface Hospital Foundation’s International Award to recognize his humanitarian activities through the Steve Nash Foundation at a fundraising dinner held at the MTS Centre.

In the afternoon, Nash conducted a basketball clinic with members of the University of Manitoba and Winnipeg teams, as well as selected inner-city players at the Investors Group Athletic Centre.This local lad is certainly swinging sweetly this September.

SWEET SWINGER: University of Manitoba’s Josh Wytinck captured his second straight golf title when he fired a 3-under par 141 to win the 2011 Augsburg College Fall Invitational two-day tournament at Majestic Oaks Golf Course in Ham Lake, Minn., on the weekend.

That score also helped the Bisons men’s team (with Bryce Barr, Charlie Boyechko, Jesse Skelton and Bobby Wiebe) place second with a plus-18 594 among the 21 teams competing.

Wytinck won the 2011 Concordia Invitational earlier this month.

“It was another great weekend for the Bisons men’s golf team and Josh Wytinck,” head coach Garth Goodbrandson said in a release. “Josh won the individual title after another strong performance as he beat a very good field by shooting 73-68 and his 68 ties him for another Bison record.”

That 68 tied the mark set by Scott Borsa in 2005.

HIGH SCHOOL STARS: Vincent Massey Trojans running back Pardeep Khakh was named the Winnipeg High School Football League Potter Division’s offensive player of the week. The Grade 12 student rushed for 221 yards and three touchdowns in Vincent Massey’s victory over the Sturgeon Heights Huskies. Trojans teammate Eric Purcell was named top special teams player after the Grade 12 student kicked two field goals, four converts and one single. Defensive lineman McKenzie Cook of St. Paul’s Crusaders took top defensive honours for recording six tackles and one sack.

In the Vidruk West Division, Neelin Spartans RB Dylan Minshull, Garden City Gophers defensive back Keenan Koswin and Maples Marauders kick returner Jamie Turek took the honours.

In the Vidruk East, Miles Macdonnell Buckeyes receiver Jayden McKoy, Steinbach Sabres DL Garrett Friesen and Beaver Brae Broncos offensive guard Jordan O’Connor got recognized.

In the Currie Division, Elmwood Giants RB Tyree Cayer, Giants teammate Andrew Ricard and St. Norbert Celtics returner/kicker Fergus Branton were the players of the week.

NORTH HOT: Carman’s Dean North shot 9-under par 135 at the Pine Ridge Golf Club to win the PGA Manitoba’s Calloway Fall Classic on Monday. North, who posted round scores of 5-under 67 and 4-under 68, beat Glendale’s Andrew Steep (151) by 11 strokes.

END OF LINE: The Transcona Railers have pulled out of the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League because they found it too difficult to find enough competitive players, the MMJHL announced.

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There was a big surprise at Diane Von Furstenberg this afternoon when both Oscar de la Renta and Valentino, fashion’s singing designers, turned up the front row. And they were wearing almost the same thing.

It wasn’t quite a fashion faux pas. Mr. de la Renta, who serenaded shoppers last week during Fashion’s Night Out, wore a khaki suit with a nicely tailored blue shirt, open at the collar. Valentino, who brought down the house at Carine Roitfeld’s party last night with his renditions of “My Way” and “Unforgettable,” wore a taupe-ish suit with a blue shirt and tie.

For a moment, some of us across the way were hoping that their coordinated outfits meant that they might be planning a duet on Ms. Von Furstenberg’s runway, or possibly forming a new boy band.

Alas, Mr. de la Renta said, no. He hadn’t even heard about Valentino’s performance. “Where was this?” he asked. Oh, well. Ms. Von Furstenberg’s collection included a lot of simple floral prints on all manner of sportswear, the color-saturated sort that recalled Warhol paintings and Scandinavian textiles. Some of her outfits had little belts with pockets attached; a couple of others came with matching backpacks. Early in the show, there were two brown tweed dresses, one simply cut with an aqua collar, the other nicely draped, both of which suggested that Ms. Von Furstenberg, if she had to, could make a burlap sack look good.

At the end of the show, she took her bow with the designer Yvan Mispelaere and a handful of American flags, which she distributed to familiar faces throughout the audience.

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It dawned on Paul Watson after his bucks party that of the nine mates in attendance eight had children but only one was married. ''That's why there wasn't much talk of weddings,'' he recalls. The 31-year-old data engineer from Marrickville had stumbled upon a phenomenon that has been highlighted in a controversial report about Australian families: an increasing number of children are being born out of wedlock.

The author of For Kids' Sake, Patrick Parkinson, a law professor at Sydney University, says the rise in ex-nuptial births and the prevalence of divorce and lone parent families are major reasons for a deterioration in children's well-being. The remedy, he argues, lies in strengthening relationships, in particular in encouraging people to get married and stay married. The nation needs a mass expansion of relationship and parent education courses, led by trained volunteers, he says.

But not everyone agrees with Parkinson's premise that life for children is much worse than a decade or two ago, and some see in his remedy just another example of middle-class welfare. Michael Dunne, professor of social epidemiology at the Queensland University of Technology, says data from around the developed world, including Australia, shows that for most children, life is getting better, not worse.

An avalanche of notifications to child protection agencies has been prompted by mandatory reporting and greater sensitivity to children's welfare, but the actual proportion of physical and sexual abuse cases that are substantiated has declined, Professor Dunne said.

The same is not true for emotional abuse and neglect, so there is still plenty of work for child protection agencies, ''but at the very serious end of child abuse there is no indication things have got worse''.
Bullying of school children has declined dramatically since the 1990s, according to a study in 27 European countries and North America, he says, and there is no reason to believe the situation is different here. ''There is no increase in nastiness to children that they're reporting,'' he says.

Bryan Rodgers, professor of family, health and well-being at the Australian National University, said the evidence showed Australians in their 20s reported less abuse and neglect than did the generation aged in their 40s.

This was despite younger people being more likely to have parents who were divorced or separated. ''In the period where the likelihood of parental divorce doubled, kids were saying they were less likely to be abused or neglected,'' he said.

The director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Don Weatherburn, author of Delinquent-Prone Communities, pointed to a fall in most categories of crime over the decade, and a plateauing in assaults, as indication that parents are doing something right. Deaths from heroin overdose are also one-third of what they were in 2001. ''I'm not saying it's not a good thing to have close family relations, and divorce can be highly traumatising, but pressing the panic button is unjustified,'' he said.

What we may be seeing, says Dunne, is a concentration of problems in a relatively small proportion of families, rather than the population-wide crisis that alarms Parkinson. In NSW, for example, the top 11 per cent of ''frequently reported'' sibling groups account for half the child abuse reports to Community Services.

And that's why Dunne calls Parkinson's plan for an exponential increase in family education courses as ''middle-class'' welfare. What is needed, he says, are better interventions for seriously dysfunctional families. ''You don't see family life falling apart for the majority,'' he says, ''but it is definitely under threat for those suffering multiple disadvantages.''

Experienced social workers, such as Linda Mondy, of UnitingCare Burnside, say they encounter families with much more complex problems than 20 years ago. ''What I've noticed is an increase in alcohol and other drug use, and domestic violence,'' she says.

Some drug users from the '80s and '90s have carried the habit from their youth into their parenting years, says Professor Richard Mattick, of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. And increased alcohol consumption due to the switch to wine and higher alcohol content in beverages is a big problem for many families.

Life for some children has always been cruel. Are greater proportions suffering today? That can depend on the statistics used, experts say, while applauding Parkinson for trying to improve children's well-being.
Whether a focus on marriage, rather than say on alcohol abuse and domestic violence, is useful remains contentious.

For most, marriage is a logical step. Paul Watson, who marries Anja-Mia Woodward on October 2, after having lived together for five years, wants a public celebration of his commitment. He believes marriage can provide children with a sense of security. ''It's not completely rational but it was something we felt was right,'' he said.

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There have been many afternoons this summer when a major league ballpark has been turned into a classroom for Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and his staff.

As the losses have mounted, the coaching staff has had to go over fundamentals again and again with players the organization still considers prospects. Even before the September call-ups arrived, Gardenhire had young players on the field at 2 p.m. some afternoons, working on relays and other fundamentals that should have been mastered in the minors.

The Twins looked to their farm system for help this summer, and the system has let them down.

John Manuel, editor-in-chief of Baseball America, wrote in an e-mail that he probably would rank the Twins farm system between 16th and 20th among the 30 major league clubs.

"It's definitely thinner in impact talent at the top [minor league teams],'' he wrote.

The Twins pride themselves on having a strong farm system, so the dip in production is a sensitive issue for them. The so-called "Twins Way'' of sound, fundamental baseball has given way to a summer of mental and physical miscues that needs to be addressed. Sometime next week, the Twins are expected to announce some changes to their minor league staffs in an attempt to address some of the problems with developing their prospects.

"Little things,'' Gardenhire said. "Balls put in play, hit-and-runs, all the little things that have been Twins baseball. Catching the ball, throwing to the right base. All are things we need to continue to get better at.

"It's just coming up the ladder, and it is about paying more attention to it, all of us. We have to start paying attention to the little details of the game and doing a better job to make these players a little more ready for this thing.''

Glaring shortcomings

The Twins feel that Danny Valencia, a 19th-round pick in 2006, can be a good third baseman, but he's not a finished product. Valencia at times struggles on balls hit to his left and has been slow to react to other balls because his first move is to rise up, rather than move toward the ball.

Trevor Plouffe, a first-round draft pick in 2004, has a strong arm and should be able to play shortstop in the majors. But Gardenhire has had to show Plouffe how to throw to first without having the ball sail on him.

Luke Hughes, a free agent signing out of Australia, has struggled to hit breaking balls and hasn't mastered a position.

Who's at fault for them reaching the majors without addressing these issues?

"Some of it is the individual and some of it is on us,'' said Rob Antony, the Twins' assistant general manager. "There is no easy way to answer any of this.

"It has been very encouraging the way Trevor Plouffe has been going this year. We need some offense in our lineup, and I think he can be an offensive contributor, and he's going to need to work on his defense whether he's at second, short or third, or first base or the outfield. It's probably our fault he hasn't moved around more to play other positions.''

Most of the Twins call-ups have been from Class AAA Rochester, which is coming off of a historic two-year run of futility. Rochester was 49-95 last season. The Twins decided to sign nine veteran minor leaguers in an attempt to help the Red Wings win more games. That way, their prospects at the Class AA level wouldn't have to be rushed.

This year's Red Wings went 53-91, becoming the first International League team to lose 90 games in two consecutive years since 1961-62.

With the Twins using the disabled list 24 times this year, they had to tap Rochester for help more than they wanted. That certainly affected the talent level there. But the lack of fundamentals displayed by some of the call-ups raises the question of whether talent is the only problem.

When Twins first baseman Justin Morneau spent a week at Rochester on a rehab assignment, several persons close to him said the former MVP was surprised that players weren't taking early batting practice. There were several people in the Twins clubhouse who said they had heard concerns about the Red Wings' work ethic.

"I don't know who would say something like that, that we don't work hard enough,'' said ex-Twin Tom Nieto, who has managed Rochester the past two seasons. "As far as doing our pregame work, we didn't change anything we did last year to this year. We did our early work, early infield work, early hitting."

When asked about it, Morneau said that time and availability of the hitting cage there might have been factors and that he knew players there wanted to work. But when Morneau was asked about how much work he put in, he indicated help was available if players wanted it.

"It depends on how bad you want it, I guess,'' Morneau said. "If I wanted to hit and couldn't find someone to throw, I think I would have found a way to do it.''

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Smoking doesn't just harm children's health — it also may lower their performance in school and cost their families money. That's because children who live in homes where at least one person smokes inside the house miss more days of school than children who live in nonsmoking homes, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston reported this week. Their nationwide study, which was published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, backs up findings of earlier research in California and New Jersey.

The team combed through federal survey data to assess the link between smoking and school absenteeism. Respondents to the 2005 National Health Interview Study had provided information about the number of people who smoked in their homes, children's general health, incidence of ear infection over the previous 12 months, incidence of a cold over the previous two weeks and asthma diagnosis, among other health and demographic details. The researchers looked at children between age 6 and 11, excluding children 12 and above to minimize chances that smoke exposure — and missed school — came from students themselves doing the smoking.

More than 14 percent of the children in their sample lived in a house where at least one person smoked indoors, and 6 percent lived in a home where two or more people did. Echoing demographics of smokers and nonsmokers in general, surveyed homes with no indoor smoking were more highly educated, earned higher incomes and were more likely to be Latino.

The researchers found that living with someone who smoked in the home raised a child's likelihood of missing school and living with more than one person who smoked in the home raised that likelihood even higher: Children living with one adult who smoked in the home had 1.06 more days absent from school per year than children who lived with none. Children who lived with two or more adults who smoked in the home missed 1.54 more days than smoke-free children.

In all, the authors attributed 24 percent of absences among children with one smoker in the house to smoking-related illness. For children living with two or more indoor smokers, that went up to 34 percent of absences. A child's likelihood of having three or more ear infections in a year went up with the number of people who smoked in the house. Children with two smokers in the house had more colds. But the survey data uncovered no relationship between smoking in the house and asthma.

Missing school has obvious ramifications for educational performance. But it also can hit families' pocketbooks when parents have to miss work to nurse a child's cold or ear infection. The researchers estimated that caregivers' time tending to children who were absent from school amounted to $227 million per year. "When young children are home from school, parents may miss time at work or have to find alternative sources of child care. Such a burden will be especially acute for low-income parents ... and single parents. Parents working low-paying jobs at small business may even be vulnerable to job loss," they wrote.

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The report For Kids' Sake, commissioned by the Australian Christian Lobby and to be launched in Canberra on Tuesday, found the wellbeing of many children and young people, especially adolescent girls, had deteriorated in the past 10 to 15 years.

Professor Patrick Parkinson, the report's author, examined the extent to which this is the result of the increasing fragility of Australia's family life.

"Governments, perhaps the community at large, tend to see social problems as being like spot fires ... rarely do we see the spot fires as a symptom rather than an isolated problem to be addressed," Prof Parkinson said. "Rarely do we recognise the possibility that behind the visible spot fires, a major bushfire is burning."

Child protection, adolescent mental health and a broad range of issues were studied in the report. It includes previously unpublished data over a 10-year period of hospitalisations from self-harm rising 66 per cent among children aged 12 to 14 years old and by 90 per cent for girls aged 15 to 17.

The adverse impact of the rise in parental separation because of divorce and the breakdown of cohabiting relationships and the increase in children born to single mothers is highlighted in the report.

The presence of new partners not biologically related to the children and the financial and other stresses of lone parenting increased the risk to children, Prof Parkinson said. "In Australia, the number of children who do no reach the age of 15 in an intact family with both of their biological parents has almost doubled within a generation.

"While not all problems faced by Australia's children today can, by any means, be attributed to the consequences of unstable and conflictual family relationships, the fragility of Australian families over recent generations has been a major contributing factor."

Prof Parkinson made 14 recommendations, including calling on the government to provide funding to help strengthen relationships between couples and to run programs for couples before they live together and ahead of marriage.

He has also called for the establishment of a Families Commission to co-ordinate the work of the federal government in strengthening family relationships and in reducing conflict between parents who have separated.

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The twenty-nine-year-old woman who had strapped her sons to herself and jumped into a pond in Kogilu Layout near Yelahanka on Friday has been identified as Kamakshi. On Saturday morning, the police identified the woman, her son Gagan, 3, and her adopted son Chethan, 5—residents of Ajwara village near Chikkaballapur.

Kamakshi married cab driver Shivakumarachari eight years ago. She was very attached to her two sons. The couple had a fight over the husband not buying new clothes for the children for Ganesha festival. Agitated, she came to her elder sister Shanthamma’s house in Kogilu Layout.

Kamakshi reportedly told her sister that she will head back to her village and left Shanthamma’s house. Shanthamma believed that her sister went back to her husband.

But, Kamakshi, who had been fuming, instead went to a pond near Kogilu Layout, tied her children to her and jumped into the pond. The trio died the same day, the but tragedy came to light only on Friday when the locals found the bodies floating in the pond. The Yelahanka police had shifted the bodies to the Bowring Hospital for identification.

A worried Shanthamma called Kamakshi’s husband as soon as she heard of a woman found dead along with two kids in the pond.

He told her that Kamakshi had not returned home. They contacted the police and later rushed to the hospital and identified the bodies. The police have handed over the bodies to the relatives after the post-mortem examination.

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A $20 donation can do wonders for a child going back to school this September, and as kids gear up to hit the books, St. Catharines-Thorold Community Care is helping to give them the supplies they need to start off the school year with a smile.

It's not easy for all families to provide the necessities that come along with a new school year and that's why Community Care works throughout the summer collecting supplies, schools bags, snacks, stationary, sneakers and monetary donations.

Financially, the cost of back-to-school products adds up, but CEO of Community Care, Betty-Lou Souter, believes kids should be filled with positive self-esteem when returning to school for the year, and Snack 'n' Sneakers, Community Care's back to school program, helps make that possible.

Throughout the last few weeks Community Care has worked within the community to collect donations, so on August 29 when it opens its doors to registered clients, kids get what they need to head back to school, ready to learn.

Snacks 'n' Sneakers has been running in the area for the last few years and the initiative behind the program is to help as many children as possible. "We firmly believe every child should put their best foot forward when starting school," Souter said.

On Monday, clients will have the opportunity to visit Thorold's Community Care on Albert St. West to load up on back to school products; everything will be given away on a first-come, first-served basis, based on supply and demand.

But the only reason the program succeeds every year is from the help of supporters and businesses in the community who lend a helping hand.

Souter said Community Care relies on donations in the community; $20 supplies a new pair of sneakers and snacks while $50 cash donations can offset the cost of snacks, sneakers and a backpack filled with supplies like coloured pencils, pens, binders and markers.

Souter added the cost of sneakers adds up quick, especially with the new mandate in most schools that require students to have at least two pairs of shoes—a pair for indoors and a pair for outdoors.

Healthy snacks are an important part of the program in getting the kids to start off a new year with healthy and nutritious habits. Community Care supplies snacks like pudding and fruit cups, granola bars and cheese and cracker snack packs. But with peanut allergies on the rise, all food products exclude any trace of peanuts.

Community Care in Thorold aims to help as many families as it possibly can this September. "We can help upwards of 50 clients which is just the tip of the iceberg," Souter said.

Though the program will come to a wrap-up on Monday, Community Care will continue accepting donations for back-to-school items. "As much support as we get in we crank it back out; it's really a community-driven program."

The reason the program is important, according to Souter and staff at Community Care, is because it helps children get back to school on an "equal footing". "Kids can be very judgmental towards their peers and this program helps by boosting self-esteem in children."

She said there is nothing like seeing the smiles on the children's faces when they come in to pick out a new pair of sneakers.

Souter said the need for backpacks at this time of year is high, but the United Way has been a large help with providing donations. Community Care will host Snacks 'n' Sneakers for registered clients from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, August 29.

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Reading and math problems often raise red flags for teachers and parents, but "written-language disorder is kind of overlooked," said study author Dr. Slavica Katusic, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Writing "is a critical skill for academic success, social and behavioral well-being," she added. And if writing problems aren't noticed early on and addressed in kids with ADHD, they can suffer long into adulthood, Katusic told Reuters Health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, close to 10 percent of kids ages four to 17 in the U.S. have ever been diagnosed with ADHD -- a number that has been on the rise in recent years.

The current study included close to 6,000 kids -- everyone born in Rochester between 1976 and 1982 who was still living there after age 5. Katusic and her colleagues tracked school, tutoring and medical records to see which kids showed signs of ADHD, as well as how well they performed on writing, reading and general intelligence tests through high school.

In total, 379 of the kids fit the criteria for ADHD, which was more common in boys than girls, the study authors report in Pediatrics. Of all kids in the study, just over 800 scored poorly on tests of writing abilities. Most kids who had trouble with writing also had reading difficulties.

Writing problems were much more common in both boys and girls with ADHD. Close to two-thirds of boys with ADHD had trouble with writing, compared to one in six boys without ADHD.

For girls, 57 percent with ADHD had a writing problem, compared to less than 10 percent without ADHD. And girls with ADHD were almost ten times more likely to have a combination of writing and reading disorders compared to girls without the condition.

Memory and planning problems in kids with ADHD may affect the writing process, the authors explain, and ADHD has been linked to learning disorders in the past.

Annette Majnemer, who has studied handwriting in kids with ADHD at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said that many with the disorder seem to have difficulty with that component of writing.

"It might be partially the fact that they're inattentive and distractable and hyperactive," she told Reuters Health. It's also possible that motor skills and coordination problems are partly to blame, said Majnemer, who was not involved in the new research.

Katusic added that genetics might be behind both ADHD and some writing problems, but that in general, it's very hard to tease out exactly how ADHD is linked to writing and reading disorders.

Treatment for the ADHD, as well as individual education plans that address some of those related difficulties, can help, Katusic said -- especially if they're started when problems first arise.

"When parents notice something or teachers notice something, (kids) have to be treated not only for ADHD, but they have to be tested to see if they have other learning problems," she said.

"Clinicians and the teachers have to emphasize that the testing has to be done for everything, every kind of learning disability," Katusic said. "It has to be identified early and the treatment has to start early."

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