SINGAPORE: Children’s mental health experts have blamed the pandemic and “brain-damaging” digital addictions for an alarming rise in disability rates among Australian school students.

Headspace founder Professor Patrick McGorry, a former Australian of the Year who is president of the International Association for Youth Mental Health, too much screen time can “harm brain development’’.

“I think the pandemic was incredibly damaging to teenagers and young adults, and 25 per cent of the increase in mental illness in young people was explained by the pandemic,’’ he said.

Professor McGorry said excessive screen time, as children spend more hours on gaming devices, smartphones, TVs and laptops, is “harmful for brain development’’.

“There’s also the fact that their parents are looking at screens all the time and not paying attention to their kids,’’ he said.

Professor McGorry, the executive director of youth mental health organisation Orygen – which just received World Health Organisation recognition in Geneva – also warned that some children could be misdiagnosed with a disability, given that schools funding for disabled students is not tied to a medical diagnosis.

“There’s no doubt that anxiety has increased a lot, but these are treatable conditions … so I don’t think disability is the right word for it,’’ he said.

“I think there’s a lot of inflation of disability around autism and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

“Kids may be struggling in different ways, but it’s getting labelled as autism and ADHD quite inappropriately.

“There is under-diagnosis in poorer schools as well, but it is a bit of a fad or fashion in some ways.’’

Dr McGorry said the boundaries for diagnosing autism and ADHD “have softened over the years’’.

“They’ve also become a more acceptable or fashionable diagnoses, so a lot of people who probably have something else they need help for are getting labelled with the wrong label,’’ he said.

The media revealed on Wednesday that eight students in a typical classroom are officially deemed to have a disability, with rates rising from 20 per cent of students before the Covid-19 pandemic to 27 per cent last year.

Cognitive and socio-emotional disabilities, including autism and ADHD, showed the biggest growth in disabilities reported by schools to federal Education Department.

Leading child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said the pandemic had “profoundly disrupted children’s social, emotional and developmental trajectories’’.

“We saw increased anxiety, school refusal, emotional dysregulation, loneliness, family stress and disengagement from learning,’’ he said.

“Many children who were previously coping adequately became more vulnerable once the structure and predictability of school disappeared.’’

Dr Carr-Gregg said there had been a “genuine increase’’ in diagnosis of autism, ADHD, anxiety disorders and emotional difficulties among Australian children.

“Teachers and parents are now more alert to neurodevelopmental and mental health concerns, and schools are under increasing pressure to formally document student needs in order to access support and funding,’’ he said.

Dr Carr-Gregg said classrooms have become more complex.

“Many children who would once have flown under the radar are now struggling in highly stimulating, digitally saturated environments, with reduced resilience, poorer sleep, less face-to-face socialisation and increasing mental health challenges,’’ he said.

The Albanese government has cut $460m from school disability loadings over the next four years, in a compliance crackdown for disability funding that now costs $5.5bn a year.

Dr Carr-Gregg said he was concerned that struggling students might “fall through the cracks’’ as a result of the crackdown, which coincide with cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

“For some families, school has become the de facto mental health and disability system,’’ he said. “Removing funding at the same time demand is rising creates the perfect storm for principals, teachers and wellbeing staff.

“One of the dangers here is that when teachers become overwhelmed, classrooms become harder to manage.’’