Does Peter have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (original) (raw)
Related papers
Faculty of Education, 2006
This essay offers a critical review of the problem we call "ADHD". In the first part of the discussion, the author presents an analysis of the literature surrounding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Adopting a lens informed by the work of Foucault, she teases out the medical and psychological models to show the interdependency between these otherwise competing knowledge domains. She argues that as it currently stands the construct serves political ends and questions whether a diagnosis of ADHD is helpful and if so, for whom? In the second part, the author considers what role schooling practices might play in the pathologisation of children and interrogates the ADHD phenomenon as a symptom of the pathologies of schooling. Graham concludes by suggesting how we might arrest the rising rate of diagnosis by thinking about difference in more inclusive ways.
The end of drugging children: Toward the genealogy of the ADHD subject
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 2011
in 2008 with a multidisciplinary focus in Education Studies and an MA in Literature. His work focuses on the genealogy of ideas and practices in educational institutions, and specifically the history of disability, behavioral disorders, and abnormality in public schools. Toward this end his recent work has explored the history of attention and medication in educational institutions, especially in order to understand the proliferation of the modern ADHD subject.
The Social Construction and Reframing of Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2012
In this article, I integrate research in social construct theory, the medicalization of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and strengths-based theory to propose a change in the way American society negatively labels and interacts with people diagnosed with ADHD. This article presents examples of global perspectives on ADHD, the nature of stigma that occurs to those who receive a medical diagnosis of ADHD, and the need to reframe ADHD from a disease to that of a positive difference. The reader is asked to consider the implications for millions who suffer from the stigma of ADHD. Starting with children diagnosed with ADHD, I suggest that members of society begin to reframe ADHD as a social construct recognizing the strengths and positive traits because there are many. This is a call to all members of society, especially those professionals of the medical, psychological, social, and educational systems, to adopt a strengths-based model of support for those diagnosed with ADHD.
2013 - Sociological Perspectives on ADHD - Oxford Annotated Bilibographies.pdf
A sociological approach to ADHD begins from the position that social and historical contexts matter deeply in the ways that ADHD is understood, experienced and managed. Thus, for example, intra-professional or parent-teacher discord over the correct way to deal with symptoms, shifts in economies and educational systems that provide services to families and children, gendered stereotypes and processes of racialization, or ways of framing children as risky to others or at-risk to themselves, are important aspects of how ADHD exists in the social world. ADHD is, sociologically speaking, a very interesting and important problem in great part because these social and historical aspects of ADHD continue to trouble medical and educational approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Diagnostic rates of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have burgeoned over the past decades, beginning in the United States in the 1970’s and 1980’s, then moving primarily into other developed countries in subsequent decades.. Despite much public debate, ADHD has been enormously ‘successful’ as a diagnostic category. Similarly, rates of treating ADHD-identified children with stimulant drugs have risen in much of the developed world, although diagnostic rates vary considerably both within and between countries. Some of the controversies underpinning the ADHD debates can be seen in sections on *Diagnostic Uncertainty* , * Nevertheless, ongoing and highly public debates persist concerning the diagnosis and medical treatment of ADHD. Researchers and lay writers have argued, for example, that children with ADHD symptoms who go untreated are at risk for adult depression, heightened rates of addiction and criminality, and increased school dropout rates. On the other hand, the risks for children who do receive a diagnosis have been argued to include stigmatization as a result of being labeled with a mental health condition and dependencies on medication in both the short and the longer term for children whose treatment is typically psychopharmaceutical ather than behavioural. Some writers have argued that while ADHD may be a legitimate medical or psychological condition, medication is not the most appropriate response to its treatment, and classroom interventions should be the first, and perhaps the primary, response to children’s challenges, particularly iwhen those challenges are experienced mainly in the classroom. Within this contested terrain, parents, children, educators and helping professionals must make critical decisions about how to best respond to and assist children who are identified as problematic. It is our hope that the following bibliography may help inform such decision-making positively.
Deviant Behavior, 2001
These categories of disease all address similar collections of symptoms that speci cally describe childhood deviance. These symptoms have included, but are certainly not limited to poor performance in school, extreme extroversion, outbursts of violent behavior, inability to ''stay on task,'' thievery, disturbances in sleep patterns, morality inconsistent with age, and forgetfulness. The history of compiling these symptoms into formal diagnoses represents an increasing drive to medicalize unconventional childhood behavior. The violation of certain institutional frameworks-the school, the family, the economy, and so on-are invariably implied in such diagnoses. Though the moralistic symptoms of thievery and violence no longer have utility for the contemporary diagnosis of ADHD 1 , the current symptomatology of the disorder retains many of the themes that were present when ADHD was being diagnosed in the early part of the 20th century. According to the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition (APA, 1994) some of today's ADHD symptoms include having dif culty organizing tasks, being easily distracted by outside stimuli, dgeting with hands or squirming in one's seat, excessive talking, failing to nish schoolwork, and feelings of restlessness (see DSM-IV [APA 1994]: 78-85 for a complete listing of the symptoms and requirements for diagnosing ADHD). ADHD is an acronym embedded in popular culture, yet its conceptual history is little discussed both in the popular realm and in academia. Brief histories of ADHD have been provided by
DISCIPLINING DOMESTICITY: Framing the ADHD Parent and Child
The Sociological Quarterly, 2001
This article is a qualitative analysis of the literature that has been directed at parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The analysis explores the manner in which texts embodying etiological and treatment discourses surrounding ADHD and its diagnostic precursors (hyperactivity, hyperkinesis, minimal brain dysfunction, ADD, etc.) provide frameworks for an administration of discipline in domestic life. Through the examination of a cross-section of six popular ADHD parenting guides and supplemental textual data sources, this study analyzes how such texts gain credibility with their audience, "frame" the experience of ADHD, and prescribe methods in which the domestic sphere may regulate ADHDrelated behaviors. The textual data for the present study should be understood as "ideological representations" (Smith 1990), the analysis of which resonates with much of the disciplinary critique in contemporary social theory, especially the work of Michel Foucault (1977). As with other mental disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) becomes an integral aspect of the social life of the diagnosed person. This is the case with ADHD-diagnosed adults, but it is perhaps even more a dramatic condition for ADHD-diagnosed children. Due to their dependency upon the adult world for everything from basic sustenance to education and recreation, children are especially subject to the social ramifications of the ADHD diagnosis. Through the eyes of their educators, clinicians, and parents, the ADHD child's world requires regulation to promote the "management" of hidher disorder. Invariably, the active agents in this management are the authority figures surrounding ADHD children. In applying the ADHD mental disorder label to a child, adults take on the responsibility for structuring the child's life to meet the perceived treatment requirements in conjunction with the diagnosis. Currently there are an estimated four million school-age children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder' in the United States, concomitant with a 700 percent increase in prescriptions for stimulant medication to treat ADHD since 1990 (Diller 1998). Despite the substantial increase in diagnoses of ADHD, sociological commentary has been limited. Outside of popular accounts, including newspaper editorials and occasional journalistic essays, sociological perspectives, especially those that examine the process of "framing" ADHD, have been nonexistent. The sociological void in the
2013
Much of what has ever been written about attention affecting syndromes is subject of debate. Attempts at an explanation have varied within scientific disciplines from the very beginning. After almost three decades of a principally drug-driven practice of treatment, in recent years, ethical, social, pedagogical, and—obviously—medical concerns, regarding such an alignment’s adverse aspects, sharply regained in public as well as academic relevancy. In this paper, I am giving credit to the findings of Hüther et al., who, since 2009, investigated potential alternative ways of giving therapy to attention affecting syndromes by taking ADHD diagnosed children out into nature, discontinuing their medication for several months—and returned with results that were astonishing, showing that alternative ways of dealing with attention affecting syndromes generally existed. These findings altogether resonate with my own observations and long-standing experiences in working with adolescents in an experiential educational and Steiner/Waldorf pedagogical context, which I exemplify in order to endorse and make a reinforcing case for Hüther’s preliminary findings and hypothesis.
The New Outsiders: ADHD and Disadvantage
Recent research has pointed to the uneven distribution of diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, with disproportionately high numbers in areas marked by poverty (Gifford Sawyer et al., 2004; Olfsen et al., 2003). This chapter examines this issue of ADHD and social and economic disadvantage. Drawing on research with youth professionals from some of the most disadvantaged communities in Australia, the chapter puts forward the case that the ADHD phenomenon has highly problematic effects on the lives of children and young people in these communities. The intent is to show how the ADHD phenomenon interacts with disadvantage, and suggest how certain schooling practices that lead to the medicalization of child behavior have significant effects on people living in poverty.
Children with ADHD are wonderful!
International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation, 2018
To obey the norm is to obey the public exam, to meet the expectations that society formulates" (Neculau, 1987, p. 183). Society values the behavior of its members according to certain standards, expecting them to conform to certain cultural models. The purpose of this article is not to eliminate the specific problems of a child with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) but to be a realistic one, based on developing skills to solve the difficult situations in which such children are involved. The objectives are aimed at the behavioral description of the three components: hyperactivity, impulsivity and attention deficit; ameliorative intervention strategies: medical, psychological and psycho-pedagogical; exemplifying some useful workloads. The methods aim at behavioral change, targeting the category of constructive and integrative behaviors (Eşi, 2010, pp.24-34). Overall, I will present the behavioral characteristics of children with ADHD aged 3 to 12 years. The concrete problems faced by parents and teachers lead to outlining strategies for their effective resolution. Within the educational system, there are a number of practical exercises useful in adapting children. These children should be understood and supported by people in the immediate vicinity, in the context of knowing the causes of behavioral disorders.
Keeping Children in Place: ADHD and the Use of Drugs
This paper is departing from the idea that there is a link between the place children are supposed to occupy within the German society and the disproportionate increase of ADHD diagnosis and its medical treatment. While the question if ADHD is indeed a question is risen without being clearly answered, it shows a concerning absence of treatments other than drugs. Although medication should only serve as a last resort in heavy cases of ADHD and there are other therapies, an increasing number of children is treated with drugs at a young age on a daily dose.