Teachers as disorder-spotters: (in)decisiveness in assigning a child’s hyperactivity, impulsivity and/or inattention to ADHD as the underlying cause

ABSTRACT

Their unique observational position in the classroom allows teachers to take on an informal role as disorder-spotter. By means of focus groups in four Flemish elementary schools, this study investigates teachers’ decisiveness in assigning a child’s hyperactivity, impulsivity and/or inattention to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as the underlying cause. Results show that, when teachers talked about specific children who exhibited hyperactivity, impulsivity and/or inattention, they were, more often than not, decisive in their observation that ADHD was or was not the underlying cause of the child’s behaviours. However, several child-related factors caused teachers to be indecisive about whether ADHD was indeed at the base of a specific child’s hyperactivity, impulsivity and/or inattention.

KEYWORDS:

• Disorder-spotter
• teachers
• ADHD
• sen children

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under Grant 430-2017-00926 and the Fonds de recherche Québécois sur la société et la culture (FRQSC) under Grant 2018-NP-204941.