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Attention deficit disorder: A creation of the medical profession?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2016

Judy Baker
Judy Baker*
Affiliation:
Coolum State High School
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Extract

They can't sit stilly they don't pay attention to the teacher; they mess around and get into trouble; they try to get others into trouble; they are rude; they get mad when they don't get their way; and they say they can beat everybody up (Whalen & Henker, 1991, p.216).

There would not be too many amongst us who have not had first hand experience with a child of this description in a class at some time during our teaching career. Whether this disorder is formally labelled or not, it is difficult to deny that these children exist, and as professionals we should acquaint ourselves with the details presented here. You read the evidence and decide!

The act of labelling is always wrought with uncertainties, as the mercurial history of Attention Deficit Disorder (now called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-ADHD) reveals. Controversy has raged for years over the recognition, classification, naming, etiology and intervention of this disorder, resulting in a hotchpotch of treatments by professionals from the medical, educational and psychological fields (Whalen & Henker, 1991). Research has been prolific but results have been conflicting and controversial, especially in terms of overlap that occurs between ADHD and other disorders.

Type
Field reports
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 4 , November 1994 , pp. 65 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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