Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: This paper explores the mis/understandings two young children have of the behaviour ‘crisis’ besetting our schools. Specifically, this paper examines semi-structured interview talk with boys aged between six and eight years of age who were labelled by medical specialists as exhibiting Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) , that is, behaviour that is considered to be ‘inappropriate’. The data suggests that the boy’s mis/understandings of the identities of ADHD are produced from normalised school child discourses and recontextualised medical discourses. The uptake of these discourses leads to the boys constructing ADHD identities as deviant and diseased, and requiring medication. Possible consequences for the boys’ mis/understandings are discussed and those working with such labelled students are implored to assist them in better understanding the origins and treatment of labels and dealing with the outcomes of their socially constructed identities.
Author: Beryl Exley
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1512130850