The experiences of primary school teachers who have children diagnosed with ADHD in their classrooms

Abstract

As children with ADHD are typically diagnosed at school entry level, when problems with especially reading and writing occur, primary school teachers are directly affected by a pressing need to become more educated on the subject of ADHD. The responsibility to teach these young children effectively, and help them to successfully cope with their struggles in an academic environment also rests with the primary school teacher. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the experiences of primary school teachers who have children diagnosed with ADHD in their classrooms. The phenomenological approach was used as a lens for collecting and interpreting data. Four participants from a private school were interviewed and transcripts were analysed and interpreted using the Interpretive Phenomenological Approach. The research findings were that the teachers experiences of having children with ADHD in their classrooms were both positive and negative and were affected by several factors including the number of diagnosed children in the classroom, the degree of severity of ADHD, support received from others, medication for ADHD and knowledge of ADHD. Copyright