Browsing by Subject "ADHD"

The symptoms of ADHD can cause many challenges for children and adolescents in school. Today, traditional learning environments are challenged by more open, flexible learning environments. However, there is only little earlier research on classroom experiences in flexible learning environments and classroom experiences comparing traditional and flexible learning environments have not been studied from the perspective of students with ADHD symptoms. In addition, previous research has shown that students with symptoms of ADHD often experience lower self-esteem than their peers. It is also known that girls are more likely to report lower self-esteem than boys. The purpose of this study is to examine how students at risk for ADHD experience their self-esteem, engagement, autonomy, relatedness and competence in traditional and flexible learning environments. In addition, this study examines whether there is a gender difference in the above-mentioned experiences. The theoretical basis of the research is the self-determination theory, to which autonomy, competence, relatedness and engagement are essentially connected. The data was collected from students in grades 7 and 8 who had participated in the Learning, grouping, evaluation and well-being in large learning areas project of the city of Vantaa and the University of Helsinki Education Assessment Center in 2019–2020. Of all 7–8th graders (N 1446), students at risk of ADHD (n 113) were selected for the study. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to examine the connections between attention, self-esteem, and the components of self-determination theory. Next, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine whether there is a difference between traditional and flexible learning environments in self-esteem, autonomy, competence, relatedness and student engagement in students at risk for ADHD. The same method of analysis was used again to examine whether there is a gender difference in self-esteem, autonomy, competence, relatedness and student engagement in students in the risk group of ADHD. The data was analyzed by using IBM SPSS Statistics 26. The results showed that the experiences of self-esteem and the components of self-determination theory (student engagement, autonomy, relatedness and competence) did not differ depending on the learning environment in students at risk of ADHD between traditional and open plan (flexible) learning environments. However, experiences of self-esteem, autonomy and engagement among at-risk students in ADHD differed between the sexes, with girls having lower self-esteem and experiencing less autonomy and engagement than boys.

The aim of this study was to shine light to ADHD as a phenomenom in a teachers career. Hypothesis was that a teacher can have ADHD but it doesn’t make a teacher unqualified. This study focused on key themes of ADHD which were hardships, compensation or alleviation of these hardships and strengths in a teacher’s career. Research shows that ADHD can cause hardships but it is also possible to affect these hardships with certain actions (Lehtokoski, 2004, 75−78; Nadeau, 2005, 550; Adler & Florence, 2006, 41−42; Michelsson ym,. 2004, 21 & 93). Research also states that ADHD can also be a strength, which means that it is important for an ADHD individual to find a job that fits those personal ADHD related traits (Hansen, 2017, 13 & 114; Michelsson ym., 2004, 93). Research question was to find out how teachers experience their professional identity and teacherhood and which hardships and strengths they experience in their career as a teacher because of ADHD diagnosis. This study was executed by interviewing seven teachers from varying levels of education with means of semi-structured interview. Answers in these interviews were analysed with means of qualitative content analysis. Results of this study consisted of many experiences about teacherhood and a teacher’s professional identity from teachers who have ADHD diagnosis. Experiences about teacherhood and teachers’ professional identity were in line with earlier research about teacherhood. Although in this study the teachers emphasized a bit more on humanity and understanding as part of teacherhood and related personality traits. ADHD can affect the working of a teacher via hardships as well as strengths. Teachers brought up many different hardships, compensation methods and strengths related to ADHD. For example, hardships with time management and memory were brought up in these interviews. These for example can be alleviated by using a calendar and other sources of written reminders of important things. The use of ADHD medication was also mentioned in some form on most interviews. ADHD related strengths were linked to more humane and understanding approach to students, creativity, efficiency, increase of neuropsychiatric knowledge and curious or enthusiastic lifestyle. ADHD affects a teachers work, but it most certainly does not mean, that the teacher would face big problems in his or her career because of ADHD. It is important that a teacher with ADHD finds his own best way to do things and to find out his or her strengths as well as to utilize them. In this way a teacher can succeed in their line of work despite of their hardships. ADHD related traits or attributes do not define an individual, its more about how they can be utilized and alleviated via different solutions in work related environment, if needed.

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Objective. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is developmental neurobiological disability. The aim of the current study was to examine what symptoms women diagnosed as adults with ADHD recognize emerged in their childhood before puberty, which symptoms were reported to manifest together and whether the reported symptoms fit the diagnostic criteria used by health care. In addition, the aim was to find out which were the most common reasons to apply for support as an adult. Untreated ADHD has been found to be associated with depression, exclusion from education, and an increased risk of substance use. Early identification and proper targeting of support measures can reduce health risks and improve quality of life. Method. The data were collected through the online survey, that the Finnish ADHD Association published on social media carried on the social network service Facebook in April 2020. The questionnaire was made based on previous research for this study, and was created with the E-lomake -program of the University of Helsinki. The participants (n = 360) were women diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood, aged 20 to 50 years, who retrospectively assessed their own ADHD symptoms in childhood. The data thus gathered was analysed using statistical methods in the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 -program. Results and conclusions. The most commonly reported symptoms of ADHD included attentional regulation, systemicity, minor motor restlessness, and emotional and verbal impulsivity. The most common symptoms were reported to be co-occurring, but the review of also showed large variability for some symptoms. Of the eleven most commonly reported symptoms, only three were directly related to the diagnostic criteria in use. The most common reasons for applying assessment of ADHD as an adult were the identification of one's own symptoms, previously diagnosed depression, and feedback from close relatives. Based on this thesis, the diagnostic criteria in use do not adequately cover the dimensions of girls ’ ADHD symptoms are expressed. Two of the common symptoms were absorption in games intense and losing sense of time, that is comparable to with hyperfocusing, and clinging to details. The results are consistent with previous research data; the diagnostic criteria are based on research data obtained from boys with ADHD.

Approximately 5% of the Finnish population has ADHD. The main criteria for a diagnosis are deficits in sustained attention, behavioral inhibition and hyperactivity. Aside from these, ADHD also includes e.g. restlessness, impatience and difficulties with self-regulation. The symptoms are causing problems in many areas of ADHD patient´s lives. They also tend to affect people around them. The aim of this thesis is to examine how adults with ADHD describe their lives before and after the diagnosis. The focus is mainly on the description of their self-efficacy, self-esteem, identity and stigma. The aim is also to examine how the individals felt about getting the diagnosis, since it is usually a significant turning point in life. This qualitative study uses life stories as a method of collecting data and analysis. The participants have been diagnosed with ADHD after the age of 30. This enables to examine the life without a diagnoses, care or attention, and inspect if getting the diagnosis has had any positive consequences. Semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection method to answer the research questions. The results of this study demonstrate the lives of the participants as chaotic and eventful. They appear as typical for a person with ADHD, including addictions, school dropouts and divorces. The self-efficacy and self-esteem appear low, especially as a teenager, but the diagnosis seems to have had a positive effect. The participants describe ADHD as an important part of their identity. The stigma brought on by ADHD is focused on the symptoms rather than the diagnosis itself.

Objectives. Character-strengths-based (CSB) pedagogy stems from positive psychology’s PERMA theory. CSB pedagogy has been studied in Finland to an increasing extent since the 2010s and internationally since the early 2000s. The research results show it has positive effects on, for example, support for the inclusive school system, student well-being, learning motivation among students with special needs, and student participation. The aim of this research was to find out what kind of experiences and perceptions class teachers have about the importance and implications of becoming aware of, acknowledging, and developing character strengths. This research was also interested in what significances CSB pedagogy has among students with neuropsychiatric abnormalities according to class teachers, as well as classroom teachers’ perceptions of 5th–6th graders’ awareness of their own character strengths. One hypothesis was that classroom teachers perceive CSB pedagogy to be particularly important with ADHD students. Another hypothesis was that CSB pedagogy is used in Finnish primary schools with a very varying volume and in different ways. Methods. This research included both interview and questionnaire surveys. The analysis was carried out both qualitatively and quantitatively and by means of mixed methods. Interview material was six classroom teachers. Questionnaire was 106 respondents. Results and conclusions. Results support the use of CSB pedagogy in primary school. Perceived ease of using CSB pedagogy, the school's commitment to CSB pedagogy, and the perceived guidance to CSB pedagogy in national core curriculum for basic education have the biggest effect on the perceived importance of CSB pedagogy. One of the general views of the effects of CSB pedagogy was that it had beneficial effects on school-positivity and classroom atmosphere. The interview material much emphasized the preventive role of CSB pedagogy, especially among students with behavioral challenges or ADHD.

This study examines how psychoculture which means the psychologization of everyday life, is constructed in news coverage concerning adult ADHD. It is interesting to look at psychoculture in the context of adult ADHD, because adult`s problems with attention and hyperactivity only began to be categorized as psychiatric disorder in 1994. This despite the fact that the real underlying causes of the phenomenon have not yet been proved by clinical methods. The topicality of this study is also reflected in the fact that ADHD has gained a lot of media attention in recent decades, which has been seen to be associated with a significant increase in ADHD diagnoses. In this study, adults ADHD and psychoculture are seen as socially constructed phenomena. Since the research material is constructed by news and attached to media, it is natural to approach the phenomenon with discourse analytical view. This means, that the use of language is considered to play a key role in constructing social reality. In this study, rhetoric analysis was chosen as the method of analysis. The aim of this analysis method is to study the construction of reality through the use and argumentation of linguistic rhetorical means. The study showed that news coverage related to adult ADHD manifested psychoculture by reproducing the mechanic of therapeutic authority through rhetoric argumentation and excluding certain aspects of the phenomenon of ADHD from the coverage. In line with the idea of therapeutic authority, individual`s problems in various areas of life, such as everyday life and working life were problematized. Based on analysis mainly neuro-psychological explanations, and medical or therapeutic solution, such as psychiatric drugs or peer support for ADHD was provided. The analysis showed that the challenges and problems of people’s everyday lives were seen as individual-driven, and solving these problems was seen as the responsibility of the individual. A process reflecting the psychologization in which problems of everyday life are transformed into psychological problems, which eventually become medical-scientific problems for example through the use of psychiatric language, was found in the news.

Aims of the study. Relative age refers to age differences between children in a school class or in another age-based group of children. In research conducted in the United States and Canada, relative age has been connected to the probability of being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). According to studies, children who are the youngest in their class have a higher probability of being diagnosed with ADHD. Researchers have hypothesized that this effect could be explained by teachers mistaking the immaturity of the youngest children for ADHD. Other possible mechanisms of the relative age effect include underdiagnosing the relatively older children in a class, and the classroom environment exacerbating ADHD symptoms in the relatively younger children. The aim of this study is to examine whether relative age has an influence on the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses among the patients of Finnish specialized medical care in Helsinki Metropolitan area. Methods. This study compared the birth date distributions of patients diagnosed with ADHD (the sample) and all those born in Helsinki within the same time period as the sample (1983-2011) with a x2 goodness-of-fit test. The sample (N=3051) consisted of patients from child psychiatric and child neurological specialized medical units at the Helsinki University Central Hospital (HUCH), including patients of outpatient clinics as well as of inpatient wards. The sample included all patients treated for ADHD at the aforementioned units between 2nd January 2000 and 2nd May 2013. During their treatment, patients were between 1 and 18 years of age. In total, 2596 of them were boys and 455 girls. The data was collected from hospital patient records. Results and conclusions. The birth date distribution of patients diagnosed with ADHD differed statistically significantly from the birth date distribution of all those born in Helsinki. Those born during the last quartile of the year, who are the youngest in their class in Finland, were 31 % more likely to enter HUCH specialized medical care as ADHD patients than those born in the first quartile. It is not known whether the effect of relative age was caused by a systematic error in recognizing or diagnosing ADHD patients, or whether being among the youngest in a class could increase ADHD symptoms in some children. Clarifying the influence mechanisms of the relative age effect requires further studies

The aim of this study was to provide visibility to everyday life challenges caused by the Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome. Through the experiences of the parents of children and adolescents with Tourettes, this research has aimed to examine what kinds of challenges Tourettes causes, how it is recognized within welfare and education, and what kinds of support are available. When compared to other neuropsychiatric disorders, very little re-search on Tourettes exists. Likewise, there is not much literature about Tourettes availa-ble in Finnish, so herein lies a need for a study such as this. Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome is a common neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple motor tics, and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. A symptom called coprolalia, the utterance of obscene words, has made Tourettes, other-wise quite a rare syndrom, famous. Symptoms of Tourettes are usually divided into mo-tor and vocal tics. This research represents a new way to divide its symptoms and high-light its challenges, i.e. internal and external symptoms. The data was collected from Facebook peer-group volunteers by using Helsinki Universi-ty’s e-form. A qualitative study of a total of 23 participants' experiences of the challeng-es of children and adolescents with Tourettes emphasizes multiple symptoms and every-day life challenges. The results indicate that most challenges are caused by internal symptoms, like aggression and tantrums. The frequency of these should be pointed out in literature. Most challenging in schools was the lack of understanding with regards to the involuntary nature of tics, and the demand of authorized diagnoses before granting pupils support for their studies. The Finnish support system is not based on medicaliza-tion, so this aspect is in need of development, since a child who has Tourettes is chal-lenging not only for their parents’ relationship, but also for their own relationship with their siblings. Therefore, more support for the family should be provided.