Syftet med denna studie var att, utifrån ett lärar- och elevperspektiv, undersöka olika faktorers betydelse för inkludering av elever med ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) i skolan. I studien lades fokus på tre faktorer som, enligt tidigare forskning, har betydelse vid inkludering av elever med ADHD i skolan: förväntningar och bemötande, den fysiska miljön samt anpassat arbetssätt. Som undersökningsinstrument valdes i denna studie kvalitativa individuella intervjuer med sammanlagt sex informanter: tre tidigare elever med ADHD samt tre lärare.  I svaren från eleverna framkom att lärares låga förväntningar på elever med ADHD samt den negativa stämplingen på eleverna påverkade utfallet av skolgången negativt. Den fysiska miljön hade betydelse för elevernas koncentrationsförmåga men lärarnas och elevernas uppfattningar kring de viktigaste distraktionsfaktorerna i klassrumsmiljön skiljde sig åt. Lärarna i studien ansåg att anpassning är av stor betydelse för att inkludering av elever med ADHD ska få ett lyckat utfall. Exempel på anpassning som framkom är speciallärare, aktiviteter i grupp och att arbetet måste präglas av struktur och tydlighet. I studien framkom att assistentens roll, enligt lärare, var en förutsättning för inkluderingens utfall, medan det enligt eleverna främst skapar en stämpling.

The present study compared the romantic relationships of adolescents with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with regard to romantic involvement, partner identity, relationship content, and relationship quality. A community sample of 58 participants (30 ADHD, 28 Comparison), ages 13-18, completed a standardized battery of questionnaires. Adolescents with ADHD reported having more romantic partners than their typically developing (TD) peers. Females with ADHD were found to have shorter romantic relationships than TD adolescents while males with ADHD reported their age of first intercourse to be nearly two years sooner than TD peers. Irrespective of gender, adolescents with ADHD had nearly double the number of lifetime sexual partners. When choosing a romantic partner, adolescents with ADHD placed less importance on aspects of their partner’s academic and social competence than TD adolescents. However, the romantic relationships of adolescents with and without ADHD did not differ on levels of aggression and relationship quality.

The present study compared the romantic relationships of adolescents with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with regard to romantic involvement, partner identity, relationship content, and relationship quality. A community sample of 58 participants (30 ADHD, 28 Comparison), ages 13-18, completed a standardized battery of questionnaires. Adolescents with ADHD reported having more romantic partners than their typically developing (TD) peers. Females with ADHD were found to have shorter romantic relationships than TD adolescents while males with ADHD reported their age of first intercourse to be nearly two years sooner than TD peers. Irrespective of gender, adolescents with ADHD had nearly double the number of lifetime sexual partners. When choosing a romantic partner, adolescents with ADHD placed less importance on aspects of their partner’s academic and social competence than TD adolescents. However, the romantic relationships of adolescents with and without ADHD did not differ on levels of aggression and relationship quality.

<p>Barn med ADHD beskrivs ofta som svårhanterliga, presterar under sin förmåga, har dåliga relationer till jämnåriga och utvecklar ofta dålig självkänsla. Bristande bemötande och rutiner från omgivning och familj ökar risken för problemutveckling. En trygg relation till åtminstone en vuxen, en familj med struktur och sammanhållning samt positiva stödpersoner i närmiljön stärker barnens resurser och ses som skyddsfaktorer. Därför är det viktigt att stödja föräldrar i att skapa den miljön för sina barn.</p><p>Syftet i föreliggande studie var att belysa socialt stöd till familjer som har skolbarn med ADHD och metoden är en litteraturstudie där artiklar sökts inom flera databaser och artiklars referenslista. 6 artiklar valdes ut till granskning och analys. Resultatet visade tre kategorier som framstod som centrala i det sociala stödet; positiv bekräftelse, problemlösning och stresshantering samt kommunikationsträning. Slutsatsen är att sjuksköterskan skulle kunna vara en del av detta stöd, men att det i dag inte finns mycket vetenskapligt stöd för sjuksköterskan roll. Behov finns av ytterligare studier där sjuksköterskan utför interventionen och där svenska föräldrarnas upplevelse och behov av socialt stöd belyses. Svaren skulle kunna hjälpa till att utforma stödet till dessa familjer så att de kan skapa en hälsofrämjande miljö för sig själva och sina barn.</p>

abstract: The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children &ndash; ; Fourth Edition (WISC &ndash; IV) is one of the most popular intelligence tests used for special education eligibility purposes in the United States. Despite the large prevalence of children and adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the factor structure of the WISC &ndash; IV among this population has not been explored. Thus, the factor structure of WISC &ndash; IV scores among students with ADHD was investigated via replicatory factor analysis followed by a comparison with the factorial structure of the normative sample using the coefficient of congruence. The four factor model proposed by Wechsler was consistent with the factor structure found in the sample of students with ADHD for all subtests except Picture Concepts and Matrix Reasoning. The Verbal Comprehension and Processing Speed factors appeared to measure the same construct in the study sample as in the normative sample, while the Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory factors were only fairly similar to the normative sample. It is recommended that clinicians interpret Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory index scores of students with ADHD cautiously. Limitations of the study, future directions for research, and implications for practitioners are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Educational Psychology 2011

Identification of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) in adults using the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) T-scores was investigated. Archival data from closed client files at a university counseling center were used to obtain information from 91 cases of individuals who received testing services and were diagnosed with AD/HD and 91 cases that received personal counseling and received a DSM-IV diagnosis but not a diagnosis of AD/HD. All cases had taken the PAI as part of the intake process. Four groups were identified; three AD/HD groups (Inattentive type, Combined type, & Not otherwise Specified) and a control group of counseling cases without an AD/HD diagnosis. The AD/HD-NOS group was excluded from the study due to the small group size of six. A MANOVA resulted in significance differences between the AD/HD-I and AD/HD-C groups; therefore, they were analyzed as separate groups. A MANOVA comparing the AD/HD groups and the control group revealed significance differences using select PAI clinical scales hypothesized to capture AD/HD symptoms. Descriptive and predictive discriminant function analyses (DFA) with a set of PAI subscales hypothesized to most relate to adult symptoms of AD/HD were significant, with modest results. DFA revealed a hit rate of 71.4% for prediction of clients with AD/HD-I; 30.8% for predicting AD/HD-C, and 78.9% predicting no AD/HD. Cut-off scores for AD/HD were suggested for four PAI scales. Strengths and limitations were discussed.

Nicotine and stimulant medications share similar neurotransmission-related effects in the pre-frontal cortex, but it is unclear if nicotine has a similar benefit on inhibitory control. Impulsivity resulting from deficits in inhibition and sustained attention have been posited as a unifying mechanism of adult ADHD psychopathology. These deficits were quantified in the present study using Go/No-Go task accuracy and intra-individual reaction time variability (RTV). The electro-cortical P3a amplitude indexes inhibitory cognitive processes and sustained attention-related frontal cortex activation in response to infrequent NOGO stimuli. However, little work has characterized the effects of nicotine on P3a or RTV in adult ADHD. Therefore, the effects of the nicotine patch on NOGO P3a amplitude, inhibitory accuracy, and RTV were assessed in non-medicated ADHD adults (12 smokers, 12 never-smokers) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, repeated-measures design. Nicotine patch, relative to placebo patch, significantly increased NOGO inhibitory accuracy, significantly decreased GO RTV, and significantly increased NOGO P3a peak amplitude at four frontal electrode sites. These results suggest that the nicotine reduces impulsivity in adults with ADHD. The implications of these basic findings to the clinical assessment and treatment of ADHD are discussed. Additional reports at both the basic and clinical levels are needed to confirm and extend these findings.

The purpose of this exam project in furniture design is to investigate what special needs persons with neuropsychiatric disorders have – especially those with ADHD and autism – and how furniture design can be of aid, by designing a piece of furniture that can meet some of those needs. I have mainly based my reasonings on books about neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Hallberg and Hallberg (2015) and Hjelmquist (2006), who has interviewed adults with these diagnoses. In this it appears clearly, that people with neuropsychiatric disorders can be helped by creating order and routines in their everyday lives. Order is a basic need for all humans, but this need is extra strong for these individuals. My own previous experience of working with individuals with these diagnoses, confirms the conclusions in all of the literature used in this project. My idea was to design a shelf system with boxes where color and form cooperate to give a sense of order. Color and form are proved to be important tool to create context and logic. While exhibiting and discussing the prototype, I have felt that it is a relevant piece of furniture that serves its purpose.The next step is to perform tests and further examine how the prototype can evolve. / Det här examensarbetet i möbeldesign har som syfte att undersöka vad personer med neuropsykiatriska funktionshinder (NPF) – i synnerhet ADHD och autism – har för särskilda behov som går att tillfredsställa med hjälp av möbeldesign, och att därefter utveckla en möbel baserat på dessa slutsatser. Jag har till stor del baserat mina resonemang på forskning om NPF-diagnoser, bland annat Hallberg och Hallberg (2015) och Hjelmquist,(2006), som har intervjuat vuxna personer med dessa diagnoser. Det framgår tydligt att personer med NPF-diagnoser kan bli hjälpta när de kan skapa en ordning och rutin i sin vardag. Ordning är ett grundbehov för alla människor, men behovet är alltså extra starkt för dessa personer. Jag har sedan tidigare samlat erfarenheter av att arbeta med individer med dessa diagnoser på Island, och dessa bekräftar slutsatserna i den använda litteraturen. Min idé blev att designa ett hyllsystem där färg och form samverkar för att skapa ordning. Färg och form är dokumenterat viktiga hjälpmedel för att skapa sammanhang och logik. Genom gestaltning och samtal runt den första prototypen har ja fått bekräftelse på att jag med min möbel är på rätt väg. Nästa steg kräver en målmedveten utprovning.

ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed neurobehavioral disorder among children. While ADHD in Western countries has long been recognized and increasingly diagnosed in recent years, there is a growing recognition of this disorder as a significant cross-cultural phenomenon. Saudi studies to date vary in their estimation of prevalence of ADHD, with overall prevalence estimated to be between 3.5% and 6.5%, while the worldwide prevalence of ADHD is 5.29%.This study is a thesis by three articles. The first article examines the representations of ADHD by the Saudi ADHD Society members on Twitter because, as the only charity serving people with ADHD in Saudi Arabia, they have come to define how ADHD is talked about there. The Society’s Twitter account (@adhdarabia) has over 13,500 followers. Tweets posted between December 1st, 2016 and January 31st, 2017 were collected, with those announcing events and retweets from other accounts eliminated. This resulted in 141 tweets discussing the nature, causation, and treatment of ADHD. The content of these tweets was analyzed using Foucauldian discourse analysis. Findings reveal that the Society’s Twitter account shows members constructing ADHD as an experience of suffering; their comments position children with ADHD as sufferers, often subject to additional problems. An alternative discursive construction of ADHD is that caring for a child with ADHD is a ‘different’ kind of responsibility for parents and teachers, who must be advised by ‘experts’. The implications of these discourses are discussed in this paper.The second article uncovers the lived experience of parents with a child who has had an ADHD diagnosis in Saudi Arabia, and examines how their experiences can be understood in relation to the multiple and competing discourses of ADHD that frame their daily lives. Which discourses do parents draw upon – and reinforce – as they describe their experiences of ADHD, and which discourses do they resist? This study carried out in-depth interviews with seven Saudi parents who have at least one child diagnosed with ADHD, or any of its subtypes, between the ages of two and 11. Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) is applied in analyzing parental ADHD discourses, uncovering how these parents made sense of ADHD pre- and post-diagnosis. Four main discourses emerged in the process: ADHD as normal behavior (pre-diagnosis), and ADHD as emerging from supernatural/religious, medical, and social environment contexts (post-diagnosis). This paper also emphasises that the causes of ADHD must be considered in the wider context of misconceptions and uncertainty among Saudi parents. All the participants in this research were influenced by a combination of discourses in their attempts to make sense of their children’s symptoms.The third article explores the discourses drawn upon, reinforced and resisted by six Saudi teachers and four clinicians as they describe their experiences and understanding of ADHD. Saudi clinicians approach ADHD as an extension of American medical views in terms of its causes, diagnosis and treatment. Alarmingly, in light of the shortage of recommended ADHD medications, there are accounts of antipsychotic medications being prescribed for children. Saudi teachers’ views of ADHD were an extension of the medical discourse; this meant that students’ strengths were ignored and the focus was entirely on negative behavioral patterns. Despite a tendency to attribute ADHD to genetics, teachers objectified students who ‘acted out’ as having ADHD or even other disorders (when the child’s behavior or symptoms diverged from their limited understanding of ADHD). Parents who do not comply with teachers’ suggestions are blamed for any lack of improvement in the child’s behavior or academic attainment. Teachers’ accounts also revealed some serious pressures on them as a result of large class sizes and a lack of training in how to teach and manage students with ADHD. These findings have implications for individuals and institutions providing ADHD education to both doctors and teachers, and reinforce calls for researchers to examine ADHD outside of the genetic ‘box’.

This thesis uses a multi-disciplinary approach to study cognitive-neurophysiological processes underlying attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and the underlying risk pathways from preterm birth to ADHD. In the first part of the thesis we use a measure of peripheral arousal (skin conductance) to better understand arousal dysregulation in ADHD and how it relates to cognitive performance. We show, using a large ADHD and control sibling sample, that ADHD is associated with peripheral hypo-arousal, and that a familial aetiology underlies the relationship between hypo-arousal and fluctuating reaction times, and between hypoarousal and ADHD. Our findings further suggest that peripheral hypo-arousal is an enduring deficit in ADHD, as it is observed in both ADHD remitters and ADHD persisters in our followup investigation. The second part of the thesis focuses on preterm birth as a risk factor for ADHD: we compare data we obtain from a new sample of preterm-born adolescents and their siblings to data from ADHD and control sibling pairs. First, we find that preterm-born individuals show several of the same cognitive-neurophysiological impairments as individuals with ADHD, but they also show further, additional impairments. Second, our results indicate that cognitive-neurophysiological impairments in the preterm group differentiate into those that are in line with a causal effect of preterm birth, and those that are not. Third, our findings further suggest that the association between ADHD symptoms and specific cognitive impairments is largely due to familial influences among term-born individuals, but largely due to non-shared effects (including preterm birth as an environmental insult) among pretermborn individuals. Overall, by using a combination of cognitive, neurophysiological, developmental and sibling-comparison designs, our findings provide new insight into arousal dysregulation in individuals with ADHD, and inform on cognitive-neurophysiological and aetiological processes that may underlie the association between preterm birth and ADHD.