How should the teacher approach discipline?
First, teachers need to understand that often, ADHD children literally don’t realize why they’re in trouble. For example, when the teacher tells Susan not to interrupt and she says, “I didn’t,” it sounds like she’s being argumentative or making excuses. In fact, Susan may have no idea she was interrupting. So from her point of view, she can’t understand, first, why she was accused of something she didn’t do, and second, why the teacher won’t let her defend herself. In one study, a group of non-ADHD children and those with ADHD were given fictional scenarios of disruptive behavior and asked to explain what was going on. A significant difference emerged: Most children thought that the child in the example could have controlled his behavior if he chose to; those with ADHD thought the fictional child couldn’t control the behavior, and they identified outside forces that provoked it–for example, “His friends bug him all the time.” From the perspective of someone with ADHD, this view makes