Teachers’ Behavioral Interventions for Children with ADHD in Regular Classrooms

Abstract

Today, many teachers are assigned regular classrooms that include students with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), where more knowledge regarding strategies teachers use to meet the needs of students with ADHD while still managing the classrooms is required. This research especially focuses on the reinforcement and punishment strategies used by teachers to accommodate the behavioral problems of students with ADHD. During the observation of seven elementary school teachers teaching first to third grade students in Japan, various intervention strategies were observed. The teachers used reinforcement strategies more often, but there was a greater variation in punishment strategies used compared to reinforcement strategies. The execution of reinforcement strategies for behavioral improvement of students with ADHD mostly aligned with the recommendations by psychologists and professionals in the educational field, but there were several issues to discuss and improve upon regarding in the use of punishment strategies.