MANAGING EMOTIONS AND NORMALISING ADHD

Bradley and Butler analyse the interactional practices that underpin the delivery of a cognitive-behavioural program for children with a diagnosis of ADHD. Focusing on the methods and practices used to deliver the program, the chapter examines the normal and ordinary ways in which the children’s emotions and experiences are constructed, how the children are treated as experts to co-produce shared knowledge and understandings of ADHD, and how cognitive tools are implemented and made available for the children to use in their everyday lives to manage their emotions and behaviours. As well as looking at the interactional practices, issues of self-concept and identity are considered to address these under researched concerns within the ADHD literature.