Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity in the classroom: assessing children’s perception through their drawings

Abstract

For children in general, and in particular for students who find it difficult to manage their behaviors and levels of attention, the classroom may prove to be an “unsuitable” environment. Our study involved 124 students from the first three grades of primary school, taken form several schools of Italy’s Piedmont region. We divided the participants into two groups: an Experimental Group (EG), composed of 60 children who, according to their teachers, manifested ADHD symptoms, and a Control Group (CG). We used various instruments (e.g., STRS, SDQ, Class Play, Attribution Test) in order to assess children’s behavior and the quality of the relationships in the classroom of both groups involved. Our study is based specifically on results obtained from the administration of the “Class Drawing” graphic test. This method, in line with other tools used for confirming data taken from the relevant literature, does not focus solely on investigating the quality of the student-teacher relationship, but it also takes into consideration the difficulties that may be encountered by children with ADHD in specific behavioral areas, namely socialization and affectivity.