TITLE:
ADHD and Learning Motivations
AUTHORS:
Eleni Ventouri
KEYWORDS:
ADHD, Learning Motivations, Special Education and Training
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.7 No.8,
August
28,
2020
ABSTRACT:
The purpose of this research was to investigate the learning motivations of a student with ADHD, through the views of all members of the interdisciplinary team as well as the parent of the student under study but also through the observation of the child himself. The present study followed the qualitative methodology of the case study and source triangulation, collecting data not only through semi-structured interviews by four interdisciplinary team experts working with a 9-year-old ADHD student, but also through closed-ended and unstructured closed-ended questionnaires. The study involved a 9-year-old student with a diagnosed ADHD who is also the subject of the observation, the special educator, the speech therapist, the occupational therapist, the psychologist working with the child and the child’s mother. The results of the research showed that the knowledge of the participating specialists in relation to learning motivations is targeted and partially limited, in the sense that they mainly referred to the importance and necessity of using external motivations in the form of rewards and enhancers, without being done by anyone reference to the internal motivations and mechanisms through which the motivations contribute to the students with ADHD. Regarding the ways of strengthening the student’s learning motivations with ADHD, the behavioral reinforcement model dominated, with the participants’ reports being limited to the reward table, the child’s interests, play and rewards in general. It is recommended to conduct interventional studies and experimental studies that will help in practice to try techniques and interventions that are not limited to the behavioral model of reinforcement, but also use elements from modern literature that supports the emphasis and internal motivations related to self-efficacy and self-portrait of children with ADHD.