Negotiating the ‘Problem-child’ in School

Recently neuropsychiatric diagnoses have come to play an important role in Swedish schools when handling dilemmas encountered in the context of children who experience difficulties. The general interest of the work reported here is the issue of when and how such diagnoses (notably Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD]) are assigned to children. In the present study, an analysis of the interaction between parents (who are reluctant to consent to testing) and the school representatives is reported. It is shown that the experts have already decided beforehand to get the boy tested for ADHD. The attempts to persuade the parents that this would be beneficial for everyone include such arguments as that it would make it easier for the school to help the pupil, and that it would even make it easier for the parents to relate to their child. Any alternatives, such as pedagogical issues or relational/environmental circumstances, were never discussed during the process.