The Class Placement of Students with ADD/ADHD

Contemporary students with learning disabilities such as ADD/ADHD are continuously perceived as incompetent to adapt to a traditional classroom setting with students who have no learning disabilities. Consequently, many students with learning disabilities are placed in classrooms that are designated only for students with learning disabilities. Schools use a non-inclusive setting when students with learning impairments like ADD/ADHD are placed in a “special class” with other learning impairment students. This non-inclusive classroom placement causes many learning impaired students to do worse academically and socially than if they had been placed in an inclusive setting. By definition, ADD/ADHD students that are placed in an inclusive setting are seated in the same classroom with students who do not have ADD/ADHD. ADD/ADHD students receiving special support in regular classes succeed academically and socially more often than ADD/ADHD students in special classes.

The variables that affect the academic progress of a learning impaired student with ADD/ADHD in an inclusive or non-inclusive setting include parental relationship, mental level of the student, and gender (Myklebust 76-81). In fact, parental relationship affects students with ADD/ADHD in either classroom setting. For example, an unstable marriage or divorce has negative effects on a student academically by impacting the child’s self-esteem. Unbelievably, some parents with learning impaired children promote helplessness by having low-expectations of them. However, studies have shown that parents tend to view failure among their children as revealing their child’s true potential, whereas they view the success of the student as mere luck (Smith and Strick 84-85). For instan...

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