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Semin Speech Lang 2004; 25(3): 277-285
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-833676
Copyright © 2004 by Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc., 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Owning Up to Complexity: A Sociocultural Orientation to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Jack S. Damico1 , Nicole Müller1 , Martin J. Ball1 , 2
  • 1Department of Communicative Disorders, The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana
  • 2Doris B. Hawthorne Center for Special Education and Communication Disorders, Lafayette, Louisiana
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Publication History

Publication Date:
10 September 2004 (online)

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To enrich our conception of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it is necessary to take a wider orientation to this disability category than has been advocated traditionally. Over the past decade, there has been an emerging conception of ADHD from a sociocultural perspective, and this orientation, when linked to the traditional biomedical perspective, provides a more accurate and authentic construct of ADHD. In this article, we advocate that speech-language pathologists approach ADHD with a mindset that is open to the complexities of context-bound human functioning at all levels. Four sources of data demonstrating the richness of the sociocultural orientation are presented and clinical implications are detailed

KEYWORDS

ADHD - complexity - sociocultural perspective

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Jack S DamicoPh.D. 

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Lafayette, LA 70504-3170

P.O. Box 43170

Email: jsdamico@louisiana.edu

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