High Court Decision Confirms Rights of Disabled Children
There is no doubt that teaching a class of over 30 children with 1 or more children with ADHD can be both challenging and stressful for the teaching staff, and disruptive for the class as a whole. We believe that increased awareness of how differences in ADHD brain chemistry can impact on a child`s behaviour and learning ability is the key to developing appropriate classroom accomodations.
Experience shows that these strategies can be of benefit to the whole class as well as supporting the child with ADHD.
This recent ruling by the HIgh Court demonstrates that it is no longer sufficient to view ADHD as a behavioural problem. It should instead be treated as a medically-diagnosed disability which gives rise to behavioral problems. Reasonable adjustments must be made to prevent escalation of any incident, and teachers must be given adequate training to enable them to deal with disabled students, such as training in de-escalation techniques.
24 July 2009



