The Use of the ADHD Diagnostic Label: What Implications Exist for Children and their Families?

ADHD is considered an impairing psychological disorder that predominantly affects children and is characterised by inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. This diagnosis has become controversal in literature do to the conceptual resistances expressed by clinicians and pediatricians in considering a simple list of behaviors as a psychological syndrome, in absence of physical test or single cause demonstrating it. They have to be considered implications linked to the overuse of the diagnostic label; within these, the risk (by teachers and school managers) of justifying and supporting interventions for differentiating teaching strategies and menaging difficult student-case, the financing of which would be impossible without diagnosis. As a result, a considerable amount of research has been completed in recent years to better understand the phenomenon. In the present paper features for and against the use of the diagnosis will be present and discuss apart from the critical analysis of different frameworks and by introducing a relational perspective deriving from the labeling theory and interactionism. Operational suggestions and strategies for teachers and families dealing with minors are also presented, both in schools and in clinical setting.