How Do We Understand Children’s Restlessness? A Critique of the Biopsychosocial Model and ADHD as the Dominating Perspective in Current Understanding and Treatment

How is children’s restlessness understood and handled by surrounding adults? Two approaches are outlined in this article: one is the biomedical and later the biopsychosocial model, the other is a tradition that can be traced back to Foucault’s concept of historical ontology. The biopsychosocial mode...

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Main Author: Anna Helle-Valle
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: GAMUT - Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Centre (NORCE & University of Bergen) 2014-01-01
Series:Voices
Subjects:
Online Access:https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/2242
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author Anna Helle-Valle
author_facet Anna Helle-Valle
author_sort Anna Helle-Valle
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description How is children’s restlessness understood and handled by surrounding adults? Two approaches are outlined in this article: one is the biomedical and later the biopsychosocial model, the other is a tradition that can be traced back to Foucault’s concept of historical ontology. The biopsychosocial model and ADHD is currently the dominating perspective when it comes to describing, understanding and treating restlessness in children. In this tradition, a focus on pathology and biology places the root of the problem within the child and positions the surrounding adults as neutral observers and helpers. By contrast, historical ontology opens up to questions about the neutrality and validity of a biopsychosocial approach by pointing to our active role as subjects in creating ideas of truth about children, in judging their behaviour and in “helping” them. Rather than claiming that one approach is better than the other, it can be useful to regard the two traditions as providing different levels of analysis and be aware of the possibilities and limitations pertaining to these.
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spelling doaj.art-552792d8e1e34b2ebb4a718979194bff2022-12-22T00:14:51ZengGAMUT - Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Centre (NORCE & University of Bergen)Voices1504-16112014-01-0114110.15845/voices.v14i1.741How Do We Understand Children’s Restlessness? A Critique of the Biopsychosocial Model and ADHD as the Dominating Perspective in Current Understanding and TreatmentAnna Helle-Valle0GAMUT, University of Bergen, NorwayHow is children’s restlessness understood and handled by surrounding adults? Two approaches are outlined in this article: one is the biomedical and later the biopsychosocial model, the other is a tradition that can be traced back to Foucault’s concept of historical ontology. The biopsychosocial model and ADHD is currently the dominating perspective when it comes to describing, understanding and treating restlessness in children. In this tradition, a focus on pathology and biology places the root of the problem within the child and positions the surrounding adults as neutral observers and helpers. By contrast, historical ontology opens up to questions about the neutrality and validity of a biopsychosocial approach by pointing to our active role as subjects in creating ideas of truth about children, in judging their behaviour and in “helping” them. Rather than claiming that one approach is better than the other, it can be useful to regard the two traditions as providing different levels of analysis and be aware of the possibilities and limitations pertaining to these.https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/2242ADHDrestlessnesssubjectivity
spellingShingle Anna Helle-Valle
How Do We Understand Children’s Restlessness? A Critique of the Biopsychosocial Model and ADHD as the Dominating Perspective in Current Understanding and Treatment
Voices
ADHD
restlessness
subjectivity
title How Do We Understand Children’s Restlessness? A Critique of the Biopsychosocial Model and ADHD as the Dominating Perspective in Current Understanding and Treatment
title_full How Do We Understand Children’s Restlessness? A Critique of the Biopsychosocial Model and ADHD as the Dominating Perspective in Current Understanding and Treatment
title_fullStr How Do We Understand Children’s Restlessness? A Critique of the Biopsychosocial Model and ADHD as the Dominating Perspective in Current Understanding and Treatment
title_full_unstemmed How Do We Understand Children’s Restlessness? A Critique of the Biopsychosocial Model and ADHD as the Dominating Perspective in Current Understanding and Treatment
title_short How Do We Understand Children’s Restlessness? A Critique of the Biopsychosocial Model and ADHD as the Dominating Perspective in Current Understanding and Treatment
title_sort how do we understand children s restlessness a critique of the biopsychosocial model and adhd as the dominating perspective in current understanding and treatment
topic ADHD
restlessness
subjectivity
url https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/2242
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