Exploration of abilities of learners with attention deficits hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) performance in academic/extra curricular activities in school: Makindye Ssabagabo municipality, wakiso district, Uganda

Abstract

The research study, is titled Exploration of Abilities of Learners with Attention Deficits Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) performance in academic/extra curricular activities in school: Makindye Ssabagabo Municipality, Wakiso District. The purpose of this study was to; find out factors that influence the abilities of learners with attention deficits and hyperactivity disorders (LADHD) to perform successfully in academic activities in school. The objectives of the study were to; Identify academic/extra curricular areas of learning LADHD do well in schools, find out how LADHD participate in academic/extra curricular activities in school and Describe what motivates LADHD to learn. The target population comprised of two categories of participants i.e. teachers and learners with attention deficits and hyperactivity disorders. Qualitative research approach, guided by a case study design were employed in the study. Non-Participant Observations and Mini Focus Group Discussions were used in collecting data. The study was curried out from June 2022 to March 2023. The findings show that LADHD are capable of participating though with difficult and interest increases when teachers include songs and rhymes in teaching, these learners were also observed to be abusive to others, have destructive behaviours, beat their peers, and withdraw from activities. Findings also indicate that, LADHD do not move on smoothly in class activities, have challenges in reading, writing, spelling and numeracy. Observations also show that these learners do not complete the given exercise at the same time with other ordinary peers and when it comes to assessment summative assessment is mostly used together with their ordinary learners. These learners respond to questions when asked without internalising the meaning, they are also assessed using examinations but take time to complete as compared to their ordinary peers in the class and when it comes to motivation, LADHD are not self motivated to participate in activities, as a result, teachers always prompt them to participate. Teachers were observed to use a variety of methods in the teaching of learners and the findings also indicate that these learners do not share a variety of instructional materials and teachers complain of time and cost of instructional materials to use in the teaching. The recommendations of the study are; teachers should adjust time from 30 minutes and 40 minutes to 1 hour and 1 hour 30 minutes and make modifications in the curriculum, teachers should use continuous assessment as compared to summative assessment because LADHD have a poor memory which should be assessed immediately and teachers should consider interests of LADHD to learn through accommodating their interests and interests.