Preschool Teachers' Knowledge, Opinions, and Educational Experiences with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

The main purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate preschool teachers' past educational experiences, knowledge, and opinions related to ADHD. A second purpose was to determine if specific teacher variables (e.g., years of experience) were associated with higher knowledge of ADHD as measured by a criterion-referenced test. One hundred thirty-eight preschool teachers completed a questionnaire that included demographical information and questions related to knowledge and experiences with ADHD in preschoolers. Descriptive findings indicated that preschool teachers' most common educational experiences related to ADHD included reading articles in magazines and journals. In addition, preschool teachers did not feel that they knew very much about the process of assessing ADHD in preschoolers. Analyses of teacher variables revealed that teachers with graduate level educations did better on the test on ADHD than teachers with vocational or high school level educations. Results also indicated that teachers' ratings of their own knowledge of ADHD were not associated with test performance. The implications of these findings for professional development are discussed.