Students with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD, are commonly present in today’s classrooms. While research about ADHD mostly concerns boys, girls with ADHD often get excluded from such research. This lack of knowledge makes these girls harder to detect in the classroom and consequently lack the attention and support they need. The aim of this study was to investigate how teenage girls with ADHD experience the visual arts subject and highlight useful teaching strategies in supporting them. The analysis is based on three common perspectives on special education, as well as key concepts from sociocultural theory, such as Zone of Proximal Development, scaffolding and mediating artefacts. By conducting semi-structured interviews with four teenage girls from different schools as well as two visual arts teachers, the study’s results include two perspectives. The results show that the participating girls with ADHD appreciate the visual arts subject as well as their teachers for being calm, kind and understanding. The teaching strategies used by their visual arts teachers are favored by all girls other than one girl who feels misunderstood. She asks for higher awareness among teachers along with clearer instructions and feedback. The two participating teachers report thatgirls with ADHD often suffer from low self-esteem in addition to a lack of concentration andmotivational issues. Their teaching strategies include clear step-by-step instructions,maintaining an organized classroom environment, fostering positive teacher-studentrelationships and offering constructive verbal feedback. The scaffolding is adjusted for each student to help reach the next level in the Zone of Proximal Development. Both physical and intellectual artefacts are applied such as music, PowerPoints, Time Timer, extra support when starting a task and the offering of frequent breaks. This study concludes that girls with ADHD seek both recognition and to be listened to, while the teachers emphasize adapting their methods to meet the girls’ individual needs. Girls with ADHD in the visual arts subjects remain relatively under-researched, but this study provides insight into what it is like to be a girl with ADHD in high school, and what teaching strategies are considered effective.
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