"Dadelijk kookt hij over lijk een melksoep" : De representatie van <i>hyperactiviteit</i> in vrouwenmagazines en praktijktijdschriften voor leerkrachten (1965-heden)

Abstract

In this article we take a relational approach to childhood to focus on the discourse regarding the children’s ‘hyperactive’ bodies, currently defined as children with A(ttention) D(eficit) H(yperactvity) D(isorder). Basing ourselves on a number of analyses from the major women’s magazines and professional magazines for teachers, as they appeared in Flanders from 1965 until now, we want to examine how the notion of ‘the hyperactive child’ has been constructed and reconstructed in the past decades. In a second instance, we will try to link this image to the representation of the (ideal) mother and teacher who are confronted with this ‘hyperactive’ child in their educational practice. To give these images their full form and colour, we do not just want to base our analysis on the textual content of these articles, but, where possible, we will also pay attention to the visual representation of ‘hyperactivity’.