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Introduction
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Attention
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Mathematics
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Reading
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Writing
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Resources
Paying attention refers to the brain's ability to take all
that is happening around us, immediately categorize and organize information as
relevant or irrelevant, and focus the mind on one thing. For
a child in a classroom, paying attention to the teacher means filtering out as
many as 30 other students, visual or outside distractions, noises, and more.
Although paying attention may seem like an isolated task, it is a complex
neurocognitive process. Consider everything that is stimulating your senses as
you read this sentence. Perhaps there are background noises or a conversation
nearby, the aromas of food or pangs of hunger, distractions in your peripheral
vision, thoughts of things to do, recent conversations or events still fresh in
your mind. Now consider another setting: listening to a class lecture or
watching a film. Everyone has experienced a lapse in attention in such settings
from time to time. But what if paying attention were a chronic challenge? For
some students it is, and they are unable to focus no matter how hard they try.
People who struggle with attention might describe their world as a jumble of
distractions, with no sound or image necessarily more important than any
others. Sounds in one’s surrounding – papers rustling, pencils tapping – demand
as much attention as a set of verbal instructions.
"Attention deficit" is one of the most widely used phrases when it comes to
learning problems, but it may also be one of the most common misdiagnoses.
Although there is much information about attention deficits available to
schools, focusing on attention may be causing parents and teachers to overlook
other learning problems. Dr. David Urion, Director of Neurology and Learning
Disabilities at Children's Hospital in Boston, suggests that parents and
teachers look closely at any inconsistencies. If a child has trouble paying
attention or focusing in one subject area, but not all subjects, a lack of
attention may be the symptom of a different learning issue. Only
a small percentage of children who learn differently have a neurocognitive
breakdown in just attention.
If your child's attention difficulties tend to be in one of the following
subject areas, visit that section of the site to learn more:
> Mathematics
> Reading
> Writing
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