Attention Deficit Disorder or Simply Poor Concentration Skills? Part 1
I recently reviewed the results of a series of tests and something kept bothering me. Why did so many seemingly normal kids appear to have an attention deficit? Are we just getting better at identifying this problem or is something else going on?
In addition to measuring and testing kids for attention deficit, we need to reconsider our lifestyles and the ways we teach children. I believe that many attention problems are the result of learned behaviour.
Many kids can’t pay attention because they have not been taught the skill of concentration. I am not trying to claim that attention deficits do not exist; quite the contrary. However, many kids who have trouble paying attention do not have an attention deficit. They merely have a short attention span. I believe this is partly due to television, movies, video games and the quick pace of modern life. Our busy, busy lives have trained our cognitive processes to look for quick bites, fast answers.
It’s a learning process
So what can parents and teachers do about this? Spend quiet time with the children, read books, have long discussions uninterrupted by television or the telephone. That old advice to stop and smell the roses still holds true. We need to teach our kids how to learn and how to pay attention. In all but a few cases, paying attention is a learned skill. Children with true Attention Deficit Disorder cannot pay attention, but most kids today do not suffer from this disorder. Most of our children have not been taught how to pay attention.
Recently, my daughter filled our house with friends. It seemed as if 100 six-year-old girls had suddenly moved in. They created forts, nurseries, schools and stores. Every child was assigned a task. Some were storekeepers, some were parents, others were infants. Before assuming her role, almost every child took the time to prepare for it. Many rearranged their space while talking to themselves about whom they were and how they would act.
This was very interesting for me. They took time to reflect and consider. They prepared. They created their own space and demanded enough time to get ready to have fun! My daughter and her friends knew that they needed to concentrate, so they created an environment where that would be possible. Left to their own devices, kids seem to understand the need for quiet reflection, concentration and paying attention.
It is mostly in school-related activities that these skills go wanting. After watching these kids for a couple of hours, I thought about a typical classroom scene. There is little time for quiet reflection and even less personal space. Educational programs today are not designed for individuals; they are designed for groups.
Why is this the case? Why are our children attending daycare, kindergarten, and the primary grades one through three and not learning how to pay attention? All of these programs are supervised or taught by highly competent and well-trained individuals. Kids come and go through these delightful classrooms. They enjoy themselves. They follow the program. But what programs are they following? Where do these programs come from? Who writes them?
When your child comes home from school or daycare and tells you about the activities of the day, have you ever considered that they may not be appropriate?
Books have limited vocabulary
Every program being taught by teachers – and every textbook ever written – has an underlying set of ideas based on a philosophy. It is these ideas that determine the methods used by teachers (along with the material contained in textbooks). For example, those of us who are over 40 may remember a time when most of our reading material was found in books called readers, which had literary merit. A typical elementary school reader contained numerous stories of differing difficulty, stories to challenge and entertain pupils of various ages and abilities.
Go into a Grade 1 or 2 classroom today and you will find hundreds of small, colourful books full of simple words and pretty pictures. The books in today’s classrooms have a very limited vocabulary. Publishers strive to publish stories with “age appropriate” vocabulary. Why? Who decided this? Has it helped or hurt?
In the classrooms of the past, we were taught to read using phonics. We were able to read well in Grade 1 and 2 and we read from those old readers. Sure, the books had some pictures, yet our minds and imaginations supplied most of the excitement.
I knew what Moby Dick looked like; I saw him in my mind’s eye. That exercise in itself helped to develop concentration and attention. Using our inner eye – our imagination – helped us to develop the ability to focus and concentrate. We had to. We wanted to “see” what we were reading. We used our minds.
But there were other differences as well, such as vocabulary. We were reading from books containing literature. The vocabulary was demanding and the stories complex and exciting. (It is very difficult to make a story complex or exciting with limited vocabulary and more pictures than words.) Because we were enjoying the stories, we had to concentrate on the context of the story or we would not be able to understand what we were reading. That too forced us to concentrate.
Excerpt from Active Minds! by Dr. R. N. Whitehead, Director, Oxford Learning.
My daugther is 9, since she was in kindergarden teachers been telling me that she does not concentrate. I am very worry,she has very good grade. as a matter of fact she was in “honor roll” last year in third grade. I need help because i don’t want her to fall behing since she is in an advance class. ( soar program) hope you can help me marie anne thank you
my son is 8 years old in primary 4 last year his tacher was very pleased with him saying he had excelled way past his level in class but this year she has said his poor concentration is pulling him back and she doesnt want him to slip behind the rest of the class since nursery school i have been told from his teachers about his lack of concentration but his teachers in primary had no concerns about it until this year !! he had been asessed previously for aspergers syndrome but found not to have autisum i have been online trying to find the book will you please pay attention with no avail please can u tell me where to get a copy thanks
Hi,
My daughter is 11 years old. I am concerned with her lack of concentration and her ability to understand instruction which may or may not come from the concentration issue with not listening fully. Since starting school she has always had concentration problems and classroom issues which has seen us having discussions with her teachers every year. We wanted her to repeat last year but the teacher said it was best for her to move to Grade 6 as her current friends who are slightly older would be a better influence on a maturity level than keeping her down with the younger children. As secondary school is looming I am anxious that she will struggle. I welcome any advice you can offer to better her listening skills and concentration.
Thank you
Wendy
Hola,
My daughter is 8 years old, she’s in third grade and since she was 3 we have been observing some distractions issues. I feel so bad because this year her lack of concentrations is affecting her very seriously, she doesn’t pay any attention at class, she forgets every details, as Andrea says (post #1) homework is a nightmare!!! She can’t start or finish any work without supervision, because in a moment she is reading or writing and a second after she is thinking in HighSchool Musical, Hanna Montana…or something else.
Last year her teacher send us to se a Psychologist to evaluate her for Deficit Attention, they made several test for more than a week and the results shows that she has a very high value for verbal communications, she shows extreme intelligence in some areas (not maths), her results in this areas were the highest ever in this clinic….and finally they recommend to medicated her with ritalin! Of course i said then, now and in the future: NO!!!. I need to help my daughter with something that can stimulate or teach her how to concentrate, I don’t think she needs any medication. She is a very intelligent girl, when she was 9 months she starts talking 3 different words, at 18 months she talks like a 3 years old toddler and since then she can express herself like an adult, with words and concepts that surprise, when you listen her you can see there is a very tiny smart person… but definitely she needs helps to solver her concentration problems.
My daughter is 7 years old. She will be going into the second grade. She has difficulty staying focus. I have to remind her every 30 to 45 seconds to do something. She becomes very frustrated and begins to cry. She acts as if she is in competition with everyone. She has a 3 year old brother. She asks me all the time do I love her or who do I love the most. When we’re with family she wants everyone to pay attention to her and her only. She does not follow directions. When she asks me to help her spell a word I have to go real slow. I just want to know if I need to have her tested for ADD. Her father and I are divorced. We have been separated since she was 2 years old. Then we had our little boy and decided to get a divorce. I don’t know if the divorce has something to do with her behavior or not.
I am 61, a mother of a beautiful smart daughter. I recently was tested for ADHD at my psychiatrist request to rule it in or out as a reason I cannot and have not been able to “concentrate” or “follow directions” since I was in grade school.
The test came back positive as “mild ADHD” and recommended medication. I see my MD in another week, and hope that medication will help. My intellect is high; I am creative both in thinking and in arts; I read constantly and am curious about many subjects. I was a math whiz in HS.
The reason I say I now have some hope is that I think I have made poor choices through my life, and should have been diagnosed early in my life so I would have known what was going on. Instead, I blamed situations and people for “not being right for me”‘ and left perfectly good careers, and one perfectly good and living marriage.
The test and interview I received for the “ADHD” test measured other things as well; my weakness is in auditory skills. That explains why I seem to interrupt in conversations, and go off in tangents, when I cannot stop myself. It also explains that I am really having a hard time listening to instructions, and lectures, and even social conversations.
http://www.GardenofHealthBuffalo.com
Great Article! Every time I think about a child (person) with a learning disability I ask the question: Is drugging the child a vitalistic approach? Will that drug raise that child’s health so that he / she can be more, do more and achieve a greater impact on fellow human beings. The research is out – and the answer is NO. You must understand that a child that cannot learn will not be any brighter while being drugged. Interestingly, MD’s in the US prescribe five times the quantity of stimulants for children as MD’s in other countries. Many parents worry about drugging their children for multiple reasons. Their thoughts “Is there another way?” Absolutely! Chiropractic offers a child the ability to be at their best without drugs. As a parent I urge you to get your child’s spine evaluated to see if chiropractic can help your child. When as humanitarians are we going to stop lowering self achievement and start to deal with the cause of the problem? Healthier people for a healthier planet.
hi, can i please know how to cite this article?
Hi Silvia
The author’s name is Dr. Nick Whitehead
My Son is 5 years of age and is studying in Junior KG class.He can remember his lessons properly but once it comes to writing ,like a table in maths or writing names of five fruits in science etc etc,He stars with great zeal but after a short period of time he looses his concentration and is somewhere else,when he is made to draw his attention toward the subject forgets what to write next.After revising the previous write-ups remembers and starts writing again but the process goes on.He finishes his simple home task in hours which could be finished just in 15 min by the kid of his age.Though he knows what to write next but lack of concentration quickly drags him away.Please help us out of this problem! Waiting for your Response!!!!!!!!!!!
I am really impressed with your writing talents as smartly as with the layout to your weblog. Is this a paid subject matter or did you customize it your self? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it is uncommon to peer a great weblog like this one today..