Part Six: Smart Kids and Learning Disabilities

In this segment, I'll explore that insidious issue of attention, or lack thereof, in most cases.

I once heard from a presenter that ADHD/ADD was the only disorder that actually worked against people who had it:  Because there are instances where they are able to focus, the expectation is that they can focus when they choose to.  The conclusion is that they must be choosing not to focus the remaining times.  That, of course, leads to frustration by all involved; parents, teacher, spouses, employers, etc.  I thought that was a very succinct statement.  I also recently heard this about ADHD/ADD and medication:  The focus just switches from the disorder controlling the person to the medication controlling the person.  Again, I thought that a very compelling statement. 

That launches my article about attention.  I'm not actually going to address ADHD/ADD, but want to talk about the three types of attention:  sustained, selective and divided.

Sustained attention is the ability to stay on a focused task for a continuous period.  Giving someone a magazine article and having them circle all the "the's" in the article would be an example of this type of attention.

Selective attention is the brain's ability to focus when distractions are present.  It's the ability to concentrate with extraneous distractions.  Examples of this would be when you are trying to pay attention to one person at a noisy party or carrying on a conversation when the television is on.   Think of all the distractions that are continuous and ongoing in a classroom!

Divided attention is the ability to shift focus back and forth from one task or situation to another.  It's the ability to focus on two or more things.   This is used in situations such as:  sorting objects by various attributes, playing card games (remembering the rules and some of what other cards have been played), and especially when driving -- just think how many times and how quickly your focus has to shift while doing that function!

Weak Attention, no matter which type, can be devastating to academic learning.  Someone with very high cognitive abilities may have very poor attention and because of that, every day is a struggle for them.

Cognitive, or brain training, targets and strengthens the underlying skills that are commonly associated with weak attention.   And the procedures don't use medication!