Attention spans of young children are shorter, and they are more easily distracted, compared to adults. All children experience difficulties focusing and staying on task at times, but some more than others of their age.
Inattention includes persistent difficulties with starting, continuing, and completing a task. It also includes difficulties with organizing tasks and activities, listening when spoken to, and planning and executing actions. Inattention also includes being distracted and forgetful and losing things often. Many adolescents and adults with attention problems also demonstrate a distorted perception of time; they tend to procrastinate and underestimate the time needed to complete tasks
How can we help children with attention difficulties?
- Ask a student to repeat the instructions or check with a friend before starting a task.
- Provide positive reinforcement, such as praise, thumbs up, stars in the notebook, supportive comments, or small prizes whenever a student is focused on a task and immediately after they finish a task.
- Group work may be appropriate for some students. Allow them to choose activities they are interested in when possible.
- Diversifying teaching materials (audiovisuals, computers, videos, DVDs, magazines, newspapers, books) can increase students’ interest in class and therefore improve sustained attention.
- Seat students with attention challenges in the front and close to the teacher so that distracting elements in the room are not in their sight.
- Agree on small signs to use when you need to redirect a student. For example, every time the teacher notices the student is not attending to a task, the teacher can place their hand lightly on the student’s shoulder.
- Find ways and provide tools to compensate for memory difficulties – e.g., posting a piece of paper with a table listing assignment due dates, using sticky notes for reminders and annotations.
- Help them label, highlight, underline, and color the most important parts of an assignment, text, or exam.
Learning skills and metacognitive skills
- Teach learning skills clearly and slowly. For example, explain and demonstrate how to use sources, reference materials, notes, newspaper articles, book excerpts, etc. when writing papers.
- Help students set clear and achievable goals and track progress on their assignments and projects. This helps them reflect on their learning and develop strategies appropriate for their way of learning.
What are unhelpful reactions?
- Pointing out mistakes as failures and criticizing them. Students with ADHD need support, encouragement, partnership, and accommodations. It is important to show respectful attitudes toward them. Teachers’ positive attitudes improve students’ learning.
- Seating students with ADHD near doors or windows or in the back of the classroom, where they are more likely distracted by environmental stimuli.
- Assigning lots of homework at a time. Students with ADHD may become discouraged when they see that the assignment is too long/too much.
- Mentioning about the student’s medication or giving medication to the student in front of other children without the student’s consent. This can increase stigma.
Organization and study techniques
- Give clear instructions slowly and provide tools for the student to develop an organized study habit. Encourage the use of diaries, calendars, sticky notes, notepads, audible cell phone reminders, and others.
- Supervise and help the student organize their notebooks, desk, or locker. Help the student file important papers.
- Encourage the student and their family to organize books and notebooks by covering them with different colored papers (e.g., for different subjects).
- Encourage the use of plastic folders for carrying prints and papers home and back to school. The tougher material is less likely to be torn, and children are less likely to lose stray papers.
- Use a diary as a communication tool between parents and teachers. Parent observations of the child’s behavior at home is helpful for teachers, and teacher observations of the student at school is helpful for parents.
- Break down large assignments into smaller parts, and monitor the completion of each part. Students with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often have difficulty completing tasks that take a long time to complete.
- Teach and model the use of organization tools, such as the use of daily task lists or schedule books. Show parents how to guide their children in organizing and completing assignments.