Defining "Attention" in ADHD

When we talk about attention, we are talking about two different kinds of abilities:

• The ability to focus on a specific task put in front of us to do, such as school work, and
• the ability to pay attention in a more global sense to the world around us, for example the buzz of the lights overhead, and the touch of the clothes on your skin, and the children playing outside of the classroom.

These are two different kinds of attention.

Paying Attention

One good definition of "Paying Attention" is - “Sustaining and selecting to the right cue.”

One part of that definition is that the child has to pick the right thing to pay attention to. That's the “selecting” part of the definition.

A better word might be "Filtering." The brain is supposed to filter out distractions, or stimuli which compete for our attention, but might not be important at that moment.

Many children with attention problems pay attention to everything in the world around them equally, such as giving equal time to the touch of the clothes on their skin, the buzz of the lights overhead, the kids outside the classroom, and the math worksheet in front of them. This, of course, is a problem if he needs to be paying attention to only the math worksheet or the teacher.

Boring School Work

Many Children with Attention Disorders have trouble concentrating on the specific task in front of them, especially if they are working on something like school work or chores that are only moderately interesting, or not interesting at all.

ADHD kids have to be very motivated, very excited, very interested in what they're doing in order to pay attention.

Now, you might be thinking, "This is not my kid. I have a kid who could play Nintendo, and be so focused that the house could burn down around him, and he'd never notice."

Well, that could be. A lot of these kids could do just exactly that.

Nintendo is interesting, its challenging, and its fun. Kids get immediate feedback, they could play Nintendo for hours.

But just put a math worksheet in front of them and see how different it is. They have a terrible time paying attention to something that's not interesting or that's not motivating, which accounts for about 85% of school work, and about 100% of chores.

Lack of Flexibility with Attention

Part of the problem with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – ADHD - is a lack of FLEXIBILITY with attention.

A person without ADHD has the ability to shift from attention that is focused on a specific task at hand to the kind of attention that is global many times in just a few seconds.

Whenever he wants, someone without ADHD can shift from reading a book, to scanning the room to know where our kids are and what they are doing, and then very quickly returning to focus on reading.

Without ADHD we have Flexibility in our ability to Focus. We can shift from specific focus to global focus at will and very quickly.

Individuals with ADHD do not have this same Flexibility of focus.

Those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – ADHD – have a very difficult time shifting from a global focus, such as they might have at recess or lunch break, to a specific focus that would be required when they return to the classroom to study math and work on the math worksheet in front of them.

This is why kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – ADHD – could play Nintendo, be really focused on that task, and not notice the house burning down around them.