Can’t you pay attention?

January 8, 2011 by Lisa Freeman
Posted in•Social Thinking•School Age

How many times have we seen our kids playing a video game or doing something they are interested in and remarked, “He pays attention when he wants to.”

Whether the child is typically developing or has developmental challenges I think most of us have said this at one time or another about our kids. And what we are probably thinking (although we don’t necessarily say it) is “If you pay attention and focus SOME of the time then why can’t you do it ALL of the time or for the things that are important.” (What we perceive as important of course.) Lurking in the back of our minds is the thought that if they can control the behavior some of the time they are being willful and stubborn.

Last night as I was clicking around the web, I came across a brief article about a study on the inability of children with ADHD to maintain attention to task.  The study found that children with ADHD have difficulty switching off the part of the brain that controls mind-wandering. This is particularly so ‘if the task is not sufficiently interesting’. Here’s the link to the article ADHD and ‘mind-wandering’. Something else for us to think about…..

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