Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: What Do We Mean by "Attention" Anyway?

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, to be able to pay attention to 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.

One definition of "paying attention" is "sustaining and selecting to the right cue." One part of this 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 a math worksheet or a similar task.

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

This Is NOT My Child