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By Glenda Thorne, Ph.D., Alice Thomas, M.Ed., Candy
The following strategies are offered for enhancing attention
and managing attention problems. This listing is by no means
exhaustive, but rather is meant as a place to begin. The best
resources for strategies are the creative, inventive minds of
enlightened assessment professionals, teachers and parents, in
partnership with the students they serve. Together they can
create multiple alternative strategies.
1. Take the Mystery Away
The first and perhaps most important management strategy is to
insure that all students understand how attention works and
identify their particular profiles of attention strengths and
weaknesses. Then, students should be taught attention
management strategies.
2. Understand Consistent Inconsistency
Teachers and parents should understand that the inconsistency
of children with attention problems is not evidence of a poor
attitude or lack of motivation. It is a part of their
biologically based attention dysfunction, and is beyond their
easy control.
3. Explore the Option of Medication
For many children and adolescents, medication can be helpful
in
dealing with attentional difficulties. Medication can improve
mental alertness and the intensity and duration of
concentration. In addition, it may diminish impulsivity and
hyperactivity. The student and his parents may wish to explore
this option with his physician.
4. Allow for Movement and Breaks
It is helpful for students who have problems with inconsistent
alertness and mental effort to be provided with opportunities
to move around. For example, at school, teachers could ask the
student to erase the board, collect papers or take a message
to
the office. At home, parents and/or the student could schedule
regular breaks and change work sites. That is, the student
could work several minutes at the kitchen table and several
minutes on the living room floor. Each time the location is
changed, the student may experience a burst of mental energy.
Additionally, students may need to be doing something with
their hands while seated. They may doodle, roll a piece of
clay
or perform some other manual tasks that enhance their
alertness
and arousal.
5. Vary Instructional Strategies
Teachers should use a variety of instructional strategies and
these should be changed approximately every 15 to 20 minutes.
For example, they could deliver information for 15 minutes via
lecture. This strategy could be followed by small group work
or
cooperative learning for 20 minutes. Next, students could
engage
in individual seatwork or watch a video.
6. Use Signals
The teacher and parents should have a private way of signaling
students when they are tuned out. For example, a gentle tap on
the shoulder may be effective. Also, the student's teachers
and
parents may need to signal him when something important is
about
to be stated. Looking right at him, his teacher or parent
could
say, "Now listen very carefully. I am about to give you
important instructions about tomorrow's test.”
7. Leverage Interests
Attention is enhanced when interest is heightened. Thus,
students should be encouraged to read, write and talk about
subjects in which they are interested. Additionally, students'
attention is enhanced when information is personally relevant
to them. For example, if students need to learn a
chronological
timetable, the teacher could begin with having the students
develop a chronological timetable of the important events in
their own lives.
8. Minimize Noise & Other Distractions
Students who are easily distracted should benefit from a
structured auditory environment. They may need preferential
seating near the front of the classroom so that noise and
distractions from other students are minimized.
9. Develop Previewing and Planning Skills
Teachers and parents can help students develop previewing and
planning skills by requiring them to formulate plans for
writing reports and completing projects. For example, when
completing a book report, the students could submit plans for
how they are going to accomplish this task. They will likely
need specific instruction, followed by modeling, then guided
practice, and finally feedback on performance. The concept of
previewing should be explained to the students and they should
be aware of the fact that the activities they are engaging in
will help them develop previewing/ planning skills. It is
helpful if they are first given practical examples of
planning,
such as planning for a party.
10. Use Behavior Modification and Self-Assessment
The use of behavior modification and self-assessment
strategies
can be helpful in increasing desired behaviors (e.g., task
completion) and/or decreasing behavior problems (e.g.,
impulsive blurting out during class). The specific behaviors
that need to be changed should be identified (e.g., completes
reading classwork; raises hand before answering questions;
brushes teeth before going to bed; puts dirty clothes in
laundry). The specific consequences for behavior change should
also be identified. The consequence for positive behaviors
must
be more rewarding to the student than failure to complete the
positive behavior. For example, if the child is allowed to
stay
up an extra 15 minutes in the evenings, this behavior must be
more rewarding than leaving his/her dirty clothes on the
bathroom floor. Additionally, performance of the targeted
behavior must be the only way that the student is able to
obtain the reward. In the previous example, the child is only
able to stay up the extra 15 minutes at night if he puts his
dirty laundry in the designated place. School-home notes can
be
used to communicate back and forth between home and school. In
both settings, charts and graphs can be used to monitor
progress toward the goal. Students should be encouraged to
assess their own behavior in addition to being assessed by the
adult. They could be given an additional reward for accurate
self-assessment.
11. Discourage Frenetic Work Patterns
To help students refrain from rushing through their work,
teachers and parents could avoid making statements such as,
"You can go out to recess as soon as you finish your
assignment" or "You can watch television when you finish your
homework." Offers such as these may inadvertently encourage
students to work too quickly and carelessly.
12. Get Organized
A notebook with three sections labeled "Work to be Completed,"
"Work Completed" and "Work to be Saved" may be used to help
students organize their assignments. Color-coding notebooks
for
different subjects may also be helpful for organizing work.
13. Use Daily Planners
A student should use a structured daily planner to help him
organize his assignments and activities. A planner that is
broken down by subject within the day and has sufficient room
to write all the information he needs would be preferred. ELAN
Publishing offers a number of good student organizers.
Alternately, he may benefit from using a personal digital
assistant (PDA).
14. Set Up a Home Office
At home, parents should guide their child/adolescent with
setting up his/her own well-organized "office.” Parents should
schedule a weekly time that their child/adolescent will
dedicate to straightening up the office and making sure all
office supplies are well-stocked (e.g., post-its, pencils,
pens, highlighters, paper, paper clips, stapler). The student
should find his/her best time(s) for studying (his/her most
alert times of day), and post these times as his/her "Office
Hours." The student should also experiment with different
kinds
of background noise levels that work best for him/her when
doing
homework of studying. Some children/adolescents actually
concentrate better in a noisy environment or while listening
to
music while others may need to use ear plugs.
15. Allow Time to Wind Down
Many students with attention problems have trouble falling
asleep at night. It is helpful for them to have an established
routine for going to bed at night. For example, they could
read
a book or have a book read to them. They can engage in
stretching exercises before getting in bed. They could drink a
glass of milk or hot chocolate prior to going to bed. They
might also listen to quiet, easy music while falling asleep.
“White noise,” such as a fan, may also be helpful in
facilitating sleep.
About The Author: The authors serve on the professional staff
of the Center for Development and Learning
(www.cdl.org), a nonprofit organization that
specializes
in the development and dissemination of research, knowledge,
and
best practices that impact teaching and learning.
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