ADD Attention-Focus Challenged

  “Focus is the SPOTLIGHT that allows us the ability to pick our one object, task, or thought and work on it to the exclusion of other things.  This is attention.  People with ADD not only lack an adequate level of arousal but they often cannot focus on one specific task.  This in part is arousal seeking, moving from thing to thing to stay aroused.     Try to do homework with the ADD child.  They bounce from topic to topic, look at everything, find any excuse not to focus on the homework.  For most of them it is painful to sit still, pay attention, and focus.  Not only is it painful, it is exhausting.  To get a sense of what their brain is experiencing, turn on every TV and radio in the house.  Then have every family member talk to you at the same time.  You will pay attention to everything and nothing at the same time.  You cannot focus with all of this stimulation coming in.  It is overload.     For many of these children it is not that they cannot pay attention–they are paying attention to everything at once.  Therefore, nothing gets done, nothing gets absorbed, and nothing gets learned.  It is just motion with no purpose.  The level of arousal must be high enough to allow the brain to focus; if not, attention will be inadequate.” p.12.  From Getting Rid of Ritalin by Robert W. Hill, Ph.D. and Eduardo Castro, M.D.     Neurofeedback trains the brain to focus.