Attention Skills: What are they and can they be learned?

Foster Children Listening to "Grandma" Read a Story

When our first three foster children (3, 4, and 6 years old) arrived at our house they possessed no attention skills. So, when we sat down with them at night to read them a bedtime story it was quite a task! They obviously had no previous experience of the joy of listening to a story being read by a parent.

However, one month after our little ones came to our home they looked forward to listening  to a story with anticipation. They also sat relatively still and paid close attention. The CPS worker couldn't believe the change in them! Attention skills can be learned and improved.

Primary Types of Attention

• Sustained Attention is the ability to concentrate on a task, object, or thought and the amount of time we are capable of focusing. 
• Selective Attention is the ability to concentrate on a task while being distracted.
• Divided Attention is the ability to attend to two or more things at once (multi-tasking).

Attention and Learning

Attention and learning are related brain processes, separate but dependent on each other  for successful functioning. 

“Learning” is the way the brain uses and remembers information like a factory taking in raw materials, storing parts and then manufacturing and shipping a finished product. 

“Attention” involves brain controls which regulate what information gets selected as important and gets acted on. 

The attention/behavior control system acts like the executives at the factory distributing the “brain energy” budget, setting priorities, deciding what to produce and monitoring quality control. Late shipments or poor quality products could be the result of any number of “glitches” in either system. Minor problems in one system can be compensated for but when both systems are affected failure looms. Sorting out the breakdown points is critical but can be complicated. -NCLD