ADHD children and the issue of concentration

How can it happen that a child with ADHD is constantly distracted at school and while doing homework, but can focus for hours while playing, watching TV or gaming?

As a parent, you may have often shaken your head in amazement. Does your child also transform when they can choose their own activities? "Suddenly," these children can spend hours lost in their Lego game, delve deeply into the new comic, and allow nothing and no one to distract them while watching their favorite show.

For this reason, outsiders often have the impression that ADHD children "could pay attention if they wanted to or had been properly raised." We want to dispel this misconception. In this article, we explore the cause of attention deficit and explain why children with ADHD exhibit a different form of attention.

1. Attention in the back of the mind

Let's first look at neuroscience: As Goleman (2014) emphasizes, there is no such thing as ONE attention . Instead, we have different attention systems responsible for different tasks. One system is located primarily in the back of the brain and primarily contains deeper brain structures. As we go about our daily lives, this system "hums quietly" ( Goleman, 2014 ). It reacts to appealing images, sounds, smells, and events in our environment, responding very quickly, involuntarily, and intuitively. We don't have to consciously direct our attention because something intuitively seems interesting or important (like a video game) or evokes certain feelings in us (like when a mother hears her crying baby).

The posterior attention system is essentially "survival attention." It scans the environment for dangers and highly exciting opportunities. Its responses are: "fight/act," "flight," or "freeze." It was once essential for survival—in times when big cats, wolves/hyenas, crocodiles, and predatory apes made it impossible for approximately 50% of humans to even reach reproductive age . Today, especially in industrialized countries, it is hardly in demand anymore.

Children with ADHD exhibit high posterior attention—and therefore reactivity—to external stimuli: They are almost magically drawn to anything in their environment that is large, bright, loud, colorful, or moving ( Zentall, 2005 ). Their attention is so absorbed by the TV show or exciting game that they effortlessly "get stuck" in these activities. Homework or class rarely meet these criteria, so conscious redirection of attention is necessary (we will discuss this point later).

These deeper brain structures are also active when we perform routine tasks. Certain everyday activities, such as making coffee, locking the door, or driving a car, are so automatic that we don't have to consciously think about the individual steps (perhaps you've wondered if you locked the front door while driving to work...). This explains why children with ADHD benefit from routines in their daily lives. When certain processes have been repeated so often that they have been shifted to deeper brain structures, conscious concentration is hardly required.

2. Attention in the frontal lobe

The other attention system is located primarily behind the forehead . It is activated when we consciously want to focus on a particular thought or action, or when we make and execute new plans. This deliberate steering of attention is relatively slow and requires effort. We need this system to stay on track with time-consuming and boring tasks, to ignore unimportant stimuli, and to control ourselves ("This is where the focus lies; XY is not important right now." or "You'd really like to watch this TV show right now. But you have your math exam tomorrow, and you'd better study now.").

Interestingly, these brain areas can switch into another mode without us noticing: Our attention is then unconsciously directed inward: our thoughts begin to wander, and we fall into daydreaming. In this state, we barely notice what's happening around us. At the same time, the conscious control of our attention is blocked—so we don't even notice that we're no longer paying attention.

Neuroimaging studies have shown that people with ADHD are much more likely to enter this " daydream mode ." This mode has a crucial advantage: It allows for unconventional solutions and problem-solving in a more creative way. At the same time, this mode prevents relatively boring tasks from being completed with concentration and from retaining new information, making learning inefficient.

ADHD: A deficit in attention control

We can conclude that children with ADHD concentrate differently: Their "posterior attention system" is highly active and quickly draws them to new, exciting, or emotional stimuli. On the other hand, the conscious direction of attention in the anterior attention system is often blocked due to the relatively frequent mind wandering and daydreaming.

ADHD is therefore not an "attention deficit," but a "deficit of attention control." The problems are particularly evident with tasks that take a long time, are boring, or are repetitive for the child. Therefore, it's no wonder that children with ADHD often have difficulty maintaining attention during homework and in class, while they can stay focused for hours during other, more engaging activities such as games or watching television.

It's important to understand that children with ADHD aren't simply "unwilling" or "badly behaved." They actually have difficulty directing their attention, and this is a neurological challenge, not a sign of laziness or disobedience. However, with the right approach and support, strategies and routines can be developed to help children with ADHD direct their attention more effectively and succeed in different situations.

Optimal attention support for children with ADHD

We can support children with ADHD with learning tasks and homework by...

1. Minimize distracting stimuli that require attention and are within sight or hearing range.
2. Encourage the child to assess his or her current ability to concentrate.
3. Teach the child how to consciously enter into a task and then disengage from it again.
4. Use signals to help the child stop daydreaming and focus on the task again.
5. Take regular breaks during which the frontal attention system can recover.

If you would like more detailed information on how you can integrate this support into your everyday life, we recommend appropriate further training or seminars on the topic of “ Successful Learning with AD(H)D ”.

At the same time, daydreaming can be used as a strength by children with ADHD. When children focus their attention inward, they can process experiences, develop new ideas, make plans, and set their own boundaries. Many creative people—artists, writers, entrepreneurs—are daydreamers. They take the time to think ideas through and imagine a different future without immediately dismissing them as unrealistic or unreasonable.

Many companies complain that their employees are too conformist—lacking innovativeness, flexibility, and the ability to think outside the box . Therefore, certain skills of people with ADHD are more in demand than ever in the professional world: Their tendency to daydream often enables them to develop creative ideas, find unconventional solutions, and forge extraordinary plans.

As parents, you can help your child harness their imagination and daydreaming by accepting them and occasionally consciously guiding them. Perhaps your child has difficulty remembering the content of a history text. But if they are encouraged to imagine vivid images or an "inner documentary" about what they are reading, they can often learn more easily.

Instead of being annoyed by their "scattered and dreamy" nature, people with ADHD can use it to organize themselves: They can, for example, visualize the coming day in their minds and ask themselves questions like: What do I need? What do I have to remember? What should I bring with me? Their strong visual imagination helps them structure themselves.

Role play as a patented motivator

Additionally, many children with ADHD are very interested in role-playing . They may not like cleaning. But if they form a "cleaning brigade" with their siblings, perhaps even with a timer, they can quickly become motivated—after all, it's not about cleaning, but a game. Instead of simply completing the physics problems, they imagine they are one of those cool characters from the "Big Bang" series. While they do their calculations, they become the chief accountant of a company.

Children with ADHD often struggle with doing things that don't automatically capture their attention. Sometimes, however, they become true experts at motivating themselves with these "daydreaming tricks." The more you, as a parent, immerse yourself in your child's fantasy world and encourage them to use the associated skills instead of fighting against it, the easier it becomes.

Many children and adolescents with ADHD are often surprised to discover that they can use their daydreaming as a strength. When they succeed in discovering the strength behind their weakness in everyday life, this also strengthens their self-confidence and self-esteem.