There are a number of factors that can affect normal concentration and a person’s ability to remain centered. Concentration is one of the most powerful mental tools at our disposal – and yet, so few of us know how to use it to its full potential. Essentially, concentration is the ability to focus your attention on a task at hand while blocking out other distracting or unrelated stimuli – this includes insignificant sounds or visual input and most importantly, wandering or irrelevant thoughts and impulsive movements. Maintaining a balance of physical activity is also important for concentration.

As a Special Education Teacher and an Educational Psychologist, I am blessed to get the change to to improve troubled and challenged children’s life’s on a daily bases. With more than 12 years of experience, I have helped more than 500 children getting their lives back on track. Some of those children had severe learning disorders, while others struggled with challenges such as ADHD, ODD, Autism, Anxiety and Depression. None of these children were the same. In fact, I have never seen two children with exactly the same type of, for instance, ADHD. While it’s often treated and medicated as a disease, ADHD is actually what is called a “spectrum disorder”, just like Autism is part of the “Autism Spectrum Disorder”.

Children with attention deficits are not deliberately displaying “bad” behavior. Most of the time, they do not have the power to control their own actions. This is called: lack of impulse control. Of course, all children have moments where they choose to act bad. But that should be seen as normal behavior to try to extent barriers.

When it comes to behavior, people tend to act strict. The same people forget that children need to be able to model or mirror appropriate behavior in order to learn how to behave. We give children with a physical challenge all kids of assistive technology (wheel chairs, communication systems), but when our frustration level has been crossed (which happens very fast around hyperactive children), we do not supply the tools to help!

A parent asked me a question: “I think my child has ADHD. Can you teach him to sit still, he drives me crazy!” There is something wrong with that question.

First of all, who is driving who crazy? If you as a parent “let” your child drive you crazy by acting unstructured, you allow the child to continue his impulsive behavior. The unstructured actions or consequences give the child a Maybe It Will Work Again trigger. On the other hand, you could be driving the child crazy as well, because s/he does never know when to expect certain actions or consequences.

Second, in my opinion, it is impossible for an attention deficit child to sit still for a longer period of time. They need time to loose energy. They get manipulated by various impulses which make them move. It could be quite so, that a dining room has been decorated in a way which makes it impossible for an ADHD child to sit still. I once visited a family where two children were diagnosed with ADHD. The mother was a Swiss clock collector. On every wall hang a clock, which was making tik-tak noises constantly. Still, the mother expected the two boys to sit quietly at the dining table when every one was eating.

It is very important to see to it that ADHD children get the opportunity to be in a room without impulse triggers. Think of calming colors on the wall, no clocks, restricted tv-hours and most important … no clutter. How is an unorganized ADHD child ever going to learn to be organized when she/he has to live in a mess?

By: Chris De Feijter

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