What are attentional difficulties?

Attention is being able to concentrate or stay on task and respond to important information. Students with attentional difficulties are not avoiding paying attention; rather the problem is that they attend to alternative stimuli around them, thus overloading their internal processes ⁴⁰.

There are different types of attentional difficulties ^{15 27}: 

• Inattention (the ability to attend to the work task: e.g. read a chapter, write a sentence);
• Hyperactivity (the ability to regulate level of activity); and
• Impulsivity (the ability to inhibit behaviour).

All students have a range of different abilities reflecting the continuum of ability that exists in the general population. There are many factors that influence a student’s day-to-day capacity to retain information in a learning environment and for some students when displaying problems in various situations and across time it becomes important to clarify objectively the extent of the behaviour. There are certain indicators that may be observed if a student is experiencing difficulties with concentration, processing information or producing work.

Likewise, some students with attentional difficulties may experience problems in executive functioning, resulting in poor impulse control, reduced planning ability, problems organising themselves, difficulties in both starting and stopping activities and difficulty in adapting their behaviour according to context.

When doctors are considering a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) using the DSM-IV TR or ICD-10 criteria, relevant information provided by educators may be used in this process.