Half a Brain, and Attention Deficit

One "diagnostic" test I have had the opportunitiy to do with several groups of my students is the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) self report scale (ASRS) from the World Health Organisation (Sample here). This does not diagnose the disorder, only a Doctor can do that, but has been proved to be reliable at predicting probability.

Along with all the usual numeracy and literacy diagnostics I find this one helpful for finding out which students are most likely to struggle with concentration, and seek out distractions.

The test is originally designed to indicate probability of someone having ADD. Actually, I don't use it for this, though interesting. I use it mainly because in answering the questions on the test I find out some interesting things like:

• Which learners will find it hard starting a piece of work.
• Which learners will find it hard finishing a piece of work.
• Which learners tend to procrastinate.
• Which learners are disorganised.

Knowing all these things can be really helpful as you try to get each learner to reach their potential. The test reveals these things simply in the questions it asks. Answers are given as 'never', 'rarely', 'sometimes', 'often', 'very often'.

• How often do you have trouble wrapping up the final details of a project, once the challenging parts have been done?
• How often do you have difficulty getting things in order when you have to do a task that requires organization?
• How often do you have problems remembering appointments or obligations?
• When you have a task that requires a lot of thought, how often do you avoid or delay getting started?
• How often do you fidget or squirm with your hands or feet when you have to sit down for a long time?
• How often do you feel overly active and compelled to do things, like you were driven by a motor?

These questions reveal quite a bit about my learners inner workings that is really helpful.

In pondering Attention Deficit, I have wondered to what degree this is actually a 'condition' for my learners, and to what degree they simply never learned to concentrate properly.

A large proportion of my students insist that listening to music helps them to concentrate. I disagree. Logically, if half your brain is being used up with music, only half is available for doing the work. OK, there may be left brain right brain issues here, fine, I welcome your insight. In favour of my view I cite the animation director of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' whose mentor ain his early days advocated turning the music off - and when he did, his animation imediately improved.

Why? Because in the words of his mentor he wasn't "clever enough to think of two things at once".

So where does that leave our students? Because they have never learned to focus on one thing, they find it boring, the trade off is to listen to music and only work on part efficiency. Half a brain.