So many parents are called or hear at parent-teacher conferences that their child / teenager simply cannot focus on their work or they are “distracted”. Most of those times, parents are referred to medical practitioners to discuss the need of medication. While medication can really be good in many circumstances, it may not always be the right answer. What does a student need in the classroom to pay attention adequately? Posner’s research highlights a number of developmental steps that needs to be in place in order to make the most from our learning environment.

Firstly, we need to be sure that the student is able to register all the information taking place. Are all the senses prepared to receive the information coming in to the brain at the same time? Is your child able to look and listen to their teacher, while simultaneously ignoring any background information that may be coming in? We also need to consider if they are able to withstand information from their own head and body (internal sources) that may be competing with the information coming in from external sources.

Secondly, as we register the information our bodies, we also need to respond in split second timing to the incoming stimuli through an orienting response from our bodies. Now we have to be sure all our primitive reflexes (formed in utero) are fully integrated and not competing for attention within the student. We also need to consider if your child / teenager has sufficient postural control and body mechanics to stay seated at the desk to maintain the arousal and attention to incoming stimuli.

Next, the incoming information would require high speed timing and pacing to travel through the different pathways simultaneously to reach into the pre-frontal cortex in order to be analyzed for meaning adequately. This is where neuropsychologists discuss “processing speed” in their testing of IQ scores. The pre-frontal cortex relies on the fact that all the relevant information is coming in at the same time and speed, otherwise it feels to the student like a badly “dubbed” movie with the teachers’ non-verbal gesture (visual information), not matching up with the verbal speech (auditory information). This can be very confusing the student and frequently cause them to lose attention or allow themselves to become distracted because it is simply too much effort to sustain attention.

Finally, the pre-frontal cortex relies on aspects such as long-term memory, and working memory to keep sustaining the attention. The student uses working memory to retrieve information from long term storage associated with the new learning taking place and uses this information in the working moment to make sense of what the teacher is teaching at any given time. Good teachers always scaffold new learning based on what was taught before, relying on the student’s brain to assimilate ongoing newer information based on what they already know.

If your child / teenager’s working memory is unable to process the new information due to inadequate prior processes of registration, orientation, speed and timing, he / she may become overwhelmed and lose the ability to sustain attention.

All of these processes occur in the subconscious brain and is formed through the developmental process of growing up from being a baby, a toddler, through childhood and further refined through adolescence. Is medication sometimes an answer to consider? Yes, of course medicine could be supportive. Is it the only answer? Therein lies the conundrum. Teachers need to have their entire class focused to remain attentive to the curriculum and medication does seem to be a “quick fix”, but it also can lead to multiple side effects, including the repercussions with regards to feelings of wellbeing and self-esteem when needing to be dependent upon medication to function in a classroom. If you are a teacher, consider referring to an occupational therapist that understands the developmental pathways to attention as described above. With the right kind of therapy in the appropriate steps of development, a student can get the development they may need. If you are a parent, consider an assessment by an occupational therapist that can tease out the developmental pieces and target the origin of attention difficulties. The brain is very complex and not any one individual is exactly the same.

Contact anne@atotalapproach.com for an initial “no charge” phone consultation to see if your child is a fit for our dedicated battery of assessments geared towards attention and executive functions.

I conducted a Tomatis Level 4 training a couple of weeks ago and was reflecting on my path with one of my mentors, when I had the thought to tell her story. I do not think I  can do her justice, but this is more my personal reflection of her influence in my life. Most families and professionals who know me, know that I am a strong advocate of the Tomatis Sound Therapy program and have been doing this work since 2003 and training all 4 levels of workshops since 2009. No one program is ever a cure, but I affectionately call this program, my “regulatory” program. At the basis of sensory processing, learning disorders, mental health disorders, there is the need for basic regulation between the sympathetic and parasympathetic system that creates a “just right” balance for us to be available for learning and socialization. The Tomatis program has evolved greatly over the years, from an analogue to a digital era and with increased precision in each newer device.

 Back to my story…… About 6 years ago, I was hosting a Tomatis Level 2 training at my office in Pennsylvania, when I had a call from Canada. The basic request was: “Can Doc also come when we come for our training?”. I thought: “Who was Doc?” They stated that she trained and worked with Dr. Tomatis in the sixties and seventies and is now 100 years old. She owned a private school in Ontario, Canada and have been doing Tomatis through all these years and now her staff was becoming trained in the newer models of care. I must ashamedly admit that I thought that at that age of maturity she likely would sleep through half of it, but sure, she could come. Well, Agatha Sidlauskas may have been 100 years old when I met her, but she was as sharp as a whip. Instead of intimidating me with her many years of experience, she acclaimed, validated and appreciated me as a trainer and I was in awe of her! She was still reading books on brain health and newer advanced care and though things have changed, she still had it! I fell in love with her and visited her in Canada, where we simply sat and listened to her story.

 Agatha grew up in Lithuania in a time period of very little education in their rural home. She was sent to live on her own, boarding with another family at a very young age and taught herself Italian and English through a Bible she had at the time. She went on to study in Italy, got involved in all kinds of adventures before leaving Italy by the skin of her teeth during the war. She found herself in Canada and became a professor at a local university and also promoted Dr. Tomatis and his work from those very early stages. She even showed Charl and I a picture of her in a book doing a full plank position mid air resting her entire body on her elbows at the age of 84! She was a remarkable woman, who brought healing to many over the years in her private school.

 Agatha and her life-long friend, Marilyn, invited Charl and I to spend some time in the Bahamas at Marilyn’s “home-away-from-home”. Every evening after dinner, Agatha and I would stay long hours at the table discussing the brain, the “work” of Tomatis and what the research was currently saying. Her eyes sparkled and she was clearly enjoying herself in these discussions, as was I. Agatha gave me space to ponder three major tenets in my life in my journey thus far, as we shared these pieces in our lives even though she was 50 years my senior. This gap did not matter. These tenets are:

• Every child is born innocent of the influence of this world. While there are genes that could provide us temperament in the early years, it is our experience in this world that builds our personality and would give space to expression of those inherited genes or not.
• Children’s behavior is an expression of communication that we as professionals would have to figure out the “why” to. To assume the reason as for example, manipulation, is far too simple as it frequently asks for more complexity of understanding than the child’s developmental level is capable of.
• As professionals we cannot look at any child’s development from only one lens. We need to cross over in the domains of other professionals if we want to think of understanding the entirety of one child. The child has to put all of us together into their system in order to make sense of this world (Sensory, emotional, behavioral, language, social, etc.).

 Agatha’s innate respect for others, her fierce instinct to protect those she viewed as “weaker” and her sense of trust in the ability of children to heal, so resonated with me in my own thinking. I realized through Agatha, that these were my mantras from the beginning of opening my practice and little did I know in 2001, where this would lead me in my journey. I wish for every professional to have an Agatha in their journey. She was able to bridge years of knowledge into the newer knowledge of today and gave me great perspective in respecting what came before me and my time.

 I was able to persuade Agatha and Marilyn to come to Paris to an international Tomatis convention in 2015, where I presented her a plaque for her years of good service to the Tomatis Method and the happiness on her face was what I remembered when she passed at the age of 103. She came home to Paris, where it all began for her and under her influence, I was able to affirm my home, my beliefs and my journey.

 Thank you, Agatha!