does attention span improve with age?

Post Reply New Topic

My son is only 11, but I am wondering --

My son ust can't seem to pay attention to anything -- during class, during acting class, during scouts, while he's doing homework, anything. This is a bright kid -- if we work hard with him, he can test well. But we are supporting him completely right now -- WE decide what he studies, WE decide when he starts his homework, WE basically determine everything that he does in terms of school. I try to get him to do things himself -- write in his assignment book, figure out how to begin a project, start his own homework -- but most of the time it just doesn't work.

If you are a student or an adult on the spectrum, do you feel that the attention span or self-motivation skills ever improve? Or should I just face the fact that my wonderful son is pretty much doing the best he can and leave it at that?

Kris

Depends. Different cases have different results. My mind constantly wanders.
Alcohol helps - small amounts, of course. The mind wanders because, in a basic sense, it is hyperactive. Or rather, some aspects are. A shot of bourbon usually keeps me calm enough to maintain my sanity - though, that's just me.
In general, however, as people age they have greater ability to force themselves to concentrate.
Other times, it might seem the person isn't paying attention, even if they are. Times still, the person might not be paying attention to specifically what is asked of them, but their minds may be very active with things they are often unable to articulate to others who do not share their perspective.

Your going about it all wrong,
most aspies obsess over something and it distracts them,
if you take away all the distractions then the mind tends to day dream and wonder.
find a bunch of subjects you think he will enjoy thats educational or let him go out and pick his own,
let him go at it, if it catches his interest you wont be able to tear him away from it,
if this works, you add stuff telling him to learn more on that subject he needs to learn this,
I am not saying here you can have this but you got to do that, no,
I am saying to learn this better you need that,
if that does not work you let him sink his teeth into the subject, then black mail him to learn other things as well.
try and keep him away from fantasy stuff like cartoons and comics and the like,
you do not want him going off on tantrums of flights of fantasy that he cant or may not be able to control.

Thanks so much for your posts -- they give me hope.

I know he tries to keep his head in the game as far as paying attention during class, but I also know that he can't do it. As hard as he tries, it's just is too much for him. I've been working with him, trying to find fun ways to take notes (in an effort to help him pay attention) -- using different colored pens, drawing pictures along with text, etc. He just can't do it, currently.

Maybe I can spend the summer watching Bill Nye the Science Guy videos with him, and taking notes with him, so that he can develop this skill. But it's never the same as when you're in class, and have all of the distractions that are part of going to school. He's getting bad grades in a class that is a subject he loves (science) partially because he isn't clued in to listening to the teacher. This teacher has a monotone voice, and is one of those teachers that I swear doesn't want his students to succeed (he's also a teacher who is nearing retirement). We study the book for tests, but even knowing what's in the book produce C's on the tests.

Kris

He sounds like I was at age 11. Attention will improve with age, but may still never be the same as "normal" people. I'm 47 and still find it hard to do things that must be done but are boring. This is more of a problem with tasks requiring mental effort rather than boring physical tasks.

I've found that classical music sometimes helps to get my mind focussed on a boring task. If I've got some boring software to write, but must be done then I play Beethoven's Pastoral symphony and try to start working. After a few minutes I've become focussed and engrossed in the work.

Another thing to do is find something that HE is interested in. At age 11 I discovered science and metaphysics (though I never heard the word metaphysics until years later). I then got a passion for those subjects and did well studying physics, chemistry, biology etc. He may also have a natural ability with computers - I found software development both engrossing and fascinating - you can even earn a living from it!

I suspect that a lot of programmers have Asperger's to some degree.

I totally agree that I should help him find what interests HIM. He's been taking acting classes, and liked the "improv" nature of the classes in the beginning, but once it turned into practicing for a play (and he has a small part) he's understandably lost interest, so we're going to stop doing this after the play is over. He now has an interest in playing the guitar (due to Guitar Hero and two older siblings), so I'm going to promote that by getting him lessons and promoting the idea of starting a band with his friends.

We also try and promote the science interest by doing small science experiments at home -- it constantly amazes me how little they do experiments in his science class.

Believe me, I've been tossing around the idea of homeschooling ALL YEAR LONG. He's doing fairly well socially at school, so I hate to mess with that. But I'm SURE he would do better academically if he stayed home. I wish I had a crystal ball to see the future!

Kris

I know mine has gotten worse with age, but I might be able to attribute that to some things that showed up in a blood test.

The problem with noise & distractions has definitely got worse with age for me, but I think that's just because there is more noise & more distraction nowadays!

You are right, the teacher's monotone voice will be a huge part of the problem. Also the lack of practical work will make it seem boring.

One of my interests is education, & I've been thinking recently that the way the system is structured now, with the emphasis on projects & coursework, has gone more & more in the direction of being geared towards NT's - in the old days, with all the focus on "passing the exam" it was far more aspie-friendly!

Hello Shopaholic, I agree about the monotone voice. The best teachers I had were all passionate about their subject. There is nothing worse than a teacher droning on, passing on the same notes as he has done for the last ten years, waiting for the day he can retire and die.

For a few months many years ago I had the opportunity to work in a school and do some science lesson demonstrations. The subject was chemistry Group one and group two elements, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium etc. Potentially this could be very boring but a few flashes, bangs and clouds of smoke really got the kids attention and their interest.

As a student myself I hated course work, but loved exams and cramming!

At university I had one particularly poor lecturer. He could bore paint off the walls so I stopped going to his lectures. Eventually I was hauled into the head of dept's office for a telling off. He declared that unless I started attending his lectures I was going to fail the exam. I didn't attend any more of his lectures but instead read around the subject myself in a fraction of the time. When the exam results were posted it was with a certain smug satisfaction that I discovered I'd come equal top place in the entire year of around 100 students.

Things can definitely improve--- I had alot of difficulty concentrating as a kid, almost failed 5th grade because of it. I wasn't dumb, but my mind just wasn't there all the time. But with age, it seems alot of people either concentrate better or at least find ways to cope with it/improve it. Finding things that I enjoyed to do/ pour my energy into helped, too. Just keep being supportive--- things'll click one day.

I'd say this has something to do with it, the atmosphere also plays big part too!

I think that yes, if a person is motivated, their attention span and motivation can improve with age. Mine certainly did. I am in a job that tests all my abilities to the utmost--no sane counselor would EVER encourage someone with Aspergers to go in the field that I am in--and each time I think this is it, I have hit the wall, somehow I find the way to surmount this challenge, and go on. Part of it of course is because "officially" I am viewed as capable; whatever problems--and they were many--I had at your son's age, mysteriously "disappeared" once I became mainstreamed in high school. Sort of like having your glasses taken away after a lifetime of wearing them and being told you now have 20/20 vision even though you know nothing's changed with your sight. It's amazing what a little ignorance can do, if you don't know you are supposed to have limitations or admit to having them.

So what are your son's limits? Who can say. Sometimes I wonder if society isn't harder on the kids with problems and less willing to let them be kids, they have to be better than the normal kids, they have to be perfect. Each person grows at his or her own pace. We are not robots on an assembly line. Though I feel like that some days, that my humanness is a liability, not an asset.

When I was in second grade, I was so bad with staying on task that my teacher had a video camera in the classroom to show my parents during parent-teacher conferences. IWatching those for myself a few years ago, I was so ashamed of myself.

But nowadays, I'm much better with concentration. Maybe it does have to do with maturity.