"Somebody else's opinion of you does not have to become your reality." These were words that Les Brown shared that his landmark teacher, Mr. Washington, said to him minutes after they first met.
Except for results from traumatic injuries, stroke, or birth defects, there is no such thing as attention deficit. Now if one is not clear on his/her values, even as a child, and have priorities, then - yes, one gets distracted.
In today's world, people tend to be more cooped up inside than going out and playing. Having one's face inches from an electronic device for long periods of time interferes with REM sleep. What many children today lack is simple motor skills which were a given in other generations.
A very interesting note on the statistics kept on ADD/ADHD diagnoses is that there are less than half the incidences with those of Latino heritage. A simple observation is that Latinos still embrace baseball. Baseball requires eye-hand-mind coordination. more than that, the children go outside to play, even though they may embrace indoors.
The main reason for all these bogus diagnoses is that the warehousing indoctrination centers do not know how to teach children whose primary learning modality is kinesthetic. Yet, this is the largest group at 40%. So the parents are told to take them to a Dr.-rent-a-friend, where a prescription for a psychoactive drug is given. The most common is Methylphenidate. This is Ritalin and all its cousins. Children as young as two are being so medicated.
There is no such thing as the Terrible Twos. It is terrible parenting: usually a perpetuation of long-standing errors; passed from generation to generation. What is commonly viewed as temper tantrums are exhibitions of frustration and confusion.
If you are a parent and have a child, whether or not you think that he/she has attention problems, engage in some simple activities. Any child that has not ever finger painted is severely deprived. Try some Pébéo for shock and awe. Juggling is another powerful activity that is very easy to learn.
By asking the right questions, one can assist a child to know what he/she really wants to do, as well as exponentially expanding the horizons.
Feel free to ask me questions along these lines.