Attention Training System

I haven’t read about it but would like to do so. What year,volume, and issue?

Susan,
From what I understand it is an electronic counter that is placed on a student’s desk that awards the student points for each minute he/she is on task. If the student should wander and become off task, the teacher, using a remote, can turn a light on that is on the counter and subsequently the counter deducts a point. I have read about this in a 2001 issue of the CEC Teaching Exceptional Children journal and this has really picqued my interest. The article stated that it is great for children who are either ADD/ADHD and not on meds, however, I would think that it would work wonders for those who are currently taking meds as well. I just want to see if anyone else has ever used it and what their success rate was with it.

Laurie

I can only speak for my son. I know he would find something like this more distracting than anything. He said that there were times when the teacher told him to pay attention when he was paying attention. He was thinking about what he wanted to write. This caused him a fair amount of anxiety.

The class he was in had alot of “interventions.” There were rewards for pretty much everything and suprise inspections of his desk with a reward if it was neat.

All of this was very distracting for a child who was easily distracted. He spent more time thinking about rewards and whether or not the teacher was going to say something to him than he did about the work.

This is just one child, it might work for others.

Thanks for posting this. I’m going to look into it. Many kids have trouble with self-monitoring anything. This might have a novel effect. I am wondering about longitudinal, though, as the newness wears thin. Definitely worth looking into. I’ll let you know if I find anything on it…

I ordered some reading material on it. I’m sure they’ll tell us when the article appeared.