Attention and Student Achievement

...while listening to a voicemail from your child's teacher, he/she tells you that although your second-grader is reading well, your student is having trouble paying attention and is in fact being disruptive in class.  Suddenly you are a parent advocate of a student with an "attention issue".  Now what do you do? 

Advocates of students with attention issues in the school system are usually parents who become advocates in response to the child’s need for support and a call for parental involvement from the school.  Attention advocates are confronted with many challenges, the foremost is to learn to advocate for a child who is often viewed by teachers and peers as unruly, disrespectful and underachieving.  Legal and medical resources regarding attention issues, especially ADHD, are very useful to advocates of students in school and regularly resourced to advocates by advocacy organizations and clinicians.  

However, a set of more diverse attention issue resources exists that can be applied in practice and contribute to the improvement of student behavior and achievement in school.   Diverse resources present information about attention on topics such as misdiagnosis of ADHD and conditions that contribute to inattentive student behavior such as giftedness, learning disabilities, physiology, and environment (Baum & Olenchak, 2002; Haber, 2003; Konofal et al., 2008; Mota-Castillo, 2007; National Institute of Mental Health, 2008; Piechowski, 1991; Renzulli, Smith, Callahan, White, & Hartman, 1976; & Richardson, 2006). 

A knowledge gap exists between the somewhat narrow set of resources that typically guide advocates of students with attention issues in school and a comprehensive set of resources that includes diverse attention and achievement resources. 

Readers, what have your experiences been like as you have learned to advocate for a student who demonstrates attention issues in school?