If a developing child’s brain is processing at a rate that is slower than speech sound (which happens in tens of milliseconds), they may miss certain sounds within a sentence. What a teacher says could then be different than what a student hears. For example, ‘b’ and ‘d’ both take 40 milliseconds long and sound very similar. If a student processes slower than this, they may not be able to tell the difference between these 2 sounds. Words with these sounds will not all make sense to them, and naturally they would not (be able to) pay attention to something that does not have any meaning.

If a child’s visual processing is slightly below-age, they will struggle with recognizing certain mathematical patterns, or find it difficult to follow complex diagrams. Students will easily lose focus and shift their attention to something else that they are better able to process. Very good visual processing skills are required to master concepts in math and science subjects.

If sensory-motor skills are below-age, simple tasks like sitting, balancing, and activities that require the use of different foundations like playing the piano (visual-auditory-motor) will be very difficult- even the task of holding a pen steady and writing. This may make it difficult for a child to sit still for a length of time in class. It is then natural for the child to try and avoid the situation, move around or look for different activities that they can move around more. What we see then is a child who is inattentive and cannot focus on a task for very long.

The ability to focus and pay attention to task over time including blockade distractions that interfere with concentration. Typically, children’s attention can happen at the appropriate age. But the children who cannot concentrate on their studies always show naughty behavior such as running around, easily to distract, daydream or not interested in learning.