I guess my message here is, while we've seen the ability to focus well enough on multiple conversations or tasks at the same time, it's probably a good idea to teach our children that it's generally not well received to do so, especially with authority figures.
I haven't had the nerve to even ask for the accommodation that I
know would help DD10 in class. I used to knit in all my classes in college, and found that it dramatically improved my ability to follow the lecture and my retention of it. (I asked permission in small seminar-type classes, but just did it in the big lecture classes.) It provided just enough stimulation to keep my mind from wandering from the topic. I've had conversations in the car with DD when she was working on a craft project, and found that she is much more able to think and attend. But it looks so
rude in an elementary classroom, I can't see them going for it. One actual failure to pay attention and it would be tossed on the scrap heap, with DD in trouble, whether or not the accommodation had anything to do with it.
I had one professor who didn't notice right away that I had been knitting. I hadn't been getting particularly good grades on homework, either. When he noticed was right before the first quiz. I think he decided to wait for me to bomb the quiz, then forbid it. When I got the highest score in the class, he was stuck with it. I don't think I ever saw him in the halls after that without him muttering, "Knitting and taking notes at the same time! I don't understand how she does that!" But he became one of my best friends in the department in grad school.