Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Attention span predicts college completion

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120806151405.htm

Caveat: I haven't read the study. But this finding is in line with similar recent findings.

" "The important factor was being able to focus and persist. Someone can be brilliant, but that doesn't necessarily mean they can focus when they need to and finish a task or job.""

What strikes me here is that if we don't give GT kids challenges they won't learn how to "focus and persist."

I'm sorry, what were you saying?

Ha!

My kids have great attention spans; however, I've been seeing a little less persistence on difficult mental tasks recently in my oldest, which is bumming me out. She is also vocalizing mre fear of failure/getting things wrong. We don't have anywhere else to go, schoolwise, as she's already at a gifted magnet.

This was interesting. Thanks for sharing. It makes sense for both upper math and reading.

On a serious note, thanks for the link. Something to think about. Of course as with any child related study, the first question is are kids in the < 0.5% outlier bracket relevant to this study. Intuitively, sure.

As in my nom de plume, I'm a scanner type, I see it in my DS. On a parent rated scale (as they had in their study,) my first instinct would be to rate him low on attention span and persistance. But maybe that is really a measure of conformity and obediance. When the goal in his brain may be: "Explore the possibilities of science." Maybe he is always on task.

I understand that being able to self-regulate is important and this skill can be learned or damaged depending on the environment.

I don't know what is the best way to promote self-regulation but I agree with books I've read that have stressed the importance of play in developing self-regulation and I wonder if this skill is more affected by what goes on outside of school than on what challenged are available at school.

You can complete college without much of an attention span.

Granted, you might have to withdraw from the class and take it again.

So, it's more persistence than attention span, per se.