Young children labeled troublemakers because they pick fights on the playground or act up during downtime are not the most at risk of falling behind academically, according to several recent studies.
Instead, the students most at risk are those who from a young age have trouble paying attention, according to researchers. The findings come as a surprise to many educators, who have long connected bad behavior with bad performance in school. In time, the results could affect how attention disorders are caught and treated, both medically and in the classroom.
“Ideally, new attention to children’s attention could lead to some crossover between the health and education communities,” said Lisa Guernsey, an early education analyst at the New America Foundation who compiled the findings of several studies that came to strikingly similar conclusions downplaying the long-term consequences of bad behavior. The most recent research was published last month in the journal Pediatrics.
But the solution will not necessarily mean more prescription medicines for 5-year-olds, Guernsey said, even as medical research points increasingly to physiological causes of attention disorders.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to mean medication, but perhaps behavioral interventions,” she said, acknowledging that most parents cringe at the thought of behavioral medication for young children.
“Of critical importance is treating children as soon as possible, and giving kids the environment they need and instructional opportunities to help them,” Guernsey said.
Carol Basham, who coordinates Loudoun County schools’ Head Start program, which serves about 100 low-income preschoolers, said lessons that focus on increasing attention were key for the youngest students.
Teachers might start the year reading books to children that last for about two minutes.
“By the end of the school year, they’ll read a book that’s 10 or 12 or 15 minutes, after they’ve taught the children how to engage with the book,” Basham said.
Guernsey worries, however, that not enough pre-kindergarten programs link up with local school systems, as Loudoun’s Head Start does, and therefore give students who struggle with paying attention short shrift.
“What’s tricky is making sure you’re not just smoothing over the problem by saying you’ll provide more opportunities for wiggly kids to move around,” she said. “They may need more specific interventions.”
