Internal Physical Causes
Sometimes seemingly inattentive students in fact don’t hear well. They fail to carry out directions not because they’re daydreaming or willful; they simply mishear key words. We have known inattentive students to be diagnosed with hearing loss after several years in primary school and after much energy went into behavior modification and other focusing strategies for the children. Be sure to rule out physical causes when working with children who appear resis- tant or inattentive. These include vision, organic hyperactivity, thyroid irregu- larities, fetal alcohol syndrome, drug dependency, ADD/ADHD, and a host of other possible physical problems.