Two more important Attention suggestions...

Thinking about what you are thinking; "watching" yourself work; these are some of the things we can do to "self-monitor" ourselves.  I have found over the years that doing my best really is about creating mental images in my head of how I want to do something.  When I was studying voice in college, my vocal coach always encouraged me to mentally think about the pitch, or to make a 'movie' in my head about the words I was singing.  It always turned out so much more successful when I thought through what I was going to do ahead of time.  Now, with two teenagers it is even more vital that I think and pray through what I should say to them about any given situation.  It is all about timing...when I say it and how I say it. 
Here is what Dr. Levine has to say about Self-monitoring and Being Alert:

You even need to go back and concentrate on what you've finished.  This is called self-monitoring, and it can be one of the hardest jobs of all.  A monitor is someone who makes sure things are done right and who reports back when something or someone has gone wrong.  In the same way, there are "monitors" in your brain that check on what you've done so you can make corrections or changes if they are necessary.  When you take a spelling test, for example, a monitor inside you might go back over the words to make sure that they look right before you hand them in.  Wheyou do a math assignment, your brain acts as a monitor when you check over the problems to make sure they're accurate.  After writing a book report, the monitor helps you look it over to find any mistakes in spelling , punctuation, or capitalization.

So, we can see that you have to have good attention before you start something, while you're doing it, and even after you've finished.

So far we've discussed five important things about attention:

1. Choosing the right "channel" to focus on at the right time and for the right amount of time.

2. Filtering distractions

3. Planning things and controlling impulses

4. Regulating speed

5. Self-monitoring

Dr. Levine also warns about not getting enough sleep.  Being alert is important in order for your attention to work well.  When our kiddos have been up late for whatever reason, it may cause them to have a bad day at school and/or miss important information.  We want to be our best as often as we can.  I think Dr. Levine has given some great information in his book to help anyone be their best. 

I am excited about tomorrow and Saturday's post!  It is a brief insight into what it is like to have an Attention Deficit.  It should help parents and teachers to see into our children/students that are struggling in this area of attention.  Then on Monday, I want to start discussing a new book by Priscilla Vail: Liberate Your Child's Learning Patterns.  This book gives very good approaches to helping children of all ages with their particular Learning Patterns.  I have added a link to Amazon.com if you would like to purchase this book and read it before Monday.  I would love to begin discussions with my blog readers.  It will help us to gain all kinds of insight into learning patterns.  This book is great for parents and teachers.

Liberate Your Child's Learning Patterns