What causes ADD symptoms?

There are two main causes which can contribute to problems with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

Firstly there are areas of The Skill Learning Centre of the brain (the cerebellum) that are responsible for the things that we pay attention to (or focus on).

When these areas of the cerebellum are fully developed it gives us the ability to hold focus on areas that require our attention. When they are not so well developed it means that we are much more likely to be distracted by less important things, whether just in our mind or happening around us.

Secondly, if any of the skills we frequently use are not fully automatised (e.g. language processing or balance) then we have to use conscious thoughts to carry out these functions as they have not been completely hard wired.

In such situations our working memory will be full of things that really should not be there. For instance, when we are listening to a teacher, if our listening is not fully automatic, our working memory will be working much harder trying to understand what is being said.

We only have a finite amount of working memory space available so in such situations it is quite common to experience difficulty with maintaining attention on the subject in hand. This “overload” often, in turn, leads to a sense of frustration.

Prof Bellum's video will help you understand why automatic skills make learning much easier.

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