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Attentional Overload

I call it mental isometrics.

For all of us, attention is a very limited and valuable mental resource that must be shared by the all the mental tasks including emotional control and attentional focus as well as performing the task, usually in that order. In emotionally aroused situations there is often little attention left for completing the task since it is last in line for attention resources.
 

Tongue tied in an argument-

emotional overload of attention.

We’ve all had the experience of being in an argument and not doing too well.  Then, an hour later, when our blood pressure is down, and our hearts have stopped pounding, we are suddenly inspired and think of all the clever things that we could have said in the heat of battle. Given that you have the same brain and the same knowledge in the brain, why are you so much more brilliant an hour later than in the middle of the argument?

None of us are very smart when we are emotionally aroused, be it from an argument or by the anxiety and frustration of homework. In the heat of the argument when your heart is pounding you cannot get access to all of your cognitive skills, knowledge and rhetoric.  An hour later, when you have calmed down, then all the knowledge you have can be brought to fore and you come up with clever responses. It is then apparent that you had plenty of ways of responding effectively to the person you were arguing with, but no matter how clever these are, if you could not get access to that knowledge in the heat of battle, then you could not be effective in that situation .

This is exactly the problem that many children face doing homework. It is not that they do not have skills, but they are so anxious, angry or frustrated in school and during homework situations that they cannot access these skills. Though they may try to control their feelings, the process of self-control also uses mental energy out of the same small pool that the arousal and the homework task uses. However, since emotional responses get first priority on mental energy, homework gets the leftovers, if there are any.

Continuing to force the child to face these upsetting situations only conditions stronger and even more skill disrupting negative emotions. It is like trying to force a child’s hand into a fire. The more you force it, the more frightened he becomes of fire and the harder he learns to struggle to get away from it. If this scenario is repeated, as homework is, then after while just the mention or distant sight of fire will terrify the child and make him flee. Many children are very upset at the sight of homework and develop many ways of avoiding it.

Many times in my work with these children, extinguishing these negative feelings improves their performance in math and reading several grade levels in just a few hours.  And, this is not because I am teaching math and reading skills. I am not. It is because I am reducing their emotional arousal so that they can access the skills that they already have. They already knew how to perform at a higher level than they were able to demonstrate. My treatment strategy just makes it possible to access those skills.

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 Aspergers Syndrome