Improving attention and managing attentional problems. Adapting rehabilitation techniques to adults with ADD

Research and clinical experience in the field of brain injury rehabilitation have focused quite extensively on the need and potential to retrain attentional skills that are commonly affected by acquired brain injury. Four approaches to managing attention impairments that have emerged from this literature include attention process training, training use of strategies and environmental support, training use of external aids, and the provision of psychosocial support. Most often, several of these will be used in combination. For example, a therapy regimen might include attention process training emphasizing specific components of attention (e.g., sustained attention), in conjunction with training in pacing techniques, and psychosocial support, where the client keeps behavioral logs and discusses insights gained from tracking attention successes and attention lapses. Although there are as yet little data with regard to the effectiveness of these approaches in adults with developmental disorders of attention, there is a growing literature suggesting they may be effective in children and adolescents with ADHD. Further investigation of the application of such techniques in adults with a wide variety of attention disorders, including developmental disorders, would be valuable.