Children with mild attention problems 'fall behind their peers at school'

Young children with mild attention problems can go unnoticed at primary school and fall behind their peers academically, according to new research published today. The study by researchers at Nottingham and Durham Universities calls for teachers and parents to work together to identify these children and help them manage their learning better in class. The findings show that the progress of children with mild attention problems at the age of five could be around three months behind their peers by the time they reach the end of primary school. In one of the largest studies to date in this field, the attainment and behaviour of 46,369 children from 1,812 primary schools in England was analysed. The research is published in the academic journal Learning and Individual Differences . Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Kapil Sayal from The University of Nottingham's School of Medicine said: "Inattentive behaviour is one of the features of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is already well known that the academic attainment of children with severe attention problems or those diagnosed with ADHD can suffer but children with mild difficulties in attention may be slipping through the net.