Nowadays and in practically all centres of learning, there is a growing number of students that have attention and concentration difficulties, the majority of which have been with them since the beginning of their schooling. In the society we live in today, noise, stress, constant changes and high expectations favour students’ loss or decrease of attention, having repercussions, sometimes serious, on their academic future and very possibly their future existence.

Our programs of OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE FOR STUDENTS have arisen from our desire to increase the academic level in educational centres in our country and the wish that all students can access neurofunctional stimulation and learning about the control of emotions, allowing them to improve their performance.

How can we identify a problem of listening and attention?

The most common symptoms that are observed in children and adolescents with listening and attention problems are:

Receptive language

• The need for the repetition of instructions.
• Attention and concentration deficiency.
• Distraction, restlessness.
• Tendency to misunderstand what is said.
• Difficulty to follow or participate in conversations in a noisy environment.

Expressive language

• Slow, faltering and badly articulated language.
• Over-loud voice.
• Indifferent or negative attitude towards communication.
• Lack of curiosity.
• Difficulty in the skill of organization and planning.
• Poor posture.
• Tendency to cut oneself off from or avoid communication in social situations.

The presence of some or the majority of these symptoms lead one to consider that poor listening is contributing to the existence of learning and communicative problems.

How can we identify a problem of anxiety and stress in the classroom?

Stress is defined as the automatic and natural response of the body when faced with menacing or defying situations. Therefore, and above all, we must understand it as a normal situation when confronting a pressure or expectation of the environment (in this case, exams). If this response lasts and generates a state of anxiety, academic results and personal relationships can be suffer.

Pre-exam anxiety is considered a problem when it has a negative effect on performance. Many students fail as a result of the extreme levels of anxiety felt before an exam, and not because of specific learning problems.

The symptoms that students in exam situations show are highly varied though those that predominate are, on the one hand, cognitive responses like excessive worry and self-criticism and on the other, physiological responses, which include a wide range of disorders.

• On a physical level: sleep and diet alterations, headaches or stomach aches, paralysis or hyperactivity, nausea or the sensation of pressure on the chest, amongst others.
• On a behavioural level: unsuitable behaviour that aggravates the process of concentration even more, such as smoking, excessive eating or sleeping, spending many hours watching tv or at the computer, or whatever behaviour that distances us from the problem of facing the situation.
• On the level of thought: negative thoughts, of lack of self-esteem.

A state of dysfunctional stress can generate the following difficulties:

• Drop in the capacity of concentration
• Reduction of attention
• Problems of memory (both short and long-term)
• Uncommon errors in the resolving of problems
• Lack of objectivity in self-assessment
• Lack of logic and coherence in ones thoughts