Attention is the capacity to select and maintain awareness of an exterior event or a thought. It also corresponds to "being on high alert' during waking hours, which allows the nervous system to receive any form of incoming information rather than being able to select what to pay attention to.  When attention is dysfunctional it impacts many cognitive functions and is not only very costly in an academic sense, but is also a source of difficulty and even considerable suffering for a child in a school setting or any learning environment. This is often seen in children with ADHD/ADD.

Children with ADHD/ADD often have audio-processing difficulties. Some children “hear too much” and can become overwhelmed easily. This often indicates the air and bone conduction are not working together and the person is unable to regulate what sounds they need to pay attention to and which ones they do not. When bone conduction is very sensitive the child is likely to have poor behavioural control, poor concentration, poor organisation and poor social skills. Often there is also a vestibular link – those who constantly seek stimulation with fast movements such as swinging, running, and spinning (hypo-sensitivity) and those who avoid stimulation and prefer to stay still or move slowly –(hypersensitivity).Listening programmes work on reducing bone conduction sensitivity and help the ear muscles regulate auditory information, thereby improving concentration, motor skills, social skills and behaviour to improve ADHD/ADD symptoms.