Parents' and Teachers' Perceptions of Abnormal Attention Span of Elementary School-Age Children

Background: To determine teacher and parental perception of minimal expected sustained attention span during various daily tasks among elementary school children. Methods: 54 parents and 47 teachers completed the attention span questionnaire (AtSQ) that was developed for this study. The AtSQ consists of 15 academic and leisure tasks that require a child's sustained attention. The study focused on third and fourth graders in Israel. Results: There was a high degree of variability among teachers and parents in their responses to the AtSQ. The expected attention span of children as judged by parents was higher and more varied compared to teachers, and higher for girls than for boys. Conclusions: Our results indicate poor agreement in cutoff values for sustained attention span between teachers and parents and within each group.