Out of Focus: What Every Parent Needs to Know About Attention, Brainwaves, and the Nervous System
Attention isn’t just a behavior. It’s a brain state.
And sustaining that state—called beta brainwave activity—requires energy, rhythm, and regulation from the nervous system.
But many children today are struggling to sit still, follow directions, and regulate their emotions.
The brain can’t keep up.
It drops into lower states.
Focus disappears—and frustration takes its place.
Instead of asking why, most families are handed two options:
Stricter discipline or stimulant medication.
All at the expense of the child—simply because no one’s shown us how to support what’s really going on inside.
Because when the nervous system is stuck in survival mode, attention won’t hold.
Not because the child isn’t trying—but because their brain simply doesn’t have the fuel.
What Brainwaves Have to Do with Focus
Inside every brain is a rhythm—a pulse of electrical energy that shifts depending on what we’re doing and how we’re feeling. These rhythms are called brainwaves, and they’re essential for focus, regulation, and development.
There are five main brainwave states, and each one serves a different purpose:
Delta (0.5–4 Hz): Deep sleep
Theta (4–8 Hz): Dreaming, daydreaming, imagination
Alpha (8–12 Hz): Calm, creative, relaxed
Beta (12–30 Hz): Focused attention, logic, and problem-solving
Gamma (30+ Hz): Memory, learning, peak cognitive states
In early childhood, theta and alpha dominate. That’s why young kids are imaginative, emotional, and deeply influenced by their environment.
But around age 6–7, the brain begins shifting into more beta activity—and this is when kids need to start using executive functions like paying attention, following directions, organizing their thoughts, and managing their behavior.
It’s like climbing a staircase to higher brain function.
But what happens when their brain can’t make the climb?
The Role of Subluxation and Nervous System Stress
When there’s interference in the nervous system—often caused by birth stress, subluxation, or chronic overload—the brain becomes hypersensitive.
These stress signals flood the brainstem and create what we call neurological noise. The brain can’t keep up, and instead of reaching that beta state of calm focus, it stays stuck in a loop of lower-level activity. That shows up as:
Inattention
Impulsivity
Meltdowns
Trouble following directions
Sensory overload
And yet, rather than asking why the brain is stuck in this pattern, we often turn to medication.
Medication Forces Beta—But at a Cost to the Body
Stimulant medications like Ritalin and Adderall don’t heal the root of the problem—they override it.
They artificially force the brain to stay in a beta brainwave state, which is associated with focused attention, logic, and problem-solving.
But beta is also tied to the sympathetic nervous system—the same “fight or flight” response that gets the body ready to run, fight, or survive.
In contrast, theta and delta brainwaves are connected to the parasympathetic nervous system—the system responsible for healing, digestion, immune function, and restful sleep.
So when we keep a child in beta all day with medication, we’re pushing them into performance mode, draining their fuel, and sacrificing the very systems that allow them to grow, recover, and regulate.
It’s like signing their nervous system up for a marathon…
every single day.
The Marathon They Didn’t Train For
Imagine your child’s brain is trained for a 10K. That’s the distance it has the energy and fuel to handle.
But life—school, social expectations, and constant sensory input—demands they run a full marathon every day.
Midway through, they crash. Not because they don’t care. Not because they’re defiant.
But because they don’t have the reserves to keep going.
So we give them a boost—a stimulant.
It jolts the system. They finish the race. They hit the expectations.
But it comes at a cost:
They’re wired, not well.
Their brain is locked in survival mode.
Their body is running on borrowed energy.
And the systems meant to repair and restore—sleep, digestion, immunity—get shut down.
They go to bed not to rest—but to repair damage.
And they wake up with less capacity than the day before.
This is what happens when we force focus instead of building regulation.
It’s not sustainable.
And it’s not what their growing brain needs.
Chiropractic: Fueling the Brain, Not Forcing It
Chiropractic care doesn’t force the brain into focus—it helps it earn it.
By removing subluxations and restoring proper nervous system function, chiropractic:
Calms the sympathetic nervous system, reducing the overload
Supports parasympathetic activity, helping kids sleep, heal, and recover
Improves brain-body communication, so the brain can organize and sustain higher function
Raises the adaptability threshold, meaning the brain can handle more input without crashing
We’re not pushing the gas pedal—we’re tuning the engine.
We help kids regulate from the inside out—so they can focus with energy that lasts, not energy that’s borrowed.
You Don’t Have to Push Your Child Through the Day
If your child is struggling with focus, attention, or behavior—it’s not because they’re broken.
And it’s not because you’re doing something wrong.
It’s because their nervous system is trying to survive something it wasn’t built for.
And there is a better way.
At Purpose Driven Chiropractic, we specialize in helping kids move from dysregulation to resilience.
We use advanced scans and a nervous system-based approach to help you understand why your child is struggling—and what we can do to help.
📍 We listen.
📅 We guide.
✨ We help the body heal.
👉 Schedule a Consultation or call us at (208) 938-9548 today.
Let’s stop forcing their brain to do more than it can.
Let’s help it become all it was designed to be.
