ATT is not a treatment for ADHD, and this site does not present it as one. Saying that first matters more here than on most of these pages, because “attention training” is a phrase ADHD content uses constantly — and it almost never refers to Wells’ technique.

The vocabulary collision

Search for attention training and ADHD and you get cognitive training programmes, concentration games, executive-function coaching and children’s focus curricula. Those are real things, some studied, and none of them is the twelve-minute auditory protocol with three phases, several simultaneous sounds and a voice steering your attention between them[1].

Wells’ ATT came out of metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression, aimed at a processing pattern the model calls the cognitive attentional syndrome — perseverative, self-focused, worry-based processing with threat monitoring[1]. That is a different target from the attentional difficulties that define ADHD, and the shared words hide it.

The one trial we can find

There is a registered study: “The Feasibility of a Brief Attention Training Technique for Improving Behaviour and Attention in Children With ADHD”, completed in May 2016, with an actual enrollment of 13 participants[2].

Two things to take from that, and only two.

It exists. Someone thought the question worth asking, and it is Wells’ technique by name.

It is a feasibility study of thirteen children. Feasibility studies ask whether a thing can be delivered at all — recruitment, acceptability, whether the procedure survives contact with the population. They are not designed to show whether something works, and we have not found published results for this one.

Anyone citing this as evidence ATT helps ADHD is going far beyond what it can carry.

What the wider ATT literature covers

The 2026 systematic review of this field synthesised cognitive and neural findings across 14 cognitive-attentional tasks and three neural methodologies[3]. That is a cognitive and neural evidence base in largely adult, largely non-ADHD samples. It contains no ADHD outcome literature, and this page makes no inference from it to ADHD.

The full evidence position is on does attention training actually work?.

If you have ADHD and want to try it anyway

Nothing stops you, and Wells frames the exercise for patients as general “mental fitness training” rather than something tied to a diagnosis[1]. Three honest expectations:

  • It is demanding by design — specified to stay attentionally demanding rather than become easier with practice[1]. Twelve minutes of sustained effortful listening is a big ask for anyone, and possibly a bigger one here.
  • There is no score and no levels. Nothing produces a number that goes up[1] — see does ATT get harder?
  • The dose assumes routine. Twice a day at about twelve minutes, with the manual noting most people manage once[1].

None of that is a reason not to try it. It is a reason not to expect it to substitute for ADHD care, which is a matter for a qualified professional.

Questions and answers

Is ATT a treatment for ADHD?
No. It was developed inside metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression, and there is no outcome literature supporting it as an ADHD treatment.
Has ATT been tried in ADHD at all?
Once, as far as we can find: a registered feasibility trial in children with ADHD, enrolling 13 participants, completed in May 2016. Feasibility studies ask whether something can be run, not whether it works.
Why do ADHD searches return so much attention training?
Because the phrase is shared. Cognitive training programmes, concentration exercises for children and executive-function coaching all use it, and none of them is Wells' twelve-minute auditory protocol.

References

  1. Wells, A. (2009). Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression. Guilford Press. Chapter 4: Attention Training Techniques.
  2. The Feasibility of a Brief Attention Training Technique for Improving Behaviour and Attention in Children With ADHD. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02516917; completed May 2016; actual enrollment 13. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02516917
  3. Davison, C., Capobianco, L., Carter, K., & Wells, A. (2026). Cognitive and neuropsychological correlates of the attention training technique: A systematic review and evidence synthesis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 17, 1766748. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1766748

Published by the makers of Heed, an app for practicing ATT-style sessions. iPhone · Android. Heed is a self-practice tool inspired by ATT research — not therapy, and not a medical device.