Stressful warmups?

Yesterday I attended a workshop on Learning and the Brain at Towson University in Baltimore. 

The main speaker was Judy Willis, a woman who has an MD as well as a MSED --- a doctor in the classroom!

At one point she summed her talk by saying that the key to brain based learning was "less stress, more novelty" - if you feel pressure, those brain areas that facilitate concentration and attention are engaged in the flight, fright or freeze mode and not available to learning.

It sometimes happen to me that a comment will suddenly enlighten a consideration in a way best described as an AHA moment. 

I had come to the conference in search of ways to support the students I work with. One, in particular, is diagnosed as ADD- Inattentive type. He is having particular problems in math and of lately has been avoiding even copying the warm ups that are put on the board to start class. 

He often does not understand or remember how to do the warm up problems. He well then seem to become even more lethargic and unfocussed.  

What if the warm up itself were the trigger to this behavior? What if, subconsciously, he perceives the warm up itself as a highly stressful activity, one he cannot succeed at, and his brain is engaged in the stress mode rather than the learning mode?

At the very least, starting each class in a stressful mode....... and then anticipating that the start of every class will be  stressful,   hmmm  hardly sets up the conditions for learning.

Something to ponder.