Posted on Monday, June 13, 2016 by Usha 2 minutes
One of the looming concerns of parents as well as teachers is the limited attention that their child displays when its time to sit down and study. You may have your own experience or had feedback from the teacher that your child has been tuning out when the teacher is teaching and needs to be redirected often even though he/she sits in the front row.
But hold your horses on acting out on your child! The first step we should take is to understand why your child is getting distracted.
Therefore lets find out what attention means, what causes kids to lose attention and then we can look at what are the strategies that we need to employ in order to increase and sustain their attention.
While there is no precise definition for attention, we do somewhat know what it means to pay attention.
Attention is basically the ability to choose the relevant information needed for a task/activity while blocking out all other irrelevant information that are needed for executing the task. For example, when we drive, our attention is mainly on the road for oncoming vehicles and keeping in lane. The radio might be playing, your wife/husband is saying something about the kids, yet your attention is on the road not processing the background information. We know what might happen if the attention is not on the road!
The ability to inhibit information is a component of executive functioning of the brain. Therefore, performance of the child relies greatly on how well this part of the brain is functioning.
Some kids tend to display task avoidance especially for certain tasks such as completing worksheets or doing maths that involve lots of critical thinking. This is often due to the lack of motivation or the task is too challenging for the child. Thus, it entails a struggle between the parent and the child to get the child to focus and complete the activity.
Parents need to be aware of what may be the reason behind the avoidance.
Sometimes the child may not be interested in the way you are presenting the activity thus parents need
to be more spontaneous in tailoring the activities, which grabs their attention.
Most often, the child chooses not to make much effort in a task as they know they are not going to get the support from parents as they are busy doing their own things. In order to keep them going, parents need to be mindful of the promptness and quality of the attention they are giving to the child as well.
Is the child tired? Is the environment noisy? Is the work space conducive enough to sit and work? These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself when the child has difficulty concentrating.
There are genetic factors that attribute to the inattention of the child which parents need to carefully observe and seek help from professionals when you find that it is not acceptable.
For typically developing children between the age of 4 to 5 years, they should be able to maintain 2 to 5 minutes of attention to a task and for older kids between 4 to 20 minutes depending on the activity. This is a rough gauge. Take note that attention span varies with time and maturity of the child.
Keep in mind the above causes and work out ways to overcome them. In addition to that, below are some activities that can be incorporated into your child’s daily routines.
I need not emphasise the need for kids of today to get out into the open and move their legs and hands. Studies have shown that watching television or playing games on the tablet affects the attention span due to the fleeting images. Playing catch, hide and seek, hop scotch are some great ways to have outdoor fun!
The brain functions effectively with quality oxygen intake. Introduce activities that encourages the child to breathe in and out purposefully. Activities such as playing recorders, harmonica, blowing bubbles are great ways to exercise breathing.
Doing simple craft work such as weaving, knitting, making loom bands, origami helps with the other components of executive functioning because they involve planning, organising, execution and problem solving skills.
Fixing jigsaw puzzles, playing word games or card games are some activities that can involve the whole family giving positive attention to the child.
Get your child to choose a hobby! Be it collecting stamps, coins or gardening. It should be something that piques their interest and arouses their creativity. They should look forward to engaging in their hobby which will increase and maintain their attention to tasks.
References
C.R, Reynolds & E, Fletcher-Janzen(2007). Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of …
https://books.google.com.sg/books?isbn=0471677981
Attention Chapter 3
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~ashas/Cognition%20Textbook/chapter3.pdf
Executive Function in Young Children
http://thepositiveclassroom.princetonsquarepress.com/executive-function-in-young-children/
Helping children learn to pay attention
http://www.parentsleague.org/publications/selected_articles/helping_children_learn_to_pay_attention/index.aspx
Ten Ideas for building and improving a child’s attention span
http://pediatricot.blogspot.sg/2010/05/ten-ideas-for-building-and-improving.html
Usha has been working with children with special needs for 9 years. She has great passion in integrating children with special needs into the community. In her free time, she likes to cycle along the coasts of Singapore exploring nature.
