Garima Teaching and learning blog

Improve Your Child’s Focus and Attention

What is Focus & Attention?


Focus refers to a child’s ability to concentrate on a particular topic or activity for a prolonged amount of time, whereas attention is the mental process that keeps them engaged. Both are crucial as they allow children to absorb information, complete tasks, and learn effectively.


Types of Distractions


Children face numerous distractions that hinder their ability to focus on important activities like studying, joyous reading, and playing. The types of distractions children face can be categorized into:


1. Environmental Distractions

• Noise: A child’s concentration may be disrupted by noisy conversations, television, sound coming from the road, or household appliances.
• Cluttered Spaces: Poor concentration is seen in children whose surroundings are cluttered, non-organized, and untidy.
• Often busy home environment: Children being brought up in an environment that has too much noise and frequent interruptions find it difficult to focus on a particular task.


2. Natural Distractions

• Hunger: The body cannot focus when it is hungry.
• Lack of Rest or Tiredness:
  Children’s cognitive development requires sufficient rest, and denial of rest can make the child unfocused.
• Emotional State: If a child is upset or anxious about something it can affect his or her concentration.
• Physical Discomfort: Most children find it very hard to concentrate because of internal distractions that include illness, headaches, or any form of physical pain.


3. Screen Distractions

• Overstimulation Resulting from Screen Exposure:Children who excessively play on screens become over stimulated and can’t focus on their offline tasks like studying or reading.
• Social media and gaming: Their lack of ability to focus can be attributed to the addictive nature of games, social media sites, and online videos.
• Multitasking with Devices: Children who multitask—for example, complete their homework while watching TV or playing video games—decrease in both task efficiency and memory retention.


4. Social Distractions

• Peer Influence: Talking, laughing, or having a friend around can divert attention from work, in a classroom or at home.
• Family Interruptions: Conversations with family members, constant calls from relatives, or younger siblings to attend to could be distractions.
• Fear of Missing Out (FOMO):Children are mostly caught in everything that is going on around them and can end up checking their phones constantly or concentrating on other things instead of schoolwork.
  
  

Symptoms That Indicate Your Child Is Struggling to Focus

• Jumping off from a seat while working in creative activities or story-reading.
• Losing interest in tasks quickly or frequently jumping from one activity to another.
• Trouble following simple instructions or directions.
• Constant frustration or mood swings while doing a task.


What Parent’s can do to Improve Kid’s Focus

1. Break School Lessons: Break lessons into smaller, digestible parts, each followed by a brief discussion or activity to maintain attention. Use breaks between two lessons, incorporate brain breaks to refresh and prevent fatigue.

2. Active Learning: Group discussions, peer learning, and practical exercises must be prepared for interactive learning. Let them learn educational games for enjoyable learning environment.

3. Use Visual and Auditory Stimuli: Use a visual diagrams, charts, videos, or sound effects to make it interesting. Use multimedia presentations, educational apps, and smart boards.

4. Physical Movement: Include movable activities for children to participate in, including writing on board, role-playing, or walking between the learning stations. Include short, structured physical breaks to refresh their attention during long periods of sitting.

5. Promote Curiosity: Let children ask questions that will maintain their acuteness of attention on the topic. Questions stimulate participation and help children to stay active. Peer teaching activity would involve students with advanced knowledge on a particular topic to help other students.

6. Clear and Concise Instructions: Give clear instructions and directions to kid when they go out to buy groceries. When kids are working on a project, give clear written instructions or other types of visual cues for memory aid to keep their heads on the issue and avoid confusion.

7. Supportive Environment: Encourage an atmosphere of safety, where learners feel less embarrassed to come for help. Always remind the students that it is helpful to learn from mistakes and experience will make them sharper and more attentive.

In conclusion, helping your child to develop attention and concentration involves time, patience, and continuing trials. You can assist your child’s concentration by engineering an overall pleasant environment that supports such behaviour, making it more structured and supportive. Remembering that each child has unique needs makes it that much more important to adapt any tactics to suit those needs.