Contrary to popular belief, a child's ability (or inability) to concentrate is not a static, immutable quality; while it's true that some children are born with better concentration skills than others, all children can be taught strategies and techniques to effectively improve their ability to concentrate.
Mastering the art of concentration has far-reaching benefits for children; not only is proper concentration essential to success at school, children who learn to be more attentive tend to be calmer, more confident, and have better relationships with their peers. They are also more able to engage in a range of enriching extracurricular activities.
Concentration likewise lays the foundation for a disciplined adult life; children with adequate focus skills learn early on to balance the desire to engage in recreational activities with the necessity of completing less entertaining duties. There is even a significant overlap between concentration and the practice of mindfulness (the ability to be wholly “in the moment”), a core strength when it comes to attaining robust mental health and a high capacity for stress management.
Teaching Your Child The Art Of Focus
To help your child learn to concentrate better, try utilizing the tips below:
- Understand how your child's age affects his ability to concentrate. It's important to set realistic expectations for your child so that he is not set up to feel like he's disappointing you; to that end, you should calibrate tasks you assign your child to reflect the level of focus typical of his age group. A young child (under five years of age), for example, can usually concentrate for just five minutes on complex, challenging tasks, and for about 20 minutes when it comes to simpler, more enjoyable activities. These numbers are much lower in kids with ADHD.
- Encourage “single tasking”. Children today are growing up in a society where multitasking has become the norm; constantly distracted by mobile notifications and online social obligations, many young people are juggling a great deal of stimuli. Unfortunately, research has demonstrated that frequent multitasking is actually destructive to a person's ability to concentrate, especially if that person's brain is still developing. You should therefore try to minimize distractions and encourage your children to place their whole focus on the task before them. You can teach better single-tasking skills by sitting with your children when, for example, they are doing their homework: Remove mobile devices from the room, turn off the radio and television, and have your child concentrate on just one small task at a time (such as a single math problem).
- As your child gets older, encourage him to actively manage his own time and concentration abilities, such as by giving him self-monitoring software so he can track how much time he's spending focused on homework.
- Teach your children the value of taking a break. While concentrating with dogged focus for long spells of time may seem like an admirable quality, research suggests that most people actually concentrate more effectively if they take short breaks to get up, move around, and refresh their minds. “Break time” can also help motivate children to do boring tasks; if they know that they will be rewarded with some time playing a favourite video game or watching TV after they are done their homework, for example, they will wish to complete the task quickly and thus focus more intently.
- Show your children how to use deep breathing exercises. It's impossible for most people—young or old—to concentrate if they are anxious, so it's essential to teach your child how to calm and centre himself before taking on a daunting task. Show your child how to practice steady, diaphragmatic breathing, using counting as an aid to get the pace right. Explain to your child how calming the body in this way can make challenging tasks easier to complete as his mind will be sharper and better able to process information if he's not distracted by worry or the physical symptoms of anxiety.
- Encourage your children to take a “step-by-step” approach to projects. Children—especially very young children—handle large or difficult tasks better if they are broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces. If you're teaching your child how to master a skill, try showing him each step along the way and letting him master one step before moving onto the next. When handling large tasks, using a timer can help motivate children to complete the job; rather than asking your child to “clean his room up,” for example, you can challenge him and make a game of the task by saying, “I'm going to set this timer for 15 minutes; see how much of your room you can clean up in that time. If I think you've done a good job, we'll go out for ice cream after.”
- Practice mindfulness with your child. Children are frequently distracted by their rich internal worlds: Daydreams, memories, and worries take them “out of the moment” and reduce their ability to concentrate on tasks in the external world. While some of this is normal and healthy, it's important to teach children balance by using mindfulness exercises which return their attention to the present moment and build their ability to concentrate. You can try asking your child to observe a certain object, telling you every detail he notices as he handles it, or to eat a certain food while paying intense attention to each sensation as he places the food in his mouth, tastes it, chews, and swallows. Doing simple yoga poses together while observing how each pose feels in the body can also be a fun way to bond with your child while building better physical awareness, coordination, and concentration skills.
