Ways To Improve Your Child's Focus And Concentration

1. Fun Ways To Keep Your Child Focused Your child’s world is full of many interesting sights and sounds. You might find that your child is always fascinated by new things, but then gets distracted easily. At this stage, your child’s attention span is only about 6 minutes, but this will increase as they grow up. Here are some ways to make use of your child's curiosity to increase their focus and concentration. 1. Capitalise On Your Child’s Curiosity Research has shown that children are attracted to moving toys that are vibrant and interesting. Your child will focus on the movement of these toys and this helps to increase their attention span. You should also bring your child to places where they can experience new things, such as parks where there are new plants to discover, buildings with distinctive architecture to explore or the zoo where there are interesting animals to observe. Leveraging on your child’s natural curiosity, introduce new and exciting activities where you can not only help increase their attention span, but also increase the time you get to bond with them.

2. 2. Use Your Child’s Interests To Develop Focus Just like adults, children will be extra attentive and focus on what they are doing if they enjoy the activity. You may find that your child is less lively when you ask them to do what you want. But they are attentive and focused when doing activities that they find enjoyable. Your child’s attention span, interests and emotional preferences are related. To get your child to focus, you need to relate an activity to their interests. If your child enjoys stories, sit down and read picture books together with them. The captions will help to train their ability to recognise words. Let them know that the story comes from the words they are seeing. This way, you would have piqued their interest in words and given them a reason to focus as you teach them to recognise simple words. In other words, interest is the key to making your child stay focused. The more interested your child is, the more likely they will stay focused and attentive. 3. Increase Concentration Through Games A psychologist found that children who were engaged in a game could stay focused for longer and were more attentive than children who were given a routine task. So if you want your child to concentrate on a task, turn it into a game and make it fun! There are many different types of games to increase your child's attention span, and some of the simple ones are traditional games that involve getting your child to find their lost toys. Put a few toys on a table and get your child to recognise and count them. Then hide some of the toys and get your child to look for the missing ones. This is especially effective with toddlers. 4. Give Your Child Purpose-Oriented Tasks The more your child understands the purpose behind a task, the more determined they will be to complete it, and this will increase their ability to focus on the task until it gets done. Make it a fun activity for you and your child! Ask them to help you find your missing clothes, get them to look for their missing toys or draw you a card as a birthday gift. Such purpose-oriented activities can channel your child’s attention to completing the task and in the process, they will learn to focus.

3. 5. Nurture Self-Discipline There are many distractions that can often divert your child’s attention away from the task at hand. To maintain one’s attention level and be focused throughout requires self-discipline and self-control from being distracted. Try and cultivate self-discipline in your child from a young age, so that they can stay focused and be attentive in the future. You can start by setting reasonable requests for them to adhere to. This will cultivate their determination and encourage them to complete their tasks on time without giving up halfway. Friso,47 Scotts Road, #03-01/ 02, Goldbell Towers, Singapore228233 Contact No:+65 64198484 Mail Id: contactus@friso.com.sg