How to develop attentiveness and ability to concentrate in a child

The ability to concentrate, attentiveness, composure - abilities that play an important role in the life of every person. In childhood, they have the most direct impact on the child’s academic success; in adults, they influence productivity at work and the ability to achieve any goals. Is it possible to teach a child to be attentive? But if we look into the future, how can we help a child realize himself successfully?

What is attention?

Attention is a property of the mind that has several facets:

• Concentration reflects the ability to focus attention on a specific activity despite the presence of distracting circumstances. An example is solving problems in a class with 20 other students. If a student is confused by any rustling sound, then he needs to work on developing concentration.
• Volume is an indicator of how many different objects a child can hold simultaneously in the focus of his attention. The norm for children 5-7 years old is 3-5 objects, for older schoolchildren - up to 7 things.
• Stability - how long a student can stay focused on one task. It is this quality that helps in completing complex, time-consuming tasks, bringing things to their logical conclusion (working for results).
• Distribution of attention is multitasking, simultaneous work of the mind in two or three different directions. A very valuable skill both in studying and in solving current life problems. Helps to overcome any difficulties and find a way out of a difficult situation.

Rule five

Consciously control the switching of attention.

Very often it is impossible to create library conditions in an apartment or house where peace and quiet reign. External factors beyond the control of the student and his parent, such as sounds from the street or neighbors, can and will involuntarily distract attention from concentrating on the subject. And it’s not always possible, especially at the beginning, not to think about anything other than the activity.

In these cases, only conscious self-control of the child himself will help. It is necessary for him to understand independently that the thought is going in a different direction, and to make a volitional effort to return it to the place where the “disconnection” occurred. This skill will not come immediately, you need to work hard for it, but each time the overall stability of attention will become higher and stronger.

What to do if a child is distracted and inattentive?

Symptoms of poor attention development in a child:

• he cannot concentrate on one subject or activity for a long time, he is constantly distracted, abandons unfinished tasks;
• does not remember what happened in class or what the teacher talked about;
• during classes he is distracted and distracts other students;
• has difficulty retelling the text he has just read;
• often does not understand the task that needs to be completed.

Attention is not an innate, but an acquired property of the mind. It is developed from childhood in the same way as thinking and memory.

A first grader who can concentrate his attention will be successful in school.

When a child grows out of kindergarten age and becomes a schoolchild, increased demands are placed on him - for memory, various types of thinking, attentiveness and the ability to concentrate on a task. If the child is prepared and has an idea of ​​how to approach tasks and how to study correctly, then school will not bring any trauma or disappointment. The child will easily cope with the assigned tasks.

Help your child become more attentive.

If parents have not taught their child to be attentive before entering school, then most likely it will be difficult for him to learn this in the elementary grades. Of course, teachers give children tasks for attentiveness, but this is most likely for the development of a skill that already exists. The teacher usually directs his main efforts to the correct presentation of new knowledge and control of what the child has acquired. Helping a child with the ability to correctly acquire, remember, solve, and analyze all this is a task for parents. The inability or unwillingness of parents to engage with a future student can lead to a lag and complete neglect in knowledge of the school curriculum. Most often, parents underestimate their child’s ability to be attentive, and do not attach any importance to this skill at all.

To help their child, parents must understand what it means to “be attentive.”

Every second we receive a huge amount of different information from the world around us. It is simply impossible to process and absorb everything at once. For example, you need to cross to the other side of the road and you need to assess the situation. Is there a crossing and a traffic light, what kind of light is on it? You don't need to remember the license plates of cars passing by or study the height of the houses opposite.

-The ability to concentrate and highlight what is needed will help the child become more collected and observant.

-The more mental operations a child performs, the higher his logical thinking capabilities. It is believed that a first grader should be able to analyze and compare 4-5 objects at the same time.

-Attentiveness includes the ability, while doing certain work, to observe around, listen and respond to additional instructions from the teacher on the task.

-The child must be able to quickly switch his attention from one task to another. For example, if he did not have time to complete a written task, then he must continue to write it when the other children are already answering orally. If you watch your child, you will understand what you need to pay attention to, what he is doing poorly.

The best way to teach mindfulness is through games or fun activities.

— Let the child look around the room you are in and name all the objects that contain the letter “m.”

- You say different words and let the child repeat after you only the word before which you say, for example, “repeat.”

- Name all the numbers in order up to 40, except those that contain the number 4. Instead of these numbers, you can sit down or say a word, for example, “I remember.”

- Ball game. You throw the ball and name the fruit, and the child catches it and names its color. Same with vegetables.

— Teach your child to play chess or checkers. Great school for teaching mindfulness.

— Buy ​​books with mazes for untangling with mixed up pictures.

— There are magazines on sale where tasks are given, for example, to find 12 gnomes or 10 differences in a picture.

There are now many books on sale with mindfulness tasks for children of all ages. These are fun activities that the whole family can do. Be active in sports, combining it with mindfulness tasks. Such exercises will help you get to know the child better, his weaknesses and help him strengthen these sides.

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Continuation of the topic about the development of attentiveness in children of primary school and school age.

Causes of childhood inattention

If a child's performance at school is poor, adults easily attribute the problems to laziness or limited mental abilities. In fact, scientists most often associate the restlessness and inattention of schoolchildren with the fact that parents did not pay enough attention to the development of appropriate abilities in preschool age.

Reasons for inattention:

• Lack of interest, motivation. The student does not see meaning, pleasure, or benefit in studying, so he simply does not want to do it.
• Excessive workload in studies and extracurricular activities. This is a problem for children whose parents believe that “a child should be constantly busy with something” and that “all-round development is the key to a successful future.” Lack of free time for simple children's games, rest and pranks can cause a decrease in concentration.
• A special type of temperament. Restlessness and difficulties with memorization are observed both in hyperactive children with attention deficit disorder and in students who are naturally very slow (this is a feature of the nervous system).
• Health problems. Sometimes the reason for a low level of attention is banal physical inactivity - the student does not play sports, spends little time in the fresh air, spends a lot of time at the computer or in front of the TV.

How to increase attentiveness and teach perseverance?

You can teach your child to be diligent and attentive at home in warm, trusting relationships with significant adults.

If you visited a neurologist with your child and he told you that everything is fine, that the development of the nervous system corresponds to age, then you can help your child like this:

Daily regime

Yes, yes, this is the basis of everything. When they talk about daily routine, they mean sleep, nutrition and walks. Behavior in class, the child’s mood, his readiness to learn, listen to the teacher and participate in the life of the class depend on whether he has had enough sleep, whether he is well-fed, whether he has spent enough time in the fresh air, and whether he has enough physical activity.

The recommendations are usually simple. A child needs to sleep eight to ten hours a day. It is advisable not to use gadgets (phones, tablets, computers) or watch TV two hours before bedtime.

It is useful to spend at least two hours a day in the fresh air (in any weather). And meals include breakfast, lunch, dinner.

The recommendations sound simple, but in order to organize this entire process, the will of the parents is required.

Daily Life Practices

Everyday activities (cleaning, washing dishes, cooking, laundry) can be an excellent training tool for increasing attentiveness not only in schoolchildren, but also in children.

Already a two-year-old child can sweep the floor, wipe the dust, put removed clothes on a high chair, help hang up washed clothes, hand out small items, and put disassembled clothes in the washing machine.

All these things require concentration and attention. Gradual learning and inclusion in the daily life of the family will make the process of developing perseverance painless .

If you find it difficult to figure out what a child can do at a given age, then you should look for various lists of household chores that you can assign to children, or turn to the experience of Montessori pedagogy (from this approach, practical life exercises will be useful in this case).

A game

It will remain a favorite pastime for a long time.

In free, role-playing play, a child can cope with stress, find answers to important questions and simply relax.

Card or board games require concentration, the ability to follow rules, and are often aimed at developing mindfulness.

Mindfulness practices

Excitement, anxiety, and stress often accompany our lives and are another reason for a child’s restlessness.

Mindfulness practices are becoming increasingly popular. Today, mindfulness has begun to be used by teachers and educators in working with children.

In Russia, you can read about mindfulness practices in two books by Thich Nhat Hanh, “Seeds of Mindfulness. Mindfulness practices for children" and "A Fistful of Silence. Happiness in four stones”, books by Maria Montessori, Wolfgang M. Auer “Practice of awakening the senses. Games and ideas for kindergartens and preschool groups."

It is very important that the child learns:

• cope with stress;
• feel your body;
• understand your emotions: fear, joy, anger, grief, surprise, pride, excitement, delight.

The following exercise will help develop attentiveness and perseverance in your child. It requires skill to perform it, and it’s great if you and your child practice it at home.

Exercise “5-4-3-2-1”

1. Name 5 objects that you see in front of you.
2. Name 4 objects that you can touch.
3. Name 3 objects that you can hear.
4. Name 2 objects that you can smell.
5. Name 1 item that you can taste.

Calming breathing exercise

What to do with a restless child? This exercise will help teach perseverance. You need to take a comfortable position (and the child must understand how comfortable he is) and close his eyes. Breathe slowly for a count of 10.

Physical activity

Paradoxically, at an early age, many parents remember that physical development is associated with the development of the nervous system. At school, attention usually shifts to the intellectual sphere. But the movement continues to be very significant! It is important that the child runs, jumps, and plays ball.

How to increase attentiveness in a schoolchild? The special development of attention in schoolchildren includes two methods that are somewhat close: they are about the importance of the connection between the body and the brain.

These methods are designed to help children who have difficulty mastering the school curriculum.

Simple physical exercises will help form connections between the right and left hemispheres. And this will increase the student’s attentiveness.

Here are some exercises you can practice with your child. To master a more complete program, you will need the help of a specialist.

"Double Drawings"

You need a sheet of paper and two markers.

The child looks at the dominant hand and draws round shapes. You can draw one drawing first. Having mastered it, you can draw two drawings at the same time.

"Thinking Hat"

Three palms until warm, form a “warm ball”, put it on the head and begin to massage the ears towards the bottom.

"Lazy Eights"

With our right hand we draw a figure eight: up - we draw outwards, down - we draw inwards. You can start mastering the exercise together by taking the child’s hand in yours. Or draw eights on a piece of paper and ask your child to trace them. With your left hand we draw a figure eight: up - we draw outwards, down - we draw inwards.

Creation

Any creativity is useful! Handicrafts, drawing, music - whatever.

Now there are studies proving the usefulness of creativity for the development of the nervous system and brain. Creativity helps cope with stress and traumatic experiences.

If you visited a neurologist with your child and he noted some nuances of the maturation of the nervous system, then you can help the child become more attentive and assiduous in the same ways, but in collaboration with a neurologist and neuropsychologist.

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How to help an inattentive child?

Important conditions for the development of attention in children:

1. Physical activity. Some sports and ball games effectively train one of the key elements of attention - concentration.
2. Development of attention in everyday life. You can use any life situation to teach your child to concentrate on a certain subject and study it in detail.
3. Developmental activities. Any type of activity where you need to think and analyze is useful for the development of cognitive abilities (in particular, attention). You can choose extracurricular in-depth classes for your student in specific subjects, or you can use special developmental courses aimed specifically at training cognitive abilities.

An example of an effective program for the development of attention and other cognitive abilities is the mental arithmetic lessons that the Soroban® School of Mental Arithmetic conducts for preschoolers and schoolchildren.

What are the types of attention?

There are three types of attention: involuntary, voluntary and post-voluntary.

• Involuntary attention arises naturally from the first year of a baby’s life; the child effortlessly concentrates on everything unusual and interesting.
• Voluntary attention is formed closer to school, around the age of 7, and continues to develop every year. The student needs to make an effort to focus on what he has to do, and not on what he wants.
• Post-voluntary attention is similar to voluntary attention, but its peculiarity is that the child performs all tasks with pleasure.

For example, first-graders have well-developed involuntary attention: they are easily attracted by something unexpected, interesting and bright. At the same time, children do not have to make any effort to concentrate on this. But it is much more difficult for them to concentrate on uninteresting and monotonous work.

How to help an inattentive child? 6 tips for parents

1. Develop independence. If you give your child a task, then provide the opportunity to complete it without your help. Studies have shown that even the passive participation of parents in homework (questions during the process, checking, control) negatively affects the student’s concentration.
2. Create favorable conditions for studying at home - a workspace where the student can fully concentrate on his studies, where he will not be disturbed by younger children, where he cannot hear the TV working, and where toys are inaccessible.
3. Optimize the student’s daily routine. To train attention, alternating mental stress and physical activity is useful. The effectiveness of mental work also depends on the quality of rest.
4. Don't overload your children. In pursuit of great intellectual achievements, you can get the opposite effect - overwork, burnout, loss of interest in learning, and decreased performance.
5. Don't blame for failures. Criticism upsets the child, and internal worries make it difficult to concentrate on the lesson.
6. Motivate, instill interest in learning, try different teaching methods. Psychologists recommend conducting any complex activities with children in the form of a game.

What should you absolutely not do?

Many parents make mistakes and use measures of influence that not only do not improve the situation with attentiveness, but can also worsen it. What should you not do?

1. It is useless to swear at a child and say: “Be careful!” This is unlikely to change his behavior at school. Primary school students do not have such pronounced responsibility and self-control.
2. Don't focus on your child's failures. It is better to calmly talk to him and discuss why this or that situation arose, suggest solutions and how to behave.
3. You can compare a child with himself, but not with his classmates or other children. This can undermine the child’s self-confidence and begin to doubt parental love. Particularly impressionable children may think that their parents no longer need them.
4. Eliminate from your arsenal such methods of education as shouting, physical force, thrashing, and emotional pressure. Because of them, the child will become even more lost in his problems, and his performance and behavior at school will not improve.
5. Do not push your child away when he fails again. It is at these moments that he most needs support and help. By the way, all children need physical contact with their parents (hugs, stroking).
6. Avoid raising your voice. Speak as restrainedly and calmly as possible.
7. There is no need to set large and voluminous tasks for the child; for schoolchildren with increased activity, this will disorganize and confuse them. Instead of “do your homework and tidy up the house when I get home,” you should say “repeat the poem assigned for tomorrow and solve math problems, and then collect the toys and tidy up the hamster’s cage.”
8. If it is necessary to make a remark, then it is advisable to pronounce it without negative emotional connotation. Remarks like “Stop fidgeting now!” or “Stop looking around!” It’s better to say, “Let’s finish the line and go take a break” or “You’ve almost completed the exercise, try a little more.”

Thus, attentiveness and perseverance are qualities that can be corrected, motivated, and developed. The main thing is to be patient and not scold the child for something that he cannot control on his own.