It is natural for parents to want their children to focus. It can be very worrying when it seems your little one is easily distracted or finds it difficult to settle down for long. Trust us – you are not alone.
Here are our top 3 tips to help your child focus/concentrate. But first of all PLEASE note that children will be children! They are not designed to sit for hours like sacks of rice ????
You can also check with your pediatrician to set your mind at rest.
1. It sounds obvious but tell them to concentrate! Sometimes your little ones just need a reminder to help keep their minds on the matter at hand. This also helps them notice when they lose focus and with this awareness, they can gradually put themselves back on track without external reminders. People fail exams because they couldn’t focus long enough to go over their answers properly. Our children have to be able to re-focus their focus! ????
2. Engage in concentration boosting activities.
Study your child – what do they like to do? Cook? Let them follow a recipe. Build? Get them a construction toy. Give them fun puzzles to assemble. Let them do some beading.
Always fidgeting?
Give them fidget toys like the Tangle Toy which helps to calm them and keep hands busy. Gradually they will build up their ability to concentrate.
Some children concentrate better after burning up some of their excess energy. They can start off by doing some warm up exercises, jumping on a trampoline or on a hopper
3. Assess the level of work they are doing. Sometimes children lose focus quickly because what they are learning is too easy or too hard. This is where you and/or their teacher need to step in. If too easy then step up the work a bit. If too hard, break into smaller chunks. If the work is too tasking, introduce mini breaks so that the child can burn off some energy or rest before coming back to the task at hand. If it is too dull, find a way to make it fun!
So there you have it – 3 tips to help your little ones build focus!