S-t-r-e-t-c-h Your Child's Attention
Young children often like to travel from one activity to the next. As your child gets older, a longer attention span will help them learn in school.You can increase your child's ability to focus with these helpful ideas:
Build Up Gradually: As a rule of thumb, your child should be able to focus for the number of minutes matching their age, plus one minute. Start there! For example, have a four year old work on putting away toys for five minutes. Also, you may want to increase a minute at a time when you feel the child is ready.
Look & Listen: Think of ways that you can turn everyday tasks into concentration activities. In the car, you may ask your child to look for words on signs that start with the first letter in their name. You can also ask your child to listen for a special word or phrase that they hear on the radio and clap each time they hear it.
Make It a Game: Work together to make up a series of movements, adding a new movement each turn. For instance, you could begin by touching your toes. Then, your youngster has to touch their toes and add another motion, such as spinning around. The child will need to pay close attention to remember the sequence of movements.
Here are some examples of some game ideas that are great to use during times you and your child may be waiting. These are fun ideas that will help stretch your child's attention span!
Look & Listen: Think of ways that you can turn everyday tasks into concentration activities. In the car, you may ask your child to look for words on signs that start with the first letter in their name. You can also ask your child to listen for a special word or phrase that they hear on the radio and clap each time they hear it.
Make It a Game: Work together to make up a series of movements, adding a new movement each turn. For instance, you could begin by touching your toes. Then, your youngster has to touch their toes and add another motion, such as spinning around. The child will need to pay close attention to remember the sequence of movements.
Here are some examples of some game ideas that are great to use during times you and your child may be waiting. These are fun ideas that will help stretch your child's attention span!
- Take the change out of your pocket and encourage your little one to sort it. Tell them the names of the coins and talk about how they are alike & different. For example, "The quarters and dimes are both silver. The quarters are big and the dimes are small."
- Work on counting forward and even backward, depending on your child's skill level. For an extra challenge, have your child attempt to start counting at a number other than one. For instance, if you say, "7...," he would continue "8,9,10."
- Do an alphabet search. Look around and find the letter a on a sign or poster. Take turns finding the letters in order until you find the letter Z.
Information courtesy of Resources for Educators. For more information, please visit their website at: http://www.rfeonline.com
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