Tips to Improve Your Child’s Attention Span

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It’s a known fact that children have short attention spans than adults. Kids can only concentrate on something for short periods at a time, easily getting distracted by something else, or losing interest in what they have been doing for some time.

Reasons for Lost Concentration

However, you might notice that some children have lower concentration spans than others, and tend to get distracted too easily from tasks at hand. Sometimes, it is simply a matter of age. For one year old kids, their attention span is averaged at 3 – 5 minutes. After this time, they will lose concentration. For two year old kids, the time will be doubled; making it around 6 – 10 minutes. The average 5 year old preschooler should have an attention span at 15 minutes.

If your kids have an ideal attention span, there is little need to worry, but if they don’t, you can improve their attention skills with these techniques.

Activities for Improving Attention

Get your child involved in enjoyable activities that will hold their attention like drawing, reading colorful books, simple puzzles etc. Make sure you properly pace your kids; giving them activities they can complete within their current attention span. As they get more familiar with the activity, increase its difficulty, or the time your child spends on the book, puzzle, or art.

Try to make sure that you include activities that your child enjoys doing in their daily life. Kids are more likely to spend longer periods of time doing something that they enjoy. This does not mean that you should not introduce your child to new things; rather, involve them in new activities that will also have something they are familiar with. For example, if you are introducing your child to coloring books and they love cars, use a coloring book that contains a lot of cars.

Reading Exercises

Reading and telling stories are another great way to boost your child’s attention span. Download reading worksheet  and read books or short stories to your kids, and make sure they are paying attention. You can ask questions and involve them in the reading process by asking them to make the animal sounds or something else. This way, they will be locked into what you are reading, and be able to give you answers to questions you ask at the end of story time.  The best books you can read to your kids are the ones that tell stories that they are interested in.

Socialize with your kids during these attention span building activities. Discuss the characters in the books, the colors they have chosen to use for their paintings, and these little communications will stimulate your child’s interest in what they are doing.