Understand Your Child

Skill Development - Attention

What is it?

Attention is the ability to selectively ‘tune in’ or attend to a stimulus, to sustain that focus and to ‘shift’ that focus at will from one stimulus to another. Children can either be overly ‘tuned in’ to the world around them (easily distracted) or fail to ‘tune in’ and notice the world around them (lethargic and oblivious to their surroundings).

Attention Skills are important to:

'Attend to Task'. The ability to attend to task (be it puzzles, eating lunch or play with peers) is a fundamental requirement for children’s development across the board.

Building blocks necessary to develop Attention Skills include:

• Sensory Processing – ‘tuning in’ to the appropriate environmental information.
• Understanding the task at hand.
• Intrinsic motivation to engage in the task and persist when challenged.
• Visual attention to the details and ensuring they are the appropriate details.

You can tell there are problems with Attention Skills if the child:

• Tends to be impulsive and not think things through before acting.
• Struggles to concentrate in busy settings and is easily distracted by events around them.
• Struggles to ‘listen’ to instructions and follow them through.
• Has difficulty completing daily routines (e.g. starting and finishing getting dressed).
• Jumps between activities without completing them (or actively engaging in one before starting another).
• Is disinterested in playing activities, preferring just to sit and watch the world around them without actively engaging in it.
• Is oblivious to the world around them.
• Fails to initiate play activities or to continue playing independently once play is set up for them (age dependent).

When Attention Skills are less than ideal, it can contribute to:

• Learning difficulties (influenced by limited attention to practice new skills or lack of interest in practicing the skills).
• Planning and organisation skills, which requires considered forward thought, performance, as well as persistence in the face of a challenge.
• Inappropriate reactions to sensory stimulus in the environment.
• Inappropriate visual and auditory attention to details (either failing to notice details, or becoming overly fixated on insignificant details).
• Immature social development with both peers and adults.

What can be done to improve Attention Skills?

• Don't fill children's time every minute. Down time, sometimes called ‘boredom’, is a necessary part of developing intrinsic motivation.
• Slow down activities.
• Break tasks into smaller achievable tasks and encourage repeated practice.
• Encourage physical activity to help optimize attention.
• Choose rewarding (fun) activities which reinforce voluntary attention as an intrinsic motivator.

Activities that can improve Attention Skills include:

• Using favoured activities and gradually increasing the demands of skill and persistence over time.
• Ensuring work spaces are clear of clutter for easily distracted children.
• Using activities with a definite end (e.g. puzzles) for flighty children, to encourage activity completion.
• Working in ‘traffic-free’ spaces for readily distracted children and high-traffic spaces for ‘sleepy’ children.
• Encouraging physical activity before sit-down tasks (to burn off excess energy or energize by ‘waking up’).
• Visual schedules/charts.

The more self-directed these activities are, the greater the opportunities for attention span to develop.