How To Improve Focus and Concentration in Kids

Do you have a child that has difficulty focusing on a task? Is it hard for your young child to demonstrate self control? Maybe you know a child like Mark. He is an active 4-year-old boy. When Mark goes grocery shopping with his mother he says, "Mom can I have this Hot Wheel?" Mark's mom replies, "Okay but you can't open it until we check-out." His mother places the toy into the grocery cart. Minutes later Mark asks, "Can I just hold the car until we check-out?" Mark's mom pauses and then says, "Okay." Several minutes later they approach the check-out area. As Mark's mother puts the grocery items on the conveyor belt she notices that Mark has torn into the Hot Wheel package and tried to remove the car.

This is a familiar site in grocery stores across the United States. The instant access world we live in is exciting, distracting, joyful, and complex for adults, and even more complex for children. Among the multitude of choices, pop-up images, and atmosphere of instant gratification people can easily become distracted. Children need life skills more than ever before to help them develop focus and self control so they can successfully navigate our complex world. According to Galinsky author of, “Mind in the Making” focus and self-control are the most important life skills children need in our complex world. The results of several research studies have found attention skills like focus and self-control are more important in predicting academic success in school-age children than IQ. Galinsky refers to focus and self-control as life skills because these skills are not only important for children while they are young but also important as these children become adults.

Elements of Focus and Self Control

Today parents tend to report feeling most satisfied with their parent/child relationship when they feel they have had quality time to focus on their children without distractions. Results of scientific studies show a positive association between children who have good reading scores, good math scores, and good attention skills when entering school and later academic success. In the book, "Mind in the Making", Galinsky presents four essential elements of focus and self-control including: focus, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control.

When children are able to focus they have the ability to direct their attention in order to meet the determined goal. For example, a 2-year old boy is interested in learning how the wheels turn on a toy car propel the car forward. In order to figure out how this works he positions himself on the floor where he can directly observe how the wheels turning on the car. Children who establish excellent focusing skills are better able to concentrate and remain oriented to their established goals for longer periods of time, despite internal and external distractions. The ability to tune out distractions and focus on what is important is getting more difficult in our present culture. It's important that children learn to focus in order to be successful throughout life.

Cognitive Flexibility

Cognitive flexibility is another area of self-control where children learn how to shift their attention. Children engaged in imaginative play practice cognitive flexibility. For example, a 4-year-old girl pretending to have a tea party with her dolls might decide to alter her play when her brother enters her room dressed as a dinosaur. Cognitive flexibility helps children acquire important skills they can use throughout adulthood. People who are cognitively flexible are able to understand issues from differing points of view. For example, a high school teacher who upset her students by assigning homework over a holiday weekend employs cognitive flexibility when she is willing to listen to how the students feel about the situation. When children learn to look at issues from various perspectives they are learning to become more cognitively flexible, which is important in gaining self control.

Adele Diamond defines working memory as, “holding information in your mind while mentally working with it or updating it.” For example, when a child reads a story to himself and then relates what he read to something in his daily life, he is building his working memory. Working memory is useful for learning how things in our world relate to one another so we can prioritize and relate what we already know to what we are discovering. Children who grow up to be inventors, artist, problem-solvers, teachers, physicians, or business leaders all need the life skill of being able to demonstrate working memory. This is an important skill in the development of self control.

Inhibitory control is the ability to resist responding impulsively and instead respond in a way that is the most appropriate to the situation at hand. An example of inhibitory control is being able to pay attention despite external and/or internal distractions. The first grader who successfully completes his homework in the middle of the kitchen while his brothers’ play and mother cooks dinner demonstrates a level of inhibitory control, which is a function of self control. When you are able to refrain from blurting out what you are thinking you are demonstrating inhibitory control. Inhibitory control is not just simply controlling your attention and emotions but also controlling your behavior in order to accomplish a goal.

The area of the brain where focus and self-control are regulated is one of the last areas to fully mature. Because of this many researchers and scientists question whether it is even possible to teach young children these attentive skills. Adele Diamond disagrees with these researchers and scientists and provides an excellent example to illustrate her point. Adele Diamond said, “Think about a two-year-old’s legs. Your legs at age two are not at their full adult length; it may take ten or fifteen years to reach their full adult length- they’re very immature. But even with those immature legs, a two-year-old can walk; a two-year-old can even run. So the legs, even in their immature two-year-old state, are capable of serving a lot of the functions that legs are suppose to serve.”

In other words, just because the area of the child's brain that houses attentiveness is not fully mature,does not mean the child cannot begin to acquire skills of focus and self-control. It is important to understand that some children need a lot of practice and time to become competent in focus and self-control; although, it is never too early to start practicing these skills. The authors said most children readily grasp attentiveness skills between ages 3-7.

1. "I Spy." In the car you can play "I Spy" games. For example, the parent can say, "I spy something wet." The child who guesses correctly, "Is it a water park?" gets to offer the next clue of what they spy. This game increases attention skills and helps children learn to focus on their surroundings.

2. Work puzzles together. Solving developmentally appropriate puzzles with your child helps him focus on several different perspectives and patterns simultaneously. As the child manipulates the puzzle piece and discovers where it belongs in the puzzle his brain forms new connections. Researchers describe this process as cognitive flexibility or the ability to adjust to changing patterns or perspectives.

3. Name the animal by its laughter or voice. To play this game begin by either laughing or speaking the way you think certain animals might laugh or speak. For example, you could meow while laughing and see if the child guesses you are a laughing cat. Or you could say a sentence while mooing to see if they guess you are a talking cow. This game is a creative way to improve children's auditory focus and self contorl.

4. The waiting game. To play this game go into a store and tell your child if she can sit still in the cart or walk next to the cart while you shop she can pick out a dollar item from the dollar bins at the end of the shopping trip. The waiting game helps children practice self-control through delayed gratification. This game also promotes working memory by having the child prioritize what needs to be done in order to achieve the desired outcome.

5. Ears are for hearing mouths are for speaking. When one member of the family or group is speaking have that person point to his or her mouth and then speak. Everyone else present touches their ears, focuses on the speaker, and listens. The use of tactile movements while learning helps children remember what to do when someone else is speaking. After several of these experiences children begin to automatically listen when others are speaking. This game is a creative way to build children's attentive skills which strengthen self control and working memory where they can practice relating what they are currently learning to what they already know.

6. Repeating. Begin by asking your child to complete several consecutive tasks such as, "Johnny I need you to brush your teeth, get your shoes and socks on, and grab your lunch box so we can leave for school." Then have him repeat the tasks to you before he gets started. If he is moving or looking around when he repeats the task, ask him to stop. After you get his attention position yourself so the two of you are at eye level with one another. Calmly ask him to repeat the sequence of tasks with a still calm body. With practice children will begin to understand how they can settle their bodies by being more attentive to their surroundings.

7. "Simon Says." You could help your child strengthen her ability to focus by playing games like "Simon Says." After playing the game for a few minutes announce that the directions have changed. Let her know that instead of doing what "Simon Says" she should now do the opposite of what "Simon says." Changing directions in the middle of a game helps children strengthen inhibitory control and override the impulse of how they would typically respond. This type of learning activity teaches children to learn to be comfortable with change.

8. Music stopping games. Games like musical chairs or hot potato help increase focus, attention, and reaction time in children. These games strengthen the child's brain to learn to respond quickly with an increased level of attention. This game also requires the use of children’s auditory skills and helps develop focus and self control.

9. Mirror what I do. For this game the parent and child sit in a chair directly facing one another. The parent plays the role of the leader and the child plays the role of the follower. The parent sits still in the chair using few words so the child focuses on controlling his or her body movements. The object of the game is to have the child mirror the movements of the parent. This game increases self control skills and also teaches children to become more aware of body placement and positioning.

10. Story sharing. Story sharing is a great activity that can be played anywhere, even in the car. One person begins a story with one short sentence and then the other members of the family take turns adding one sentence at a time. Story sharing helps children laugh their way to becoming more cognitively flexible, attentive, and self controlled.

If you are looking for simple ways to help a young child develop focus and self control games are a great place to start. Children love learning through games and other fun activities. From the words of Michel de Montaigne, "It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity."

For more articles or information about the author Kelley Ward, PhD, RN, C please visit here.