I have been teaching and helping children for a quite some time now. Over this period, a re-occurring lack of concentration is apparent regardless of a child’s’ age. Primarily, in the areas of: attention deficit, lack of concentration, and poor concentration in children. My encounter with parents, informs me that they too are concerned with issues of concentration. Although, most children are performing to age appropriate standards, concentration remains to be addressed. I’ve decided to provide my insight on improving concentration strategies for parents and teachers a like.
I believe concentration is a skill that must be learned in both home and school settings. In today’s lifestyle, we are very busy as parents and we face many distractions around us. It comes at no surprise that our kids are in the same boat. For example: recall a time when you were in school? There was no Tablets, Cell Phones etc. We had more time to spend with family, read books and other things together. Thus, enabling us to learn new things, discuss different topics and concentrate on tasks.
We begin to realize this issue of concentration in our child when he/she is not performing well. We start looking for reasons and figure out what is going on. At times, we find that children have been performing well, but gradually there performance has been decreasing.
Lack of Concentration Reasons and Solutions
We need to document the child difficulties, which provides the clear and concrete description of the problem that can we discuss with teachers and consultants to find the solution of the issue.
Every child has a different way of learning and understanding of one or more concepts. At times, a child is unable to understand the concept completely and when the topic becomes more complicated they start having issues and lose interest.
Meet with the students’ teacher and determine if the class is too noisy and as a result the child is unable to concentrate. Request, a change of seating which, allows the child to sit on the first row.
The child does not write his/her homework. Ask the teacher to monitor the child write the homework and initial it. Parents are advised to do the same thing to keep an eye on the Childs progress.
The child thinks that he/she understands the concept and does not take proper notes or does not write information down. When they re-visit the topic or prepare for the exam, they do not remember anything.
- One of the issues I have seen is over confidence in children. Often times, a child thinks that he/she has understood the concept fully and does not do much practice. When he /she take the exam then they make mistakes. At Gems learning institute we take frequent tests and ensure that a child gets the concept right
Some Suggestion to improve Children Concentration
Every child has a different concentration span. For example, 3 to 5 year olds can concentrate on one task between 6 to 13 minutes. 6 to 12 years old can concentrate on one task between 14 to 21 minutes. Below, are the some tasks we use at GEMS to improve the concentration and help children to do well in school.
Setup a regular routine for the child. It will help to structure the day and they will be aware of what is to follow and pay attention to the present.
Setup tasks for the child and divide them in to the smaller task to make it simple. Write down all the steps.
Teach your child to set goals and help to achieve them. Goals can be simple, like completing any easy task.
Set a realistic academic expectation for the child.
Reduce the choices in the decision making process to make it easier for the child. Discuss all the positive and negative aspect of the decision and leave the decision on them.
Involve with Child homework.
While doing a task, reduce the distraction. For example, if the TV is on then turn off the TV and any other electronics to reduce the distraction.
Gems Offers UCMAS program which is a brain development program for the Children between 4 to 13 years of children. In UCMAS, we use different techniques to improve the concentration and memory. We use a timer frequently to do a certain calculation, which help children to improve concentration. Every 10 minutes there is different kind of activity, which can be based on the abacus and arithmetic functions.
Some time children make careless mistakes. Gems Tutors, take frequent test to ensure children are grasping the concept and indicate their silly mistake and ensure they pay more attention to the task.
Praise your child on completing a task.
Setup some kind of reward on certain task completions. So they can develop self-confidence that they can achieve anything.
Ensure child is taking proper nutrition and sleep.
Get some professional help from family doctor if necessary.
At Gems Learning institute, we offer different programs including UCMAS, Gems Squared Math program, STEM Programs, Coding For Kids, Robotics for Kids, Chess Learning program and we have been helping children in their brain development.
Resources – Coding for kid Parent Guide
