6 Ways to Increase Your Child’s Attention Span

By Ameena Aliyu-Beighton

Experts agree that the attention span of a child can be anywhere from two to five minutes for every year in the child’s life. This means that an average 2-year-old can focus on a task for about 10 minutes, a 3-year-old for about 15 minutes, and so on.

If your child is an average ‘can’t sit still or focus’ type due to the excitement or distractions all around, here are some handy tips to get him to focus for just that bit longer to get more tasks done.

1. Step away from the gadgets

Let them explore their surroundings and learn from what they feel and touch by limiting TV and computer games. Let them go outside and play the old fashioned way…like we used to. Studies have shown that children who are constantly plugged into the fast pace of TV and computer games tend to have a short attention span. This is due to the unrelenting thundering speed of today’s entertainment targeted at children. The American Academy of Paediatricians recommend a maximum of 2 hours of TV time per day.

2. Work It Out

Child experts have shown a deep correlation between exercise and increased concentration as exercise promotes better breathing which feeds the body with super oxygenated blood. You will be surprised to find that kids fresh off the playground and into the classroom seem to pay more attention in class. Education geeks in the US and Canada actually went as far as trying this theory out in schools. The study showed that 20 minutes of physical exercise before a class boosted learning and the attention span on the subjects. So, incorporate 30 minutes of games such as jumping, skipping and jogging, swimming, and tennis.

3. Light Their Fire

Though children have little patience for drawn out activities, discovering their soft spots and exploiting them helps. In my daughter’s case, it’s spider man. To get her to focus on learning her numbers or tidying her toys away, I invoke the powers of spider man and his amazing friends. Similarly, the mere mention of animals gets my son interested whole heartedly in any topic.

4. Read to Your Child

Not only is it good for their vocabulary and comprehension, it can also help kids learn to pay attention for quite long periods. Reading interesting stories to your child from birth gets them used to the pattern of telling a story through the phases- the beginning, middle and end. Be creative and make things interesting by bringing the characters to life using different voices.

5. Minimize Distractions

Clearing up your child’s space and ridding it of anything that may distract them during learning or whenever you need them to concentrate on something is a simple but effect way too. A sea of toys, for instance, see the attention span of a child start to suffer.

6. ‘Variety is the Spice of Attention’

Variety is the spice of attention, so mix things up to keep your toddler engaged using different modes of learning.

Having a long enough attention span generally tends to breed effective adults by keeping them focused whilst perfecting problem solving skills. Not a bad skill to help your kids with in this new age of ‘focus, think and act fast or get left behind.’