3 Main Reasons Why Your Child Might Have Difficulty Focusing At School
Many of the factors listed above can influence your child’s ability to pay attention in class. If there isn’t a neurological abnormality such as ADHD or autism, factors such as sleep quality, food, lack of physical activity, and emotions can all contribute to a child’s inability to concentrate.
However, there are a few other factors to consider, such as inadequate habits, the difficulty of their classwork, and learning disparities.
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Reasons Why Your Child Might Have Difficulty Focusing At School
Lack Of Routine
We’ve all done the rushed, unprepared morning ritual with our kids, but if you’re feeling rushed and unprepared on a regular basis, the morning routine could be a contributing factor to your child’s ability to focus at school. Especially if your youngster struggles in the beginning of the day but performs well over the rest of the day.
Here are some suggestions to make your morning routine go more smoothly:
- Make as much preparation the night before as feasible. Look for shoes, lay out clothes, pack sandwiches, and think about a crockpot breakfast.
- Get up 15-30 minutes before your child to avoid feeling rushed and to allow yourself time to get up.
- If you usually get caught in one part of your morning ritual, set alarms on your phone to keep things moving.
Learning Difficulties
Some youngsters may be dealing with a learning problem and go unnoticed. When children with learning difficulties appear distracted or unfocused, it is often because they have a learning disability.
Dyslexia is a frequent learning difference that affects one out of every five children and can range in severity.
When tested, children with milder dyslexia may be able to read at grade level, but they struggle.
Reading can make them exhausted throughout the day since they expend more energy to get through the same material than their peers. They are weary by midday and appear to be zoning out and not paying attention.
You can have your child tested for dyslexia or other learning problems that are impacting his or her ability to concentrate at school.
It’s possible that your child’s focusing challenges will go away once they’ve been appropriately evaluated and addressed.
Difficult School Work
It’s possible that your child’s inability to concentrate in school is due to his or her schoolwork. If your child is having difficulty with the work and it is becoming too challenging for them, they may require accommodations while they catch up.
On the other hand, if your child’s schoolwork is too easy, he or she may get continually sidetracked as a result of boredom. Your child may require a curriculum adjustment or possibly be moved to a different grade level.
Strategies To Improve Focus And Decrease Fidgeting
Encourage Independent Play
Having time to play alone, whether your child is an only child or has a slew of siblings, is a crucial element of their mental well-being and can help them improve their capacity to focus. We use quiet time to promote independent play in our house. Most quiet time activities are screen free, and involve magnet tiles, building with Lego and reading books!
Children often work through events and thoughts during independent play, similar to how adults utilize meditation or exercise to work through their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
Consider the last time your mind was overworked and how well you were able to focus. Consider how much easier it is to focus once you’ve worked through your negative emotions and thoughts. Children and independent play work in the same way.
Independent play allows youngsters to work through their problems while also helping them develop focus-related skills such as problem-solving and follow-through.
Allowing your child to play alone and without interruption might help them focus in other parts of their lives.
Play Family Games
One of the nicest traditions you can start with your children is family game nights. When it comes to playing games for kids, there is a lot to learn.
Games teach youngsters how to obey rules, be patient, take turns, and follow through, all of which help with concentration and focus.
Specific elements of executive functioning, such as working memory, can also be aided by certain games.
Picture puzzles, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, and memory games are all enjoyable pastimes that can provide a good workout in focus.
Implement Dramatic Play
Dramatic play is pretend play in which the youngster assumes various roles and tries new activities. Dramatic play includes roles such as house, doctor, airline, hospital, restaurant, and school.
Dramatic play improves a child’s working memory by allowing them to recall their character and work through the mechanisms the character would use.
Working memory is an important component of focus and aiding your child’s concentration. When your child can keep items in their working memory (temporary storage), they will be able to stay focused on one job even if another task comes to mind.
Use Constructive Play
Children’s resilience, project planning, distress tolerance, emotional management, and cognitive skills are all aided by play. When a youngster builds using blocks, LEGO, or Magnatiles, they must think about what they want to do and plan it out in their heads.
Then, if their plan doesn’t go as planned, they must problem solve. It’s always possible that everything will come crashing down or break apart, in which case your child will need to focus on emotional regulation and distress tolerance.
All of these factors contribute to your child’s ability to concentrate.
Encourage Sibling Play
Children who engage in cooperative play with their peers and siblings achieve more than just social development.
There are greater challenges when there are more people.
When your child plays with others, he or she learns conflict resolution and problem-solving skills that will aid in the development of their own emotional regulation (meaning the meltdowns and blow-ups over big emotions become less).
Cooperative play also increases focus by increasing the ability to tolerate stress. Distress tolerance aids your child’s follow-through, which is commonly referred to as a child’s focus.
The ability to accept and continue working on things that are stressful to your child aids them in sticking with a boring lesson or assignment.
References
- Visual Environment and Learning: Fisher, Godwin, and Seltman (2014) found that children’s ability to maintain focused attention during instruction and to learn lesson content was negatively affected by classroom walls with high decoration compared to when decorations were minimal. This suggests that a visually busy environment can distract children and hinder their learning process (Fisher, Godwin, & Seltman, 2014).
- Impact of Natural Environments: Taylor and Kuo (2009) demonstrated that children with ADHD symptoms showed improved concentration after a 20-minute walk in a park, suggesting that exposure to natural environments could enhance attentional performance. This indicates the potential of “doses of nature” as a non-pharmaceutical tool for managing symptoms related to attention difficulties (Taylor & Kuo, 2009).
- Classroom Displays and Attention: Hanley et al. (2017) utilized eye-tracking techniques to explore how visual displays in classrooms impact attention and learning for children, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study found that visual displays significantly affected all children’s attention, but more so for children with ASD, impacting their learning from lessons. This suggests the need for careful consideration of classroom aesthetics to support attention and learning for all students, especially those with attentional challenges (Hanley et al., 2017).
- Attention Processing in Traumatic Brain Injury vs. ADHD: Thaler et al. (2010) investigated attention processing abnormalities in children with traumatic brain injury and ADHD, finding differential impairment in component processes of attention. This study highlights the complexity of attentional issues in children and the importance of distinguishing between various underlying causes to provide targeted interventions (Thaler et al., 2010).
- Play and Focus: Praditya (2020) explored the application of play socialization therapy on concentration and developmental improvement in children with ADHD, suggesting that engaging in structured play can significantly enhance focus and decrease impulsivity. This aligns with the idea that various forms of play, including independent play, family games, and dramatic play, can positively affect children’s ability to concentrate and process information (Praditya, 2020).