Child development experts say that 4 or 5-year-old children should be able to stay focused on a task for at least two to five minutes times the year of their age. Young children should be able to focus between 4 and 20 minutes, or even more, depending on the task at hand. This rule of thumb, just like any guideline for raising children, depends on the whole situation.
Neal Rojas, M.D., a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at the University of California said that attention span has to be contextualized. Does the lack of attention span happen in the morning, during the middle of the day or before bedtime? Attention span is elastic and parents will see a variation of it throughout the day.
Give attention to get attention
How much attention a child gives a task depends on whether he is enjoying himself. A lot of children struggle when they are asked to do something that they do not want to do. Dr. Rojas explained that the first time that you introduce an activity that is more important to you than to your child, you are testing your creativity and your flexibility as a teacher and a parent. This is where the struggle happens for a lot of parents because children entering school have to do more repetitive, structured and academic tasks like writing their names or sounding out letters. A lot of parents and kids bump heads on this.
This is where creativity can help you out, as it can turn something dull into something fun. Instead of insisting that your child write a letter with a pencil in his workbook, you can ask your child to write it with chalk, shape it with a Play-Doh, or even trace it with paint or colored pencil. In order to get a child's attention, parents must also give attention. Dr. Rojas said that it is easy for a parent to get stuck in a rut as our attention is usually scattered. But if our attention is scattered, and we can't bring ourselves back to the moment, we can't expect our children to be able to do so.
How to decrease the distractions
Parents should be aware if something is getting in the way of a child paying attention. It could be that your child is tired or hungry, or it could be something else entirely. In order to combat hunger or fatigue, you can give your child a healthy snack before he or she starts homework or any task. If siblings distract each other, you can have them work in separate rooms.
Research has shown that exercise can help kids pay attention to. A research review in 2010 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that elementary school kids who took breaks from classwork are more active during the day and they could concentrate better on schoolwork. Other studies have shown that parents who make exercise a priority in their family life will have more physically active children, parents should help their kids fund a sport that they really like and give outdoor toys like jump ropes and balls.
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