As a speech therapist who works both in a school and in Early Intervention I hear this a lot:
“Billy can’t focus.” “Johnny changes activities every second!” “He can’t just sit and finish the work.”
So, how long should a child be able to focus on a task for? More now than ever we see our child struggling to pay attention, especially during virtual school. But how long is a child really supposed to be able to attend to an activity for?
Research (Gaertner et al, 2008) states that:
8-15 months olds attention span is approximately 1 minute
16-19 month olds attention span is 2-3 minutes
20-24 month olds attention span is 3-6 minutes
3 year olds attention span is 5-8 minutes
4 year olds attention span is 8-10 minutes
5 year olds attention span is 10-15 minutes
In Early Intervention we work with children 3 and under. This means they may only be able to attend to an activity for up to 8 minutes! This does not mean that when your child is attending to a preferred activity they will only attend for 8 minutes. Often times I hear “When Johnny is playing with cars I have to pull him away from them! Right when we try to read together he is running all over the place and not listening.” Cars are a preferred activity and that probably means that your child can/will attend to it longer.
In the schools I hear, “Billy has trouble completing assignments. He gets up out of his chair every five minutes to get something or use the bathroom.” Sometimes paper based activities (especially paper based activities on difficult material can be very unmotivating for students). Continue reading for some school aged strategies below.
As a speech therapist I love to use child led activities. This means that the child is “leading” the activity and you are following by asking questions, making comments, and engaging with them. During these activities we may see our little guys disengage after a while. But it is typically easy to bring them back into it. If your child is building with blocks and they leave the area do not assume they do not want to play with the item anymore. Do something fun and creative with the blocks, gain their attention, and bam they are back at it. Encourage your child to do things more than once. If they stack their blocks one time, that is great. But keep going!
You may be thinking to yourself, “Okay, but what if I want my child to do something less engaging with me?” Don’t worry! This is where strategies come into play.
- If your child does not sit well through books make the book engaging and hands on. I love to play “find it” during stories. You can pick an item on the page and then go find it somewhere in the house. This makes the story engaging and gives them that movement break they may need. As you child is more able to sit and attend to the story you can decrease how often you go to find something. I also love to hide pictures under sticky notes (this makes any book a flap book). Your child will get to lift up the flap and you can talk about what was under it.
- Hands on is the best! Multi-sensory and hands on activities are a great way for children to learn. If they have to do their spelling homework grab the shaving cream or finger paint. Have them spell their word on shaving cream on a cookie sheet and then write their word on their homework. Will this add a few extra minutes to the activity? Yes. Will this maybe make a mess? Yes again. Will your child enjoy it and attend to it without having to stop due to not being able to attend? Yes!
- Do things that require multiple steps! We often shy away from letting our little guys help us in the kitchen because we are in a rush. But this hands on quality time will allow them the joy of completing so many steps to get to the end result. You may be surprised how well they do when they are engaged and helping you cook those yummy brownies!
- If your child has a very preferred activity and you need or want them to do something before that try using consistent “first, then” language with them. “First help mommy feed Bentley and then play cars.” Your child may have no interest in feeding the dog, but if they know the quicker they feed the dog the faster they get the play with cars they may attend to the activity of feeding the dog instead of running away.
- For older guys, break down the task. If they have piles of homework chunk it into small sections with a break in between. Sitting at the kitchen table for 40 minutes may sound like something we can all do. The task your child may be doing can be challenging for them. They may need a break. Breaks do not need to be anything fancy! Just make it something quick and something they can transition easily from.
- Older guys can often benefit from a fidget as well. Make sure you talk about how to use the fidget. I have had students use fidgets as play pieces and not in ways that helps with attention, which makes it very counterproductive. Crunchy food is also helpful for focus. Crunchy foods are “heavy work” on your jaw and your jaw must work hard to break them down. This sensory input helps to increase our focus! Productive and yummy!
As parents and educators our expectations may not be realistic. We need to think about where our child is and build on that. Building attention one minute at a time can really add up!
Time 2 Talk, LLC 