Focusing on any activity for the long-term or short-term seems to be challenging for kids. It is impossible to make them concentrate on something. This impacts children on their learning skills. Lack of focus and concentration may make them lag behind. So it is the parent’s and teacher’s responsibility to take take care of this matter. Most parents when observing their kids get distracted easily ask only one question: How to improve concentration in kids?
Though kids spend most of their time with their parents, parents have to take the responsibility to enhance their concentration level and work on that. In this post, you will get to know what are the simple ways to improve concentration in kids. Before that, it is necessary to understand the problems and the cause of the problem.
What causes a lack of concentration in kids?
Many children find it difficult to pay attention for a long time to a given task. And it might be daunting for parents to think of their child lagging due to this. This dearth of concentration is observed in most of the activities of children.
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But many factors are responsible for lack of concentration in kids like:-
1) There are many distractions present near the child which easily diverts his/her brain from the given task.
2) The task may be difficult for the child and hence the child doesn’t want to complete that task.
3) Sometimes children are too tired to focus on any particular task. Maybe they have not slept properly and so their brain feels exhausted.
4) Lack of interest in any activity also results in poor concentration in children. Children are reluctant to do some tasks that they don’t find interesting.
5) Often poor diet or insufficient meals results in poor concentration among children.
6) Less physical activity in the daily routine of children also makes them feel lazy and less focused.
7) Sometimes learning difficulties of children may cause poor concentration among them. In this case, proper diagnosis and professional guidance are required to overcome the difficulty.
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How to improve concentration in kids?
Children are indeed restless but that should not affect their overall growth and development. The ability to concentrate differs according to the child’s age. But then, it should be practiced to enhance the ability and foster concentration level as children grow up.
Here are a few ways to improve concentration in kids.
1) Don’t overwhelm your child with many activities
Children get overwhelmed easily and they have a flood of emotions. When children have a lot of activities on their to-do lists, they start feeling pressurized and anxious. They start showing emotions like anger, sadness or simply throwing tantrums. But the problem is not the behavior they show, the problem lies in their curriculum. Observe your child and then engage them in activities that don’t make a burden on them. It will be easy for them to focus on two simple tasks rather than doing six tasks. So don’t involve them in too many extracurricular activities, they will start feeling tired and exhausted. And this will make them less interested in the activities.
2) Split difficult tasks into small milestones
As I mentioned above, children get overwhelmed easily, therefore when children have to do any complex task, they get distracted easily. They find it very difficult and can’t able to concentrate which results in poor productivity. So the best way to deal is to divide a difficult task into small tasks. Children will find the small tasks easy to do and this will reduce their pressure too.
3) Keep away distractions
Children easily shift their focus from one activity to another, in simple terms they are prone to distractions. So observe your child when he is engaged in any activity, what are the modes of distraction for him? And try to keep those distractions away from him. This will help to improve concentration in kids on the given task without shifting their focus from one to another activity.
4) Lessen screen time
Screen time is directly related to a child’s development. The more screen time, the less brain development. Studies have shown when children are glued to screens for a longer time, there is a delay in their development and sometimes it also results in poor brain development. Longer exposure to screen have a severe effect on childhood growth and development. It affects a child’s brain in a way that the child is not able to do critical thinking or concentrate on anything. Therefore it is very important to keep your child away from the screen as much as possible.
5) Follow a consistent routine
It is very important to follow a routine consistently. In this way, children know when is their playtime, study time, and all other basic activities of the day. This makes them less stressed as they can predict what is next to do. This helps them to be prepared and focused for the activity. Following a basic routine helps children to feel more secure and happy. Studies have shown that children following routine have better mental growth.
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6) Proper Sleep
It is very obvious when a child is tired, he can’t focus on anything. His brain can’t concentrate on a given task. Therefore adequate amount of sleep is very necessary for children. The brain needs rest to perform best. Lack of sleep can affect the physical and mental health of children, as their bodies get recharged during sleep. A better sleep routine can lead to a very happy and productive life for kids too. Always take care of your child’s sleep routine so that they can wake up with full energy for the day.
7) Nutritious diet
One of the key factors to improve concentration is to have a healthy brain. And human brain needs adequate nutrition for proper development. Children who don’t consume a proper nutritious diet will not have poor physical growth but it will also affect their mental growth too. A child’s brain starts developing before a child can walk or talk. A balanced diet food is therefore very important during the early development stage of a child. Lack of nutrition has harmful effects on a child’s memory strength and cognitive development.
8) Engaging in Physical activities
A brain can concentrate or focus on a task when there is no stress and anxiety inside you. A healthy brain is directly related to a healthy lifestyle that covers from eating healthy things to doing physical activities. We should always encourage our children to do any kind of physical activity every day. There are many benefits of physical activities on our mental health like reducing stress, and anxiety, increasing energy levels, boosting concentration, and enhancing the power of focus and motivation.
9) Encourage your child to play brain-storming games
Brain-storming games are brain exercises for children. Playing games that involve the mind helps children to focus on a single task at a moment. This strengthens concentration and critical thinking skills. Children can focus for a longer period. Some of the brainstorming games for children are chess, jigsaw puzzles, rebus puzzles, sudoku, etc.
10) Appreciate them for their every little achievement
It is very important to appreciate your child for every little achievement, this will make them happy. Children get motivation from positive words they hear for themselves. They understand the worth of effort and focus more on achieving more success in life.
