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If your child has learning difficulties, gets distracted quickly and is unable to focus, he or she may have trouble concentrating. Fortunately, it can be practiced.
Concentration is the ability to focus your attention on a task. It allows for quick and effective acquisition of knowledge.
The preschooler should be able to concentrate for three to five minutes. When a child reaches school maturity, he must do this for at least 15 minutes, because this is the time needed to complete a simple task or teacher’s instruction.
Sometimes parents mistakenly think their child is not concentrating at all. They think that concentration is sitting still. Meanwhile, if the child is a kinesthetic type, he learns through movement, and sitting at attention will make him unable to focus on the task at hand. While learning, the kinesthetic will swing his legs, sway, move his arms. If he does the sentence, it means he can concentrate.
Unfortunately, some children have a problem with this.
Geoffrej A. Dudley in his book How to Double the Effectiveness of Learning writes: “Focus and concentration are a matter of habit. Knowing how to focus is a question of training. ” Marek Szurawski, in turn, in the book Memory. Interactive training ”emphasizes that it is practically impossible to remember anything without concentration. He considers it “an art and a habit” and therefore requires practice.
So let’s start training our concentration!
To support training, give your child EVERY-DAY – Multivitamin for children 4-12 years old Terranova – a complex of vitamins and minerals necessary for proper functioning and development.
Jagoda Wąsowska, the trainer of effective learning techniques, recommends the following exercises:
Exercises for a younger preschooler
Arranging pasta
For this exercise we need spaghetti or yarn cut into pieces. We ask the child to arrange the pastas on the table next to each other at an equal distance. Exercise requires focus and concentration.
Playing with blocks
Place the tower of wooden rectangular blocks (e.g. JENGA blocks). The base of the tower consists of three blocks adjacent to each other. The next layer is again three blocks, but this time stacked across. When we arrange several layers in this way, we ask the child to raise the building with blocks that he can remove from the already built tower. Pull the block out with one hand and place it on the top of the tower. Raising the tower continues until it topples over. We will increase the attractiveness of play when we take turns doing this task with the child.
Creative scribbles
We need a piece of paper and something to write on. The child takes a pen / crayon / pencil in both hands and draws on a piece of paper at the same time in a mirror image with both hands, e.g. a sun, a flower, a car, a locomotive, a Christmas tree, a spring. Older children can write their first name, last name, today’s date.
Exercises for an elderly person
Lazy eight
The child is standing or sitting. He stretches out his left arm forward. We ask them to imagine that the Big Eight has fallen because they are tired and lying in the air. The child slowly traces the lying figure eight with his thumb. The hand at the elbow is straightened. Your eyesight should follow your thumb. Only the eyes work – the neck and head are relaxed but not moving. The exercise should be done slowly and consciously, the hand movement should be smooth. The exercise should be performed 3 – 7 times with one hand, the same amount with the other hand and the same number with the hands joined together – this will result in synchronization of both cerebral hemispheres, which will increase concentration.
The same exercise can be done by drawing a figure eight on a blackboard, paper or sand.
The exercise strengthens the external muscles of the eye, relaxes them, integrates the work of the left and right eyes and activates the brain at the visual, auditory and motor level. All of this promotes concentration and improves reading and writing.
The shape of the eight drawn makes it possible to assess how the child acquires knowledge. If the bellies of a figure eight are flat, it means that the child is an auditory person. Convex upward crunches suggest that our child is visual, while downward curved crunches mean that the baby learns best through movement and action.
Underline letters
Give the baby some text. Ask them to underline all letters, eg “o”, within 3 minutes. You can do the same on your text at the same time. Then check how many letters you missed.
Relaxation exercise
Cook position.
This exercise can be done sitting or standing. The child stretches out his hands in front of him. Thumbs down. We ask that he crosses his arms and entwines his fingers. The clasped hands are twisted downwards, then upwards, and pressed to the chest. We ask the child to cross his legs. The tongue should touch the roof of the mouth just above the upper teeth. The child may close his eyes. In this position, it should last a minute.
This exercise activates the sensory and motor areas of the cerebral cortex and integrates the limbic system with the frontal lobes. It reduces the production of adrenaline, lowers stress levels, and helps you relax. Thus, it contributes to better concentration, focus, and thus more effective learning. Performed in a stressful situation gives a sense of security.
A wandering ant
The next exercise stimulates and exercises the spatial imagination. We draw a large square on a blackboard or sheet of paper. We divide it into 9 small squares. Three in each row. A chessboard consisting of 9 fields is created. We ask the child to imagine that there is an ant in the middle square. The ant can go forward, backward to the right, or to the left, but never diagonally. The child tries to remember the layout of the chessboard, then closes his eyes or turns his back to the drawing. We will tell the child where the ant has gone, and the child is supposed to follow her in the fields. We warn the child that we can lead the ant outside the square. It should then say that the ant is gone. An example of an ant’s migration: The ant is in the center. The ant goes forward, the ant goes right, the ant goes backward, the ant goes left, the ant goes forward. To the question “Where is the ant?” the answer is – “Center”.
Supporting memory and concentration, you can also use the YANGO liquid multivitamin for children, which you can buy today at a promotional price on Medonet Market.
Text: Maria Janiszewska