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Expert Q&A
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| By Adolph Brown Psychologist | ||
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How can I help my 8-year-old son focus more on what he's doing?
The keys to understanding how a child can develop more appropriate focus begins with knowledge of the major components of attention: 1) maintaining focus, 2) stimuli: what we listen to and where we look and 3) blocking out the sources of competition that interfere with the completion of a task.
The great news is that young people can be taught to pay attention to what is important. Planfulness is one beneficial strategy to address this issue. Even young persons recognize that one cannot do everything at once. Planning is a joint activity, whereby the young person should be guided in better planning of what one will focus on, perform or complete.
Young people are more efficient when they work together than when working alone. Parents and teachers can help by teaching the child to use advanced planning and creating a situation whereby joint responsibility for the task is held either with a peer or an adult."
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