Attention people!
Lets start at the beginning as that is a very good place to start ….
Speech Pathologist’s work with little people who need to be able to focus in order to learn. So it comes as no surprise that one of the first goals we discuss with parents is building their child’s attention skills. In order to make it fun there are plenty of tricks and games to learn this vital skill . Read on here about the joys of discovery once your little one has mastered their attention skills.
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As the song says -start at the beginning, and the beginning for learning anything new is , attention. Have you ever noticed yourself honing in on a task with all that focus on that one thing when you’re trying to master a new skill. Your eyes, ears, body , everything is turned towards this thing, and you even have the capacity to block out noise , time and your own buzzing thoughts for a while to put all your energy into learning this one thing.
I guess you’ve heard so much about attention and how important it is as the fundamental skill required to achieve any learning. This is why I always start at the beginning, which is attention-what is your child able to focus on, what are their interests and how can we capture that attention long enough to engage and learn through a shared moment, or two!
Kids who are diagnosed with the attention deficit, ADHD, are often referred to a Speech Pathologist. The fundamental developmental milestone of attention ,if lacking, often seen in toddlerhood as the ‘busy, energetic toddler’ who runs from toy to toy and is a ‘handful’ for their parents. These kids are often labeled early in childcare as distracted , hard to focus and may also have social difficulties connecting with peers. They also may not catch all of an instruction so they appear to be disobedient and not following along with the other kids, however the reality is very different for these kids. The child with attention difficulties is often also experiencing sensory overload - everything may feel like it’s coming at once, sounds, visuals and body sensations, and in order to control this fast stream of information the child is moving from one activity to another to try to harness control.
Structure , advanced notice of change, and routines are toddler and early childhoods’ best friend.
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1/ Make it Visual
Little ones can’t read so use a graphic visual on an easy to see whiteboard-First…. Next ….Last…..
2/ Repeat often and give plenty of lead-in time, kids with attention difficulties take longer to wind an activity up, especially if it’s a favourite one. Using your hand as a count down -give a full 3 mins , counting down for each minute with a line on the board or a picture of a dog for example ‘when you see 3 dogs it’s time to pack away” for all kids to wind an activity down and get ready to pack it away.
3/ Sit the kids with attention challenges near to the fast packers who are quick to move when the teacher says it’s time to stop - they will then want to follow along and may be more likely to imitiate their peers.
4/ Be inclusive- we all have strengths and challenges- kids with attention difficulties often shine with creative activities, or show immense focus on special interests.
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Learning a new skill takes time, and lots of repetition. Remember back when you learnt to ride a bike, or more recently learning a new software program at work. What did you do? Most likely you had a mentor, someone to show you the ropes, then it was up to you to practice, often using some notes you’d taken while watching.
You may have been slower at the beginning and made a few errors, but as you practiced the speed and accuracy improved and before long it was like you’d never not known this skill.
In therapy sessions we work using a proven technique of learning hierarchies enabling your child to achive mastery at every level before moving up to the next challenge. Reward based and fun , your child will feel the gains made as we apply the ‘target’ or aim for the session to everyday life. For example if your child needs to learn to sit at the table and participate in a game for 3 minutes , we would have a target of games to be played at home with gradual increasing length that your child was requested and rewarded for staying on task. If your child needed to look at your face to copy a sound production or look at a picture, we would have that as a goal for a child who needs a little more reinforcement and encouragement to focus for more than a moment.
How this is achieved varies from child to child, and always with close consultation with parents. Some children love sticker charts or other reward based systems. Other kids prefer to have a deep understanding of the ‘why’ rather than a reward based approach, and need to know ‘why’ before they will ‘do’. Figuring out what works for your child is what your experienced Speech Pathologist can bring to the session.