How to improve your child’s concentration and focus

The sudden urge to do a little scrolling on Instagram or TikTok unknowingly turns into a 30-minute scroll. Many of us have had that ‘been there, done that’ moment while trying to focus on a piece of school or work assignment. It’s natural for children to lose focus easily due to their high energy levels, curiosity, and exuberance! However, this may make learning hard for your child, and a shift in this behaviour doesn’t just simply happen in a day or two.

As a parent, you can’t always change the circumstances that make it hard for your child to focus on their homework or revision. However, there are many ways to help them cut through distractions and get things done more efficiently. Here are some of the most widely-used tips to help your child improve their concentration and focus.

1. Breaking down big tasks into bite-sized chunks

If a task is seemingly too big for your child, they may feel intimidated and overwhelmed. This could even awaken their reluctance and procrastination in completing the task. Likewise, if it seems too difficult, they may zone out and completely lose their attention and focus on what’s at hand. To help your child tackle this issue, you can explain the few things required in order to complete the task, so they can accomplish them step by step.

For instance, children may find completing revision papers too difficult for them. What you can do then, is to help separate such papers into sections that your child can tackle one at a time. With the completion of each section, they would feel like they’ve hit a checkpoint and feel more confident to continue tackling the other sections!

2. Focus on one thing at a time

More often than not, we hear praises for people that are able to multitask. However, research has shown that multitasking reduces concentration and diminishes our performance. So even though one may complete more tasks through multitasking, the quality of the output may not be satisfactory.

Avoid giving your child too many tasks at once as they may feel pressured to complete everything as soon as possible. Prioritise with them and decide what has to be done first, and what can be done after. Through this method, your child will be able to concentrate on their tasks properly without compromising their performance.

3. Boost and stimulate your child’s brainpower

Strengthen your child’s ability to concentrate and focus through activities or games that require thinking. For instance, jigsaw puzzles are a great way to combine fun with concentration. Other stimulating activities include crossword puzzles, riddles, and even exercise.

Physical activities such as running and stretching also help your child to be less restless, offset boredom, and focus better on their assignments.

4. Set aside specific homework time and space

It’s important to reduce the amount of distractions around your child while they’re in focus time. In one of our previous articles on creating a conducive home learning environment, we explained the importance of creating a dedicated home schooling area. This dedicated space would make it easier for children to concentrate on their schoolwork, as it’ll be understood that this is a space for work, not play.

The motion of repeating an activity over a period of time eventually turns it into a habit, so picking a specific time for your child to do their schoolwork may be a good idea to get them used to ‘homework time’ as well.

In a nutshell

Struggling to focus on a task can be frustrating to many. If your child manages to concentrate and focus on what they need to do, praise their work! Celebrate focus wins, be it big or small. When your child understands what they are good at, it helps them build confidence and allows them to stay motivated even as more tasks start piling in the future.