In the age of smartphones, social media, and instant gratification culture amongst many other distractions, we are faced with a rapid decline in attention span for the younger generation. Children are now exposed to more activities and instruments that repeatedly overwhelm their brains and disrupt their focus. These distractions reduce patience for more rewarding activities and make it a lot harder to concentrate.
As a parent, it is important you take charge and fight the shrinking attention spans. You must learn to set appropriate boundaries that help your child learn the right habits and develop better focus.
One of the most important steps you can take as a parent to help your child maintain a healthy attention span is building routines and creating a structure. You cannot afford to allow each day to go on by chance for your ward – develop a system that helps your ward get the most out of their day, while minimising distractions. Prioritise activities that challenge their reasoning and build them mentally, as opposed to shallow tasks with limited benefits.
Recreation should not be completely eliminated from your ward’s schedule; instead, it can be used as a form of reward for completing deep and engaging work such as assignments, study, completing puzzles, etc. Ensure that you put measures in place to structure their playtime.
Try having a digital detox with your ward. Mindless consumption of technology is the real enemy to a strong attention span. While they cannot be taken out completely from your ward’s day to day activity, you can help to manage it for them by spelling out strict guidelines on the use of devices within your home. For instance, you can restrict usage of devices to only certain hours within the day, or even certain days within the week. Have your wards keep all their gadgets away from the bedroom before going to bed.
Replace distractions with fun family activities. Show your ward that there are more fun activities to do outside of technology, and stay creative. Go for walks, take your kids to parks, play more board games and puzzles, and encourage them to participate in sports. Participating in such activities will reduce their dependence of phone screens, and can aid all-round development.
Do you model proper behaviour in front of your kids? The best way for kids to learn to prioritise activities that help them develop a stronger attention span is from watching their heroes do it themselves. Do you stay in the zone when they see you working, cooking, reading a book, or even doing house chores, or are you easily cut off by the smallest distractions? Do you hold on to your mobile phone during general family time? These are key things to continually look out for. Always stay very mindful in everything you do, as most children pick up faster on what they see than what they are merely told to do.
Embrace the practice of reading books – not just books from school; novels, journals, even children’s story books. If we neglect this practice, we run the risk of raising children who prefer to skim through instead of reading long articles or books, which could prove to be detrimental in the long term. Give your child a book to read over a set period, and quiz them on lessons learnt from these books. Cultivating the art of reading builds deep focus and improves cognitive brain function.
You cannot afford to sit back and watch the waves water down the attention span of your ward. Ensure you always stay proactive and mindful.
