10 Most Effective Ways to Improve Student’s Attention

Attention Span Issue and its Affects on Child’s Studies: The child is unable to pay attention at times. This can be a difficult situation during exam time because parents and teachers expect them to remain attentive and they are unable to. It is nearly impossible to keep children’s attention intact when they are uninterested. It is not hard to find this situation in the classroom when the child is not attentive. Students with fiddle play with the pencils or keep on turning of the pages instead of doing the task given by the teacher. The article will explain the 10 Most Effective Ways to Improve Students’ Attention span.

How to Find an Average Child’s Attention Span?

According to child development experts, an average child should be able to concentrate on one task for the duration of 2-5 minutes multiplied by their age. The average length of the child’s attention span is easy to calculate using this formula:

Age X 2-5 minutes=Average Attention Span

As per the formula given above, the average concentrate span by page is as follows:

Child’s Age	Average Attention Span
4	8-10 Minutes
5	10-25 minutes
6	12-30 minutes
7	14-35 minutes
8	16-40 minutes
9	18-45 minutes
10	20-50 minutes
11	22-55 minutes
12	24-60 minutes

How Long is the Student’s Attention Span?

Neuroscientists believe that the average attention span gets increases as children get older. It is estimated that 10% of kids have been diagnosed with attention-related disorders and many of those kids have disorders that affect their ability to concentrate in the classroom.

Importance of Student’s Concentration:

You want your children to pay attention in the classroom but those who have attention issues face this challenge almost every day. One study found a correlation between children who are not able to pay attention and lower earnings when they reach in their adulthood. A day or two- when kids are not paying attention in the classroom is one thing but when this thing becomes chronic then it can cause long-lasting effects. With this in mind, here are some ways to improve students’ attention.

How to Improve Students’ Concentration?

After figuring out the attention span according to the age group, teachers and parents should think of ways to deliver the activities to increase the concentration span. The strategies mentioned below are the 10 most effective ways to improve student’s attention in the classroom:

1. Take Help from Learning Centers: Learning centers are advantageous to give children time to work hands-on and in-depth exposure to the curriculum. Small group work is beneficial to help students concentrate in the classroom. Research showed that students are able to complete their tasks more frequently during whole-group instruction rather than in a small group or individual work.
2. Keep Lessons Short: When you are planning a lesson, split it into smaller portions to improve the child’s concentration. This doesn’t mean that you stop teaching about the topic, you may move from group activity to partner work or vice versa.
3. Give Breaks between Study Time: Along with keeping the lessons short, brain breaks are equally important throughout the school day to let children concentrate back. The thumb rule is to give 3-5 minutes of break time. You may utilize the break time in keeping kids busy with activities.
4. Activities for Quick Finishers: Design plenty of activities for fast finishers that they can start after completing their task. This way the quick finishers won’t intervene in a classmate’s work.
5. Do not Hold Back Recess Time: Recess is an important time for children. Some teachers take away recess which is not a fair decision. Physical activity is essential for kids as it improves their memory to concentration. Children desperately wait for this time when they can eat, talk and play with their peer group.

Find out some more ways to solve Attention Span Issues:

6. Play Active Games: Play active games at the beginning of any lesson or to give a break to the child. Physical activities will leave a positive impact on the child’s brain and can improve the child’s mood, attention, and academic skills. To take advantage of the active games, add extra fun from your side.

7. Remove Distractions: Education Experts believe that the right environment should be given to the distracted child and therefore create an environment that will foster learning. This goes for both classroom learning and at home. First, find out what distracts the child from being able to focus for a longer time. Children are experts in finding joy with the smallest objects. They can turn their eraser into a toy car, a piece of paper into a spying glass. Therefore, it’s important to keep the clutter away both at home and school.

8. Allow them to Chew Gum: Chewing gum helps us to focus longer when doing tasks that need visual memory. Some teachers opt for this special treat on test days in turn to help students who cannot concentrate.

9. Allow Kids to Use Toys: It is evident that bubble toys, clickers, spinners, and many other toys can have real benefits when it comes to helping children on task when it comes to keeping kids on task.

10. Mindfulness Practice Routine: Sometimes focus doesn’t come naturally to all of us. There are huge benefits of mindfulness in the classroom including the ability to practice concentrating. There are easy mindfulness activities for children to be incorporated with children. You can plan mindful activities for 5-10 minutes when you need a little extra something to help focus and get the most out of the learning experience that is about to occur.

Other Articles:

• Career Options for those with Learning Disabilities
• Why Some Kids don’t like going to School

Other Activities to Improve Student’s Attention Suggested:

Once the child’s attention span increases keep a check on the time taken by the child at the beginning of the activity. Here are a few more activities to improve a child’s attention span:

• Building Games: Pass out playing cards, blocks, and colors to work, building models of skyscrapers using foam pieces, glue, paint, and markers.
• Memory Games: Card games such as Go Fish, Snap, and Memory like Guess Who, Uno, Battleship, and Bingo cards. It also includes hands-on, practical, or inquiry-based learning experiences including creative thinking and problem-solving. Snake Cube, Rubik Cube
• Timed Activities: Choose a master word and put one minute on the clock. Give each student a marker and whiteboard and write as many words as possible from the master word.
• Cooking Activities: Students can do cooking activities that include mixing different ingredients. Younger kids can decorate the cookies for a special occasion.
• Sequence Activities: Teachers can create worksheets, and material and plan discussions on story sequencing. Younger kids can put vibrant pictures in sequences such as pictures of seasons, daily routines, and classroom routines.

Conclusion:

With the rise of technology, make sure that children do not counter the negative effects of excessive screen time by planning more hands-on activities to improve attention and concentration.