Talking FACS
Host: Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky
Guest: Dr. David Weisenhorn, Extension Specialist for Parenting and Child Development
Episode 6, Season 3
0:02 Welcome to Talking FACS; what you need to know about family, food, finance and fitness. Hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program, our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families and communities to improve quality of life.
0:21 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Hello and welcome to Talking FACS. This is your host, Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
Today, I'm pleased to have joining me Dr. David Weisenhorn, our Extension Specialist for Parenting and Child Development. Welcome, David.
0:36 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Thank you.
0:37 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Today's topic is one that I am certain lots of parents are going to listen in on: strengthening your child's focus or improving their attention. David, I think this is something that all parents struggle with. Help us now. What have you got for us today?
0:55 David Weisenhorn: Yeah, I think you're so right; we all struggle with that. Because it's a natural progression for children in their development that the ability to concentrate or focus is adaptable. We don't come on the scene and we're not born with this amazing ability to focus.
So, in other words, we have the ability to strengthen our focus by intentionally building our capacity to do so. As adults, we've had decades of practice. You and I, we practice every day on our focus. Our children, on the other hand, they're in their very early stages of that, resulting for them in an inability to hold their attention or focus for long periods of time.
1:34 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: I'm going to say that's not something that I've ever thought about, attention span or focus being a learned behavior.
1:39 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Yeah.
1:40 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: That it's something that's actually taught. That's insightful when thinking about our kids, working with our kids, and helping our kids, that's -
1:46 Dr. David Weisenhorn: What's interesting about that is that I typically get a pushback. If I share that with a parent, they'll say, “Wait a minute, my child’s focus is great when they're watching their cartoons or they're doing it on their tablet” or something like that.
Again, what's interesting about that is they're not that much different than adults. We also don't have to work very hard to keep attention when it's something we enjoy, if there's an activity that we like.
But the truth of the matter is there's a lot, like school success and later, career success, that's going to require us to focus on things that maybe don't excite us as much. There are a lot of menial tasks that we do throughout the day that are maybe not exciting to us, but they're required in just our day-to-day activities and as our responsibilities.
So, for parents, I want you to know that there's good news in that you can be active in helping build your child's attention or their ability to focus.
The first thing you’ve got to do would be set time aside. Just like going to the gym and strengthening your muscles, you got to set that (time) aside and say, “Okay, I'm going to do this three days a week” or however you do that.
For children, it’s the same thing. For young children, ages four to six, maybe setting aside 5 to 20 minutes is a good start.
One of the things that you want to do when you begin to start these activities is you want to require their attention on something that maybe is not very exciting. Think about possibly making puzzles and giving your children a puzzle and having them work to put that puzzle together. Children lose interest in that quick if they can't get those pieces together. So, having them try and build a small puzzle, maybe a 25-piece puzzle or a 15-piece, depending on the age, and then as they grow, begin to increase that.
3:30 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: My mother in-law recently gave our little girl a puzzle and she was all excited about working it. I just was dreading it because it was a 500-piece puzzle and it just seemed like a lot. We had never done a puzzle. I'm not a puzzle person.
I came home one day from work and our sitter was there and she's like, “We started the puzzle.” I was like, “Oh, great. We started the puzzle”, because then you've got a puzzle out and it's on your kitchen table and, I was so impressed.
So, we moved it from the kitchen table to a different table so that we could eat because I knew it was going to take us a long time to finish the puzzle. But we would - we would work for about 20 minutes every night on the puzzle until we got it done. We both had a great sense of accomplishment when it was finished.
4:15 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Yeah, absolutely. That is a great success. That is a great way to work on building your daughter's attention. But also, and this is a good thing for parents, is that I want to encourage you. It doesn't have to be anything at all fancy. It actually could work as a home chore.
Another good activity is folding laundry. Having your children fold laundry; menial task, not fun, but having them do it. If they get it wrong, have them do it again so they can get it (done) correctly is another way of doing that.
Then the more difficult or challenging the task, the less time you want to spend at first. But as that child ages, that attention is going to strengthen and then those tasks should be used more on homework or school assignments. Then not only does that help strengthen their attention, but it also forms important study and work habits.
5:06 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: I'm going to circle back to this folding the laundry. When I was little, really very little, that was my task. All the way up through high school I folded all the laundry in the house. I never really looked at that as if I was really, truly building a lot of skills. When we finish, I'll call my mom today and thank her for building my attention span and focus.
5:22 Dr. David Weisenhorn: You should because your intention is amazing though.
5:25 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Yeah.
5:26 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Yeah, that’s right. Look how that's come (along).
5:28 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: I'm not certain that my mom did that intentionally, but I'll compliment her on it.
5:33 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Well, a second thing that I would encourage parents to do in this step of strengthening your children's focus, would be to reduce those distractions. I know that seems almost intuitive and you'd think, “Yeah, of course, we're going to reduce distractions”, but that becomes much more challenging now in our technologically advanced age, in that technology is such a part of our daily lives, just really keeping that away or trying to turn that off.
When working on strengthening that attention, be sure to turn those phones or tablets off. Or, if you're using a tablet, and I realize there are a lot of programs or games that can help build children's attention, brainteasers and things of that nature, then turn off those notifications, maybe turn the ringers off so that it's not causing additional distractions that may happen.
6:23 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Okay. I'm going to ask a what-would-Dr. Weisenhorn-do Question.
6:26 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Okay.
6:28 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Our 15-year old, as he does his homework, he likes to listen to music. I would like to cut that out. Now, he says it helps with his focus. So, what would Dr. Weisenhorn do?
6:40 Dr. David Weisenhorn: I will reveal my bias here. I used to do the same thing. When I was a child and I was working, in high school and even early college, I would turn on music and I would study. For some reason, it seemed to really occupy one part of my brain and allow me to study (in) the other.
I think there is some research on that -- and I don't have it in front of me -- but there is some research that that can be helpful for some children. Now your son is in high school, yes?
7:11 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Yes.
7:12 Dr. David Weisenhorn: So, maybe as that child develops, as they get older, that's okay.
The distractions are more important when we're talking about young children because they are so much more powerful and distracting when children are young. As you get older, you can kind of weed those things out.
Maybe there's a difference in age. But I would certainly say for young children, I would not recommend the music and the work.
7:35 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Right. And certainly not the TV.
7:36 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Right, absolutely.
The last thing I would offer is take it one-step at a time. While I say that, it's important -- and I think mostly about my children being young, elementary aged -- it's important to reduce each task in the individual’s stages.
I remember telling both my children to get ready for school. While that seems like a simple command, there's a lot to that. There's getting dressed, packing your book bag, putting on your shoes, eating breakfast -
8:06 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Brushing your teeth.
8:07 Dr. David Weisenhorn: - brushing teeth, brushing hair. There are a lot of tasks within the larger task I'm asking them to do.
So when I say take it one step at a time, I would say, especially when you're dealing with elementary-age children, is really simplifying those tasks and take it to the most simple step possible and then go to the next one.
Really, as your child ages, if you work on this breaking it down, it really becomes the same developmental process that high school (students use) when they're learning to write a term paper. The first thing we do is we brainstorm the idea. We identify what the research topic is. We create an outline. We begin writing that first introductory paragraph. It really helps us to identify what the larger task is and then what those menial tasks are. So, when helping your child strengthen that focus, you can begin that process.
8:58 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Like you say, I definitely think that it helps your kiddos learn how to plan tasks and to figure out what goes in order, one, two, three, and how that they can build that up to, as you said, the larger task at hand.
9:11 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Then as adults, that's what we do all the time, Jennifer. When projects are handed to us, we begin to try and identify what are the pieces to this that have to be done? What are the deliverables of this project?
So, again, just really helping our children from a young age understand what the rest of their life may look like.
9:30 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Well, we just released a new curriculum for use out in the county that one of the activities in there is actually a communication activity. It's very similar to what you said; that you're supposed to be coaching someone through a series of tasks and it's not just get ready for school.
One thing that is really neat and fun about it is it's a role play. One individual creates what are those individual tasks that you need to accomplish and then the other person has to do them exactly as said.
You realize then very quickly about communication, and maybe what you're leaving out. Sometimes our kids get frustrated because we say, “do this or do that”, and it might be that maybe we didn't give them the most clear instructions to start with.
10:12 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Absolutely. I constantly see my children running back and forth because I'll tell them to do something, which requires them to go into the other room. Then I'll realize, “Oh, you forgot to do this thing first and I didn't tell you to do that thing.” So, yes.
10:24 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, it's a good learning experience for all of us.
10:26 Dr. David Weisenhorn: It's a great learning curve for all of us. We're still learning this, but hopefully those are some helpful steps to begin strengthening your child's focus.
10:33 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Excellent. Thank you so much, David, for being here.
10:35 Dr. David Weisenhorn: Thank you for having me.
10:37 Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition, health, resource management, family development and civic engagement.
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