How to Improve Your Child's Attention Span

How much TV does your child watch? You man want to reduce it as much as possible due to the shocking results of a recent study in the April, 2004 issue of Pediatrics. This study says that very young children who watch television face an increased risk of attention deficit problems by school age, because TV might over-stimulate and permanently “rewire the developing brain”.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. According to the study, for every hour of TV watched daily, two groups of children, ages 1 to 3, faced a 10 percent increased risk of having attention problems at age 7.
   
   According to the authors of the study, “ADHD affects between 4 and 12% of US children and is the most common behavioral disorder of childhood”. Several studies confirm that the rapidly changing images, scenery, and events on television may shorten children’s attention spans.
   
   The author of the study, D. Christakis, M.D., says, “The newborn brain develops very rapidly during the first two to three years of life. It’s really being wired during that time.”
   
   We know from studies of newborn rats that if you expose them to different levels of visual stimuli, the architecture of the brain looks very different depending on the amount of stimulation.
   
   As we all know, school/learning activities require a longer attention span and one of the most common complaints among parents and teachers, is that children just don’t seem to want to pay attention.
   
   Here are a few suggestions to remedy the situation:
2. 1. Limit TV watching to one or two hours per week.
   2. If your child is younger, limit video game playing and computer time because it inhibits visual skill development needed for reading later on.
3. 2. If your child is younger, limit video game playing and computer time because it inhibits visual skill development needed for reading later on.
4. 3. Take your child to visit with friends and play more outdoor games (this develops the visual skills such as eye-hand coordination and tracking they need for reading also).
5. 4. Read to your child daily for at least 15 minutes and encourage them to create a “movie in their mind” of what you are reading to them about (this will increase their visual memory skills needed in all school activities and during test taking)
6. 5. Expose your child to some classical music a few times a week because research says this enhances their cognitive thinking skills.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want your child's mind to develop, talk to him as often as you can; while changing his diapers, while giving him a bath, while feeding him. Your voice is a much better experience than any TV program.