Child's attention span is reducing drastically. Action now!

Research indicates a strong correlation between excessive screen time and a decrease in children's attention spans. Frequent stimulation and immediate gratification from screens can impact focus on more laborious tasks. While this is true across ages, it has a comparatively more negative impact on children given their development curve has not yet matured. You’d be surprised to know some statistics that the Time Magazine and the Guardian USA have quoted - average attention span is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8 seconds today - less than 9 seconds of a goldfish. Think of what that means for a child if this is how an average adult is faring !

Everything is fast today and the ‘mobile culture’ is progressively affecting society. Increasingly one can hear the importance of “multi-tasking”, but truth being said - there is a fine line when that multi-tasking is actually a distraction. Multi-tasking is when there is sufficient time to absorb stuff at hand. But in this age of information bombardment, that rarely happens. Worrisome is its impact on a child who is still developing the art of processing and absorbing information!!

Children’s ability to learn and concentrate is negatively impacted when they are constantly distracted. Moreover, they are being increasingly wired now to digesting knowledge in bite-sized chunks - which is detrimental to their ability to think critically.

We recommend following activities to improve their concentration:

1. Reduce distractions - limit screen access and put a time to it. Probably put screen-free zones and prevent yourself as well from using screens there

2. Working together - children pay more attention to things and people closer to them. Try working on a puzzle, building lego together or just read stories to them

3. Start easy - give them basic tasks to succeed at and build patience for mundane activities. Success is a very strong emotion and will give them confidence to repeat the process again. Probably just ask them to manage their own toy room. Give them clear instructions on what goes where?

4. Get creative - figure out a fun way to help them learn as they play. Use crax loops on hand and hand them one for every correct answer in assignment (or something else that they like?)

5. Break up tasks - if you think a task can become boring, probably break it up and maybe go for a quick game of desk cricket or pick up their favorite story book?

6. Get moving - exercise is a great way to activate the brain and improve child’s ability to comprehend