Attention and concentration can be encouraged

We can all think of situations, where we find it hard to concentrate: We feel out of our depth with lots of new things and switch off. We are often confronted with problems we don’t really want to have to deal with – or we haven’t slept well and are „not receptive“: it is no disgrace not to be ale to concentrate on everything all of the time. Of course, this also applies to your child in the just same way.

Furthermore, attention and concentration are learning processes, which are not fully trained at the same time in every child. You should, however, keep a close eye on the intensity of the phases, during which your child has problems collecting himself/herself, focussing all his/her powers on a specific target and blanking out external interference.

How attention and concentration are related

Our brain does not possess unlimited resources – instead, it is repeatedly confronted with the task of focussing on perceiving specific information. Attention can therefore be considered a basic achievement of the brain, which automatically occurs as the basis of almost all emotional and cognitive processes. Concentration on the other hand is the ability to focus one‘s attention on relevant stimuli while simultaneously suppressing any eventual interference.

Many impressions, which need to be processed: the school challenge

In this instance, school in particular presents a whole range of new challenges for every child – for, apart from everyday learning, children also have to learn to fit into a new social structure. Being confronted with this new social environment often represents „pure stress “ and a glut of new impressions. Getting used to them does not always happen immediately – many children are easily distracted.

Distracted children are restless, absentminded, make careless mistakes and forget things easily. It is therefore important for parents to keep a close eye on whether this problem is temporary or whether it continues – this is precisely where impaired concentration and poor concentration differ from each other.

Temporary poor concentration is a very wide-spread problem, which can cause lots of problems in school and everyday life. Causes may be:

• Information overload
• Unbalanced diet
• Lack of sleep
• Mental overloading or underloading
• Result of physical illnesses
• As a symptom of psychiatric conditions