He counts crows, hovers in the clouds, admits elementary mistakes ... Surely every parent has heard similar complaints from the teacher about the child's inattention. And they seemed to develop the baby as best they could, and they gave him enough time. However, the child's brain must be constantly subjected to strain. Only then the functions of memory and attention will not disturb parents and teachers. And although the development of children's attention is a fascinating process and at the same time complicated, it's worth trying.
Features of attention in children
Attention is, first of all, the child's stable reaction to the external influence of the environment. There are usually three types of attention:
- involuntary - does not require effort and arises by itself. It manifests itself in the child's reaction to everything bright, noisy and unusual;
- arbitrary - is usually formed by the age of 7 and develops as a person develops. Characterized by the fact that a person focuses on what he should do, not what he wants. Such actions require diligence, will power and self-discipline;
- post-individual attention - arises similarly with arbitrary, however, haraerizuetsya that a person performs activities with pleasure, inspiration and without tension.
If the question is urgent for you: "How to keep the attention of the child?" First we should remember that in his preschool and junior school age his involuntary appearance predominates. To interest a child in this period can be something new or bright. With the beginning of schooling, it is important to train voluntary attention in children. This can be done by increasing the motivation to learn (encouragement, promise of a reward for a good evaluation, etc.), as well as through games and exercises.
Games for children's attention
Before you begin any exercises, remember some of the features of developing attention in children:
- Do not hide your emotions. Playing with the child, show interest, delight or surprise;
- think out unusual ways to attract the child's attention. Do not forget that you can attract it with the help of something unexpected, obvious or emotional;
- in any exercise, giving the child a task, make sure that it is intelligible, concrete, benevolent and step-by-step;
- deal with the child when it is his mood and well-being, as well as when there are no obstacles nearby, in the form of bright toys, noises, music and various moving objects;
- If the child is busy, do not distract him to give a new assignment.
Developing attention games for children are divided into several types depending on what they are aimed at. Before you begin to deal with the child, determine what you want to develop.
1. Development of concentration of attention. The main exercise, which is recommended for all who do not know how to increase attention in the child - "proof-reading". The child is offered two options for this lesson. Large text on letterheads or a regular book with a large font. According to the instructions, you need to find the same letters within 5-7 minutes (for example, only "a" or "c") and cross out them. While the child is engaged in the search it is important not to help him and to watch him search through the lines. In 7-8 years, children should be able to see about 350-400 characters in 5 minutes and allow no more than 10 errors. Do it every day for 7-10 minutes. Gradually, you can complicate the task and increase the number of letters to 4-5.
2. Increase the amount of attention and development of short-term memory. Developing attention games for children in this block are characterized by the memorization of a certain number and order of location of objects. A good example may be the following exercises:
- place in front of the child from 3 to 7 toys. Give the child to close his eyes and remove one of them. Opening the eyes, the child must say which toy is not enough;
- Give the child two almost identical pictures and ask to find all the differences;
- the task is the reverse of the previous one. In the figure, the child needs to find several identical objects.
3. Training and development of attention distribution. The child is given at once two tasks, which he must perform simultaneously. For example: a child reads a book and claps his hands on each paragraph or knocks on the table with a pencil.
4. Development of the ability to switch. Here you can also use exercises to develop the attention of children with the help of proofreading.
For the first time thinking about how to develop the attention of the child, first of all, remember that you yourself must be attentive to it. And most importantly - it's systematic and regular classes. You can play with the child anywhere, on the way to the store, in the queue or in the transport. Such entertainment will bring a great benefit to the child and develop in him not only attention, but also self-confidence.