I get lots of questions about how to help improve concentration in children. There are so many factors contributing to concentration – age, development, interests, personalities, sleep quality, screen-time usage, nutrition, and more.
However, here are some activities that will help work that concentration muscle:
🔎Jigsaws – require focus, patience and concentration. Start with easy puzzles and build up.
🔎Lego Sets – these require the child to follow step by step instructions which help build concentration levels – start with the junior sets and build up, follow your child’s interests on this one.
🔎Wordsearches – always great for focusing the mind – again start with very easy ones and build up. Feeds into literacy too which is a bonus!
🔎Memory Games – start with a few matching cards face down. Turn two at a time to find pairs. Build up, adding more and more pairs.
Another good memory game is: ‘What’s Missing?’ – Put out a few objects on a table and ask your child to look at them for 30 seconds, ask your child to close their eyes and you take one away. Now ask, what’s missing?
🔎 Tongue Twisters – these are great for building focus, concentration and memory.
🔎 Spot the Difference – great for building focus and patience.
🔎 Drawing Instructions – these really require your child to concentrate and use their listening skills to follow instructions. You can give your child a list of instructions or there are loads of great videos on YouTube for drawing.
Build some of these activities into your week. Little and often to begin with rather than big bursts.