How to develop attentiveness and perseverance in your child

Parents' dream is healthy, successful children: preschoolers, schoolchildren, students. The success of learning at all educational stages depends on the level of development of the student’s attention. How to develop attentiveness in a child at home, without resorting to the help of tutors? It’s quite simple even if the child has already moved beyond preschool childhood and reached the age of 7–10 years.

Mental processes are formed from birth and require certain education. It is ideal when a child begins to develop perseverance and attention from the first years of life - there is a greater chance of raising an attentive, thoughtful, competitive person. However, the plastic human brain makes it possible to develop and improve at any age.

9 simple ways to help your child become attentive and diligent. They will teach him to show volitional efforts, without which the development of voluntary attention is impossible. They will improve the ability to concentrate, distribute, switch, and maintain attention, and will positively affect its volume.

What is perseverance and why develop it?

Perseverance is the ability to focus on a specific activity for the required amount of time. This is a very important quality for any person, and it is by no means given at birth. Perseverance needs to be developed. Without it, it is impossible to raise a responsible and disciplined person.

The first problems begin to appear already at the beginning of school - a restless child is not able to concentrate his attention throughout the entire lesson, and naturally it is difficult for him to study. For this reason, the development of perseverance should begin in early preschool age, especially since no one can quickly instill these qualities - this is a long and gradual process.

Reference! According to accepted standards, the ability to concentrate for a long time varies depending on age. Children 4-5 years old can remain attentive and focused for no more than 30 minutes at a time; at 5-7 years old this figure increases to 40 minutes.

Thus, when planning to develop perseverance in a child, you need to take into account his age, as well as his temperament and reaction speed. Melancholic children can remain in place for a longer time and perform monotonous actions, but choleric children find it more difficult to do this, so they need to develop perseverance in a different way.

If parents notice that their child cannot do the same thing for a long time, he often leaves things he started unfinished, gets distracted all the time and switches to other activities - he should be shown to a neurologist or psychologist. This behavior is often observed in ADHD, and hyperactive children almost always have problems with attention and perseverance.

Reasons for restlessness:

1. Immaturity of the nervous system - brain damage, stem cells, nerve fibers are at a stage of their development when long-term exercise is impossible.
2. Developmental anomalies - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, dyslexia, speech delay, dysgraphia.
3. Depression is a child’s condition that can be recognized by fears, increased anxiety, and whims.
4. Poor nutrition - for normal brain function, a child simply does not have enough vitamins and microelements.
5. Lack of cognitive motivation - the child is simply not interested in completing any tasks.
6. Pedagogical neglect - if parents do not engage with their child from the first year of life, his brain will not be able to develop for learning by school age. TV and cartoons cannot develop the brain; on the contrary, it negatively affects the child’s nervous system.

Conditions for brain development

• 1. Security. This is the most important component of a child's development. Otherwise, the brain of any person, including a child, acts according to one of the schemes: “hit, run, freeze.” Only in a safe environment are we able to develop.
• 2. Attachment. Strong, warm, trusting relationships allow the child to develop.
• 3. Communication. It has long been known that talking is good for children. It is important that conversations take place with pauses, and not in a 24/7 format.
• 4. Free play. It allows the development of imagination, thinking, teaches social interaction and serves as the basis for successful learning.

Exercises and activities

To begin with, it will be useful for parents to learn the following recommendations:

1. The child must follow a daily routine, as this is the basis of everything. Experts recommend allowing your child to sleep 8-10 hours a day. Moreover, a couple of hours before bedtime, do not allow your child to play on the computer, watch TV, and so on. The best option is a walk in the air, reading a book, drawing.
2. Maintain proper nutrition.
3. Teach your child that he has not only rights, but also responsibilities. The child should help with household chores - this will allow him not only to improve perseverance, but also to feel needed.
4. To train perseverance, you need to use gameplay.
5. Do more creative work with your child.

As already mentioned, developing perseverance is a long process that will require maximum patience from adults. In the first month, you can spend 5-10 minutes a day , and if within a month the slightest progress is not noticeable in the child’s behavior, drastic changes will need to be introduced into classes after consultation with a psychologist.

Do not force your child to do any particular activity; let him choose what he likes best.

Important! Monitor the changes and be sure to celebrate your child’s successes, praise him, support him, and if necessary, take breaks from classes.

What classes do specialists offer?

1. Drawing. Children of all ages love to draw. At first, let the child draw what he wants, but over time you need to come up with themes for the drawing and ensure that the child completes the picture. Coloring requires even more passion and concentration. Coloring books, of course, need to be selected in accordance with the interests of the child. You can also invite your child to draw using different techniques - drawing with palms, cotton swabs, salt, candles, drawing in the sand (in accordance with the child’s age, of course).
2. Puzzles. From the age of 2, you can let your child assemble puzzles of 4-6 parts. By the age of 5, a child can already cope with a picture of 54 parts. The theme of the picture should again correspond to the interests of the child.
3. Mosaic. Mosaic games require even more perseverance. The details are usually small, and there are also some peculiarities in creating the image. At first, you can ask the child to lay out colored, plain, wavy lines, then start laying out pictures, gradually complicating them.
4. Crafts. For this activity, you can use any available materials, the main thing is that there is a twist in the process that will interest the child.
5. Fairy tales with continuation. Tell your child stories in parts over several days. Of course, the plot should be exciting and unpredictable. The story should always be stopped at the most interesting point, and continued only the next day.
6. Game "Find the differences". A very exciting and useful activity that can be done not only from paper, but also on the computer. To make it easier and more interesting for your child to play it, you need to write down the number of differences in numbers, and when the difference is found, cross out the corresponding number. This way the child will clearly see that he is coping, and this will give him confidence.
7. Sorting small items. Glass pebbles, beads, and cereals are suitable. This exercise is extremely useful for eye, fine motor skills and perseverance. It is interesting to sort beads not only by size, but also by color and shape.

Teaching a child to be attentive and persevering is a fun activity. During the game, you can not only help your child become more attentive, but also reveal his individual abilities.

What does this phrase evoke in parents?

• Panic
• fear,
• horror,
• shame for the child.

It seems to you that there is something wrong with him, that he does not meet some requirements. And you want to fix everything quickly, quickly. Are you wondering: how to develop attention in a child?

Exhale! We will understand the issues of attentiveness and perseverance. We will find ways to help develop attentiveness in children of different ages.

Perseverance and attentiveness are associated with the maturity of the nervous system and brain.

When to start working with babies

I will answer the question “when” immediately and briefly. From the very beginning! The baby masters all the basic concepts about the perception of the world at the very beginning of his life. Therefore, toddlers need to be taught from the very first months. But how to instill perseverance in a one-year-old child? It seems to be too small. But this is exactly what is good, it means that it will be easier to study with him, because both the “lesson” program and the assignments will be much simpler.

What if the baby was calm and assiduous until a certain time. And then, as many parents say, the child was replaced. This happens sometimes. And there are various reasons for this: the critical age of the toddlers, their physical or mental health. For example, the way children up to 5 years old and after see the world is like two different planets. On one, everything is comfortably furnished by parents and their care. On the second, the baby tests everything for strength, trying to cope on his own. Of course, attention is scattered due to the “responsibilities” that have fallen.

At the age of 10, a similar situation occurs when the student moves to middle school. Many teachers note that children’s academic performance is falling. And our help can be more timely than ever.

I started talking about diseases, and I want to continue the topic in just a few words. For example, you notice that it has become more difficult for your little one to learn his homework, or play in the garden with other children. Before you start intensively training memory or correcting behavior, make sure that everything is fine with your baby’s hearing or vision. Perhaps this is the reason?

Be that as it may, knowing how to teach children to be attentive will never be superfluous.

World of high speeds

Sociologists remind us of the next reason; they say: we live in a society of pleasures and tend to immediately switch programs that are not suitable for us. And if we ourselves are influenced by the switching world around us, then it will be difficult for us to teach our child to be patient. Our children are like us. And it is not surprising that they experience difficulties in the process of preschool education. Reading is slow! Better play a good video game! Children get impatient very quickly because “it’s too hard” and they’d rather do something else. Under the influence of computer and television programs, many children develop the idea that learning should be easy and entertaining and should not require much effort.

Encourage hobbies

It is very good if a child develops a hobby. We must do our best to educate and develop this interest in him. It is important for a child to feel skillful and competent in some matter. Together with your child, choose an activity that he likes. Let him improve in it, encourage him to improve his skill in one thing, to become proficient in it.

I respect myself

Psychologists have found that those children who respect themselves grow up happy, more adapted to life, experience difficult moments more easily, and believe in themselves and their success. How to build self-esteem in a child? Take your baby seriously. Respect his feelings, consider his desires. Do not compare him with others: this applies equally to both negative comparisons (“Your little brother does even better than you”) and positive ones (“Your drawing is the most beautiful”). Children who are praised constantly and a lot have difficulty trying to live up to the idealized image created by their parents. Praise is important, but here too, avoid comparisons, the exception is comparing the child with himself when you note improvement in something (“You did much better than last time”).

Everyone experiences the world in their own way. Some people understand the material better by looking at a picture or diagram. Some learn information better by hearing, others by seeing printed text in front of them, and some prefer both.

Encourage your child to set goals for himself, to see what he has achieved over a period of time. Celebrate his achievements, praise him for his efforts: “Well done, you did it carefully,” “Nothing, a little later we will defeat this tower!” You put in a lot of effort, well done. Let's rest and try again." When working with a timid, insecure, unsuccessful child, be very restrained and patient. It is useful to indicate the passage of intermediate stages. For example, if a child is learning to read, it’s difficult for him, but he still succeeds, you need to say: “You see, now you know the letters and can read syllables, but before you couldn’t.” That is, effort should be followed by encouragement, emotional reinforcement.

When you give your baby a break, it is very important not to lose the mood and not let the child get distracted during the rest period. “Well, are you ready? Let's do it again! Agree: during a break you cannot turn on the computer and TV. You can do physical exercises: throwing a ball, hanging on a horizontal bar.

Celebrate your child's successes with, say, stars. When the baby reaches a specific number of stars, he can be awarded a prize, medal or certificate. And if you need to point out to your child his mistake, do it with respect.

Involve your baby in your affairs, ask him for help, consult with him. Giving your little “helper” chores to do around the house will make him feel useful and show confidence in his abilities. When you are very young, you gain much more respect for yourself by helping someone older than you. In addition, a diligent, attentive child is, first of all, an independent child.

Everyday activities help the baby begin to keep track of time and place - these are the beginnings of composure. Kids learn that every thing has its place and learn to value order. Make sure that your baby's toys and clothes have their place in your home.

Create maximum conditions for success. A chair in the bathroom for washing hands, a footrest in the toilet, convenient hangers for towels, easily pulled out drawers for toys, clothes and shoes that are easy to take off and put on. All these little things will help build a child’s sense of self-esteem and confidence that he can do “everything” on his own.

Let's start with ourselves

Today's pace of life leaves its mark on parents and children. Adults bear the burden of many responsibilities; they quickly switch from one activity to another, sometimes pushing themselves into unbearable limits. Modern society offers more and more opportunities for diversified development, but at the same time creates fierce competition in the struggle for its place in the sun.

Parents, intuitively, caring about the future of their child, try to lay in him the strongest possible base of knowledge and skills. But if small children by nature cannot tolerate and want everything at once, then we can say that parents are in some sense even more impatient. When teaching a child something, they want the results to be visible immediately. How about And the question is not always about waiting for a result that does not come so quickly. Some parents, trying to get ahead of the rest, form unjustified expectations that do not correspond to the child’s age or abilities.

Games that require perseverance

• Pour water from a wide neck into a narrow one (it is better to do this while bathing).
• Pour the peas or beans into a bottle with a narrow neck.
• Paint. Draw a large outline of a car or fish and ask them to paint it so as not to go beyond the outline.
• Sculpt. Does your child not want to sculpt? Try to interest them: offer to make the same cars.
• Cut out. This trains perseverance very well; give your child safety scissors and paper. If your baby doesn’t like to cut, make the blanks yourself in advance. For example, cut out two parts: a mushroom cap and a leg, and let your child make an applique out of them.
• Assemble a mosaic or sort mosaic pieces by color.
• Play with lacing.
• Collect pictures from puzzles. Let each collected picture take its rightful place in the baby’s room, encouraging him to new victories. Catch fish with a fishing rod with a magnet. You can use a fishing rod with a magnet to catch cards with letters instead of fish (magnetic ones, sold in the store). Then find each “caught” letter on the alphabet card (catch three to five letters per lesson). You can prepare large cards, like in lotto, but instead of numbers, draw letters on them.

You can come up with a lot of games that require meticulousness and patience, but along with exercises for perseverance, active exercises are required so that the child can throw out all the accumulated energy.

1. Choose the right time to study. When a child is in the mood to move, it is better not to start exercising, but to let the tomboy run around.
2. Accept your child for who he is. If all the kids you know are already putting together puzzles, but your child doesn’t have the patience for it, don’t worry or put pressure on him, but just help him gradually cope with it. And if other children can sit for exactly 30 minutes, but your baby cannot, then work with him for 10 minutes. The main thing is not to stop studying!
3. Do not insist and do not scold the baby. But interest, captivate, play. For example, you are making a hedgehog, and the baby is already tired and is about to leave the table. Try to interest him and reawaken his interest: “How can this be! You haven't fed the hedgehog yet. Let's glue the apple first, and then we'll rest. The hedgehog will be very grateful to you!”
4. When you play role-playing games with your child and notice that he is losing interest, add a new character and try to attract the child again. Let some fairy tale hero find himself in a difficult situation where he needs the help of a child: “A fox is chasing me! Have you seen her by any chance? Please, if you meet her, warn me so I can run away!” Thus, by gradually lengthening the time, you will instill in your child perseverance and interest in creativity.

Development of concentration in a child

Concentration exercises for children imply an individual approach to everyone.

Important Tips:

• Start working with concentration even before your child enters primary school.
• Read aloud fairy tales, fascinating stories.
• Play educational games.
• Minimize TV viewing.

Dramatizations of Teremok and other fairy tales in the second junior groups

10 exercises to develop perseverance

How you can teach your child perseverance:

• Collect puzzles. You can make them yourself.
• Color drawings with pencils and crayons.
• Cook together.
• Read long, but always interesting fairy tales.
• Create various crafts.
• Look for differences between two pictures.
• Collect decorations with your own hands.
• Design according to the sample together.
• Sort cereals and small items.
• Play with counting sticks.

Games for developing attention and memory

How to use games to develop a child’s attention span:

• "Supermarket" is a game of "shop". When going shopping, the baby must remember all the necessary items that need to be bought.
• "Cleaning". Involve your child in cleaning and ask where this or that thing should be.
• "Carlson." Place 3-4 toys in front of the child. For some time he remembers their location. And then, saying “Carlson has fooled them,” mix it up. The baby must put them back the way they were.
• "Images". The cards are face down. The baby must find two identical ones, opening them in turn and remembering the location.

Pictures for memory development in preschoolers