How to Help Kids Stay Focused in the Digital Age
When I was a kid in a small West Virginia town, there weren’t many options for after-school or weekend entertainment: I could walk to a friend’s house. I could watch TV on our 13 fuzzy channels. Or I could read. And so I read, read and read – hours and even days passed without interruption. I had no choice but to focus.
Children these days try to learn in a world full of distractions. They need distractions (TV shows, video games, texting from friends) and distractions that find them no matter what (notifications from apps, mom talking on the phone in the next room, text messages from family). A child given several hours of reading or homework without interruption sounds like something from a different era.
A group of researchers from the Brookings Institution recently argued that constant distraction undermines the executive function of children – a term that Harvard’s Child Development Center defines as “the mental processes that allow us to plan, focus, memorize instructions, and juggle.” several tasks are successful. “
To understand how to help children improve their executive function and develop concentration, I spoke with Katie Hirsch-Pasek and Claire Cameron, two authors of the Brookings study.
Use screen time wisely
For children between the ages of two and five, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than an hour a day of “quality” programming. “The only good research [on children’s TV shows] is PBS programs,” says Dr. Cameron, an early childhood education expert at the University of Buffalo Graduate School of Education and author of the forthcoming book , Keep All Minds . “Not all screen time is the same – there was a study that showed that preschoolers who watched Sponge Bob Square Pants had attention deficits” compared to children who watched slow shows or spent time drawing. The frantic pace of many cartoons makes it difficult for children to concentrate. So an hour of screen time should be something like Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers.
For older children, limiting thoughtless texting, web browsing, chatting, and gaming can be difficult, especially when they have smartphones of their own. But parents can still set limits – doctor. Hirsch-Pasek, professor of psychology at Temple University, recommends giving kids and adults time off screen, like lunch, and picking up the phone during homework hours. The AAP proposes to keep several “media-free zones” in the house, such as bedrooms.
For teens, Dr. Cameron recommends helping to set boundaries: “Work with teens on a mutually acceptable set of rules that the teens can help them adhere to. So this is not a rule imposed by parents, but a conversation. There should be some screen-off time in the family, and the teenager should probably be allowed to say when that time makes sense to him. ”
At the very least, encourage older children to turn off their notifications and alerts when they are trying to focus. “Turn off the noise,” says Dr. Hirsch-Pasek.
Talk about multitasking
Digital natives may think they are naturally multitasking, but 98% of them are completely different . You may find it helpful to show your children the results of a study of how awful most of us do two (or more) things at the same time . “The bottom line is that only about 2% of us are ‘super tasks,’” says Hirsch-Pasek. “The rest of us have less ability – we lose about 30% of our productivity – when we try to do multiple tasks at the same time.” (Here’s a good breakdown of the cost of multitasking from Psychology Today .) So you can remind your kid that he’ll get through Macbeth faster, and better understand it if he puts down his phone, TV, game console and barks. dog away at the time of reading.
Plan (and reschedule)
Ill-conceived impulsivity is the enemy of the executive function. “Adults are impulsive too,” says Hirsch-Pasek. “We don’t reply to emails just to get them off our table.” But children (and adults) are best suited when they pause and contemplate exactly what they want to do, both in the moment, throughout the day, and in the long term. Hirsch-Pasek says: “I have a two-year-old granddaughter, and I urge her to think first, then count to three, and then act.”
It is a “self-regulatory” part of executive function with both social and academic implications. For older children: “Would you like a ball in the playground? Think for a moment how you can join us. And when things go wrong, calm down, take a breath and make a decision, ”says Hirsch-Pasek. It helps children to be mindful of their activities, rather than giving up stimulus for stimulus, and also helps them to be flexible when plans go awry.
Practice, practice, practice
The Harvard Child Development Center has published several helpful activities parents can do with their children to help them develop executive functions. They are divided by age, from babies to teens, and include games such as Simon Speaks or Go Fish to help young children remember information and plan their next steps. Simple applause or rhyme games are based on memory and performance.
For older children, both the researchers and Harvard recommend old-fashioned analog activities that require constant concentration, such as martial arts, dance, musical instruments, or drama. “If you’re in a play after school,” Cameron says, “you’re not on the phone all this time. You develop the ability to ignore all the accumulated texts. “
Teens should ask themselves: Am I in charge of this device or is it in charge of me? “Just because someone is texting you doesn’t mean you need to look at them immediately,” Cameron says. “If you haven’t looked at your phone for a while, you are probably doing something else that you like more or better for you.” Teaching your kids to respond to messages in groups rather than being distracted from them every time the screen shakes will improve their self-control.
Be a good role model
“Place your phone aside during lunch,” says Hirsch-Pasek. Pay your full attention to conversations and meetings. Let your kids see you reading or working on projects of interest by turning off their devices for a decent amount of time. And for heaven’s sake, don’t write or drive.
The world of digital distractions is also new to parents, and we may have trouble navigating our short attention spans or social media addictions. But, according to Hirsch-Pasek, it might be helpful to think of digital distraction management as some kind of hygiene issue. “As parents, our job is to remove the noise. If you walk into your child’s room and it is so cluttered that you can no longer find the notebooks, [you will help them clean up the clutter]. The room doesn’t have to be clean, but we have to help them clean up. We must give children the tools they need to succeed in a cluttered world. ”