What to do if a child writes inattentively. What to do if your child is inattentive and distracted

If children soaring in the world of their fantasies cause tenderness, then as the child grows up, this trait begins to be alarming. Already by the age of 5–6 years, a preschooler should be able to concentrate on a task, keep several objects in the zone of attention at once, and not be distracted from the essence of the issue for at least 15–20 minutes. But what should parents of an inattentive child do: how to understand what the problem is and find a way to solve it?

Let's figure it out together, friends!

5 reasons for inattention

Reason 1: ADHD

Distracted attention and high distractibility are characteristic signs of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. On our website you can learn more and read how to organize it correctly.

It is important to understand that such children require coordinated work of parents, doctors, teachers and psychologists. But your efforts will be rewarded: with a competent approach, the child’s condition can be corrected.

Reason 2. Poor health

In pediatrics, there is such a thing as children who are often ill, and if your baby is part of this group, be prepared that special attention will have to be paid to the development of attentiveness in preschool age.

To increase the perseverance of a child with poor health and increased fatigue, you will have to carefully monitor the toddler’s daily routine, carefully distribute loads, and create conditions favorable for proper rest and recovery.

Reason 3. Features of the nervous system

Easily excitable, anxious children, subject to various fears, find it more difficult to concentrate on the object of study than balanced and calm children.

In this case, it is difficult for parents without special knowledge to help the child independently. But with the help of a psychologist, a competent preschool teacher and an experienced primary school teacher, you can choose methods for developing attentiveness with a weak nervous system.

Reason 4. High loads

If you take your child to dance early in the morning, then take him to the pool, followed by several more sections and tutors, is it any wonder that by the evening he is unable to listen to you carefully for even 5 minutes?

The child's psyche is a matter that requires careful handling. Powerful flows of information, psychological and physical stress will invariably lead to a decrease in attention - this is the body’s natural protective reaction when working on the verge of stress.

Reason 5. Lack of motivation

The most common reason why children demonstrate restlessness and absent-mindedness is a lack of interest in the object of consideration. A child cannot understand deferred goals in preschool age. If a child is not interested in the here and now, he simply will not physically be able to show the degree of involvement in the activity that demanding parents expect from him.

The younger the child, the more important it is to make educational activities interesting. But still, do not forget to accustom your child to the idea that studying is an important and responsible matter. Teach him to study: thoughtfully, collectedly, attentively.

Take a break from your daily business more often to enjoy the beauty of the world around you. Listen to the wind whispering through the leaves. Observe how graceful the stray cats are in their measured movements.

At home, while walking, on public transport, look at everything that comes into your field of vision, listen to everything that your ears catch. And, of course, discuss what you saw and heard with your child. The habit of noticing details is an effective trainer for developing attention.

Mindfulness is the ability to direct consciousness to the desired object. But what is the use of such an ability if a weak memory does not retain this object within itself.

The more developed your memory is, the easier it is to be attentive. Therefore, friends, train your children's memory: learn poems and songs, learn the alphabet, car brands, names of capitals on the world map...

Are you worried that your baby gets distracted every now and then during class? Think about it: perhaps the surrounding space is hindering your concentrated work.

It is easier to study when there is no extraneous noise in the room, when no foreign objects catch your eye, when hunger or fatigue do not take over the already weak children’s attention. The work environment is the key to success in the fight against absent-mindedness.

If you try to control every child’s step, and try to fill every minute of the child with useful activities, then it is difficult for the child to figure out on his own what deserves his attention.

“Less parental control, more independence” is a simple but effective formula for preventing children's absent-mindedness, restlessness, and inattention.

Various games help develop various skills (concentration, stability, volume, switching and distribution) in preschool age.

Board games, lotto, children's dominoes, and Memo cards are good for this. You can play word games and paper games. The main thing is that by training attention in the game, the child is sincerely involved in the process, and therefore receives maximum pleasure and benefit from what is happening.

Let's sum it up

1. If a child is inattentive, look for the reason for his absent-mindedness and restlessness.
2. Consider the individual characteristics of your baby. Try to avoid comparisons with other children, and if you are worried that your heir is lagging behind his peers in development, consult with specialists.
3. To develop attentiveness, use all possible methods: offer interesting games, observe the world around you, train your memory and motivate your child to work independently.

Friends, we wish you happy parenting! See you again!

“Our child started school this year, and teachers are constantly complaining that he is inattentive and often distracted in class. What should we do?” - young mother Marina Nemolyaeva wrote to the editor. There are many letters in our mail on this topic. This means that the time has come to find an answer to a question that worries many.

THE PROBLEM of children's inattention is most often faced by parents whose children have just started school. And this is quite understandable, since studying requires a lot of concentration from the child. If a child really has problems with the development of attention, demands to “be more attentive” alone will not do. First, parents need to understand the possible causes of absent-mindedness.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Children with a similar diagnosis are characterized by excessive motor activity, impulsiveness, poor concentration, and high distractibility. Difficulties with maintaining attention, as a rule, are clearly revealed long before entering school. The school situation only aggravates the problems. Extreme patience is required from parents of such children. They must carry out their educational practice in close contact with doctors, teachers and psychologists, since children with attention deficit disorder need special comprehensive help.

Chronic diseases, general illness of the child

Children with poor health are characterized by high fatigue and low performance. The reduced function of their attention may be due to a general weakening of the body. Such children require obligatory adherence to the regime, dosing of loads, rest (daytime sleep is desirable). Subject to these conditions, which reduce the influence of physical and physiological limitations, such children will become more diligent and attentive.

Individual characteristics of the nervous system

Students with a strong and active nervous system are more likely to have stable, well-switched attention. Students with a weak nervous system, on the contrary, are characterized by unstable, poorly switched attention. Knowing the main features of the child’s nervous system, parents can help him develop qualities and attention skills that can be trained: skills of maintaining attention and switching it. To understand this, you need to contact a psychologist or neurologist.

Fatigue and overload

Typically, a schoolchild’s working day is not limited to academic classes, but includes visits to various clubs, sections, studios, etc. Often, a student’s schedule is so tightly scheduled from morning to evening that he barely has time to prepare his homework. This leaves virtually no time for proper rest; children do not get enough sleep. Physical, psychological, and information overload inevitably lead to decreased performance, increased inattention and absent-mindedness. You need to learn to leave time for rest and games. You may have to remove some extracurricular activities from your schedule.

Age restrictions in the development of attention

The attention of children of primary school age may not be perfect enough due to age characteristics. You probably won’t find a single primary school student in whose notebooks you don’t occasionally encounter so-called “careless” errors. You should understand that this is normal. Throughout primary school, attention will gradually be trained, developed, and its volume will increase. By the age of 9-10, children become able to concentrate quite well on what they are doing.

The child is not interested

As a rule, we talk about children’s inattention when they are required to do something that is “not significant enough” for them. Often this is just study. And they can play, watch TV, and work on the computer endlessly. Arousing a child's interest in school activities is not an easy task for parents. Patience and sincere interest in the baby’s life and activities are required. He needs to be involved in the “necessary” activities unobtrusively, without a belt or spanking. As the authors of a book useful for parents about the attention of schoolchildren O. Yu. Ermolaev, T. M. Maryutina and T. A. Meshkova rightly note: “Few adults think about the fact that, when asking a child to look for mushrooms, they should collect pebbles on the river bank , choose the necessary parts of a mosaic or construction set, they thereby contribute to training attention.”

This is a long process. But necessary for full mental development.

Development of concentration

The main type of exercises are proofreading tasks, in which the child is asked to find and cross out certain letters in a printed text. Such exercises allow the child to feel what it means to “be attentive” and develop concentration. This work should be carried out daily (5 minutes a day) for 2-4 months. It is very good and useful to use exercises to reproduce sequences of letters, numbers, geometric patterns, movements, etc.

Increased attention span

The exercises are based on memorizing the number and order of a number of objects presented for looking at for a few seconds. As you master the exercise, the number of objects gradually increases.

Attention distribution training

The basic principle of the exercises: the child is asked to simultaneously perform two multidirectional tasks (for example, reading a story and counting the strokes of a pencil on the table, completing a task and listening to a record of a fairy tale, etc.).

Attention switching skills

A variety of games and exercises for developing attention are widely represented in the psychological and pedagogical literature. The main condition that parents must comply with is that activities with the child must be systematic. Tasks for the development of attention can be offered to children in the form of games, competitions and carried out not only at the time allotted for this, but also casually, for example, on the way to the store, on a walk, while preparing dinner, etc.

Reading time: 6 minutes.

In today's rapidly changing world, overflowing with a huge amount of information, it is becoming increasingly difficult for even adults, let alone children, to remain attentive and concentrated. Distracted attention in children today is becoming almost the norm, and more and more often children's specialists are diagnosing attention deficit disorder, abbreviated as ADD.

Absent-mindedness is quite common in children

In medical practice, the first description of this problem dates back to the middle of the 19th century. German psychologist G. Hoffman created a collective image of the little fidgety Phil and explained in detail the causes of ADD and ways to combat this disease.

Symptoms of distracted attention

Children with ADD are characterized by hyperactivity and mobility. They are unable to sit still even for a while and do the same thing, even if it were incredibly interesting for the child. Such children forget everything, they are sloppy and clumsy, they cannot remember the task, much less repeat it.

Absent-mindedness leads to learning problems

Dissipation of attention is especially pronounced in elementary school. Such a student will endlessly fidget at his desk, disturbing his neighbors and the teacher and disrupting the lesson, although he does not want this at all. Usually a smart and talented fidget cannot fully demonstrate his abilities. The desire for leadership also does not produce results, because such a child does not get along well with his peers and usually does not gain authority.

Thus, children with absent-minded attention live in constant disharmony with themselves and the world around them. They need special care from parents and teachers, an individual approach to education and learning.

Lack of attention is usually associated with neurobiological disorders, problems with hearing or vision, and diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Therefore, you need to be able to recognize whether a child really suffers from ADD or whether he simply does not want to do what is required of him due to other reasons, for example, laziness.

Definition of absent-mindedness and its causes

Causes of inattention

From research results it is known that ADD is diagnosed in approximately 5% of children in the world. This is a fairly large number, and it is constantly increasing. But in fact, there is not a parent who would not note the inattention and absent-mindedness of his child. Before drawing any conclusions, it is necessary to analyze the conditions in which a little person studies and rests, his regime and loads, as well as his behavior and methods of education.

Here are several reasons why a child may be inattentive and uncollected.

Education methods

You should not overprotect your beloved child. If a child knows that they will definitely help and prompt him, and even do the task for him, then he will have no need to focus his attention and train his skills. As a result, he will not strive to develop and improve.

For preschool children, it is necessary to adhere to a certain daily routine. The child should know what time he should read a book or draw, and when he can just play in the yard with the boys.

Every child should have a certain daily routine

Having learned from childhood to properly distribute his time, he will be collected and concentrated in adulthood.

Age

The younger the child, the more difficult it is for him to maintain attention. But even a very small baby is able to concentrate on a bright toy or a lit light bulb.

Gadgets cause absent-mindedness in teenagers

Features of physiology

Any disease can reduce a child’s attentiveness. After an illness, a certain recovery period must pass and distraction will disappear.

Mental disorders

Disturbances in the functioning of the brain and disruptions in the activity of the nervous system inevitably affect the baby’s concentration. Only a neurologist can identify these serious causes.

Parents should not demand special attention from a child with mental disorders. Such children are taught in a special group according to a special program.

Defensive reaction

Absent-mindedness is often a defensive reaction to stress.

Distracted attention can be caused by the body's defensive reaction to fear, fatigue or stress. If a student cannot solve equations in mathematics, then fear takes over, and his ability to concentrate during a test decreases sharply.

Lack of vitamins in the body

Unnatural food products, poor ecology and, at the same time, enormous physical and mental stress often lead to rapid fatigue, and with it, absent-mindedness.

Lack of vitamins leads to absent-mindedness and lack of interest in everything

Lack of interest

Very often, parents and teachers note the child’s absent-mindedness, which immediately disappears as soon as he begins to do his favorite thing. If, while learning the multiplication tables, a friend comes to visit and brings a train as a gift to the child, it is completely normal that all attention will be concentrated on the toy. Therefore, when trying to keep the child’s attention on a specific subject, it is necessary to create an appropriate atmosphere.

An overabundance of impressions and information in children reduces attention

Genetically determined factors

Inattentiveness can be passed on to the child through the parents' genes. If the father or mother is alcohol dependent or hyperactive, or in cases where the pregnancy was complicated, ADD may occur.

Ways to eliminate ADD

Only sometimes, in especially severe cases, does a child’s absent-mindedness require treatment with medication. Usually, if a doctor has diagnosed ADD, they try to make do with the use of drugs that stimulate the immune and nervous system and the creation of certain conditions for the child’s rest and study.

In order for the baby to be collected and attentive, parents need to establish a clear daily routine. Meals, sleep times and exercise should be scheduled in advance. You should leave two hours for free activities, when the child will draw or build a house for a doll.

Children should have feasible responsibilities around the house

The child must have a range of responsibilities. You shouldn’t help him fulfill them at the first request. Let him wash his own dishes, make his bed, and put away his toys. Children should be given more independence. This will increase the child’s attentiveness and allow him to express himself.

But at the same time, you cannot leave your child alone with his problems. He should always feel the shoulder of an adult nearby and hope for his help and advice in resolving difficult situations.

Puzzles teach you to concentrate

From early childhood, it is necessary to conduct attention-developing activities with the baby. You can collect cubes or children's puzzles. If the child does not keep his attention on one thing, you need to attract him to action by asking him to take the green cube, or to color only the middle of the flower.

It is very important not to forget to praise your child. If your child has distracted attention, you should not give him obviously impossible tasks. And if you succeeded even a little, you should not be stingy with praise.

You should never demand too much from a child. Life is sometimes so intense and eventful that sometimes you can just go to the forest or to the river, allowing yourself and your child to get rid of tension and fatigue.

Your child again forgot to write down his homework, doesn’t remember where he left his spare shoes, and can’t say what subjects are on the schedule tomorrow. And he also spends an infinitely long time doing his homework, or rather, he doesn’t do them for an infinitely long time, but simply sits over his notebooks, thinking about something of his own. You are tired of making comments to him and reminding him twenty times of the same thing, but you don’t know how to break this circle of childish absent-mindedness and inattention. Therefore, you just sigh doomedly with the words “Who is he like?”, not suspecting that the answer to this question sometimes lies on the surface, because the child may be like this in you and because of you.

Causes of childhood absent-mindedness and inattention

As a rule, parents learn about a child’s inability to concentrate when he becomes a schoolchild. It is at this time, which requires special perseverance from the baby, that previously unfamiliar problems begin to emerge. And adults don’t realize that they themselves laid the foundation for them many years ago and that the child is often not to blame for this. Among the most common causes of childhood inattention are the following:

• The child suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Children with this diagnosis are, in principle, unable to focus their attention on anything for a long time; they are restless and impulsive. As a rule, this feature is detected even in kindergarten, but if you do not pay attention to it, then with age it will be very problematic to correct the behavior of a child with ADHD.
• The child is in poor health. He gets sick regularly and is constantly attacked by viruses. All strength is spent on fighting illnesses, and there is nothing left to maintain attention.
• The characteristics of the child’s nervous system have an effect: the more mobile it is, the easier it is for the child to switch his attention, and vice versa - with a weak nervous system, a small person is unable to quickly change the form of activity and concentrate on it.
• There was a negative emotional atmosphere in the family. If adults constantly swear, make scandals, and sort things out, then it is difficult to expect productive activities and success in the development of personal qualities from a child.
• Parents cannot create a working environment for their child. He does not have his own desk, during classes he is constantly distracted by conversations or is disturbed by the working TV. Naturally, under such conditions, the student will not take his studies seriously; accordingly, he does not need to spend his personal resources on it, to be focused and attentive.
• Great physical and emotional stress. In the morning, the child goes to school, where they expect only positive grades from him, after classes he meets with a coach in the sports section or a teacher in the art studio, then he must help his mother at home, then do his homework, and before going to bed he is required to read several pages of a book from list of required literature. And so on day after day. Not every adult can withstand such a rhythm of life. It is not surprising that fatigue sooner or later takes its toll, the child’s performance approaches zero, and the child is unable to control his attention.
• The child is not interested in any educational activities; he does not consider anything important that his parents require of him. Studying is boring for him, he doesn’t understand why lessons are important and necessary and why waste time on them when there are many other truly interesting things to do in life. That is why the child does everything obligatory hastily, as best he can, without wasting an ounce of his attention on what he considers unimportant. But afterward, he plays computer games with concentration and enthusiasm, demonstrating miracles of perseverance. Lack of motivation can negate all efforts to develop an independent and responsible person.

As you can see, among the causes of children's inattention there are no supernatural ones. Working on mistakes is quite possible, the main thing is that it is adequate and does not cause additional psychological and emotional trauma to the child.

Prohibited techniques for dealing with childhood inattention

Many parents, seeing the imperfections of their own child, understand that they can and should work on the development of their personality. But often they choose the easiest path, shifting all responsibility onto themselves. As a result, the entire process of developing perseverance and concentration in a little person comes down to comments and moral teachings. Good parental intentions can result in a lecture on the topic “What is good and what is bad,” which at best will not lead to any result, and at worst will aggravate the situation, forming in the child the opinion that he is hopeless, and therefore there is no need for him to try to be better.

Child psychologists identify several “don’ts” that loving and understanding parents should follow when fighting children’s inattention: do not scold, do not ridicule, do not punish, do not compare with other children, do not go to extremes, correcting mistakes for the child or demanding from him ten times of independently remaking something without the help of adults.

Dear parents, you cannot scold your child for being who he is. It is unacceptable to make fun of his shortcomings. It's unfair to blame him for your own mistakes in upbringing. If a child is inattentive and distracted, then it is not his fault, but your common misfortune, which you can cope with together.

How to help your child become more attentive

On the path to correcting mistakes, adults need to be guided by a simple rule: when raising a child, you need to start with yourself. This work will take a lot of effort and time, but the result is worth it. However, nothing special is required from parents:

• Show the child to a psychologist and neurologist. Perhaps children's restlessness and inattention have a medical reason. The sooner you find out about this, the more effective the measures to correct the baby’s behavior will be.
• Help your child learn. Don't do the work for him, but don't leave him alone with his problems. You need to be there and praise for successes, even the most insignificant ones, so that the child believes in his own strength. It is also necessary to form the habit of double-checking what has been done. For the absence of careless errors, a symbolic prize will be awarded.
• Ensure an adequate daily routine. No matter how much you would like to raise a well-rounded genius, the physical and emotional stress on the child’s body should be reasonable. Otherwise, it will not be possible to educate even an ordinary schoolchild who does not experience problems with attention.
• Create a working environment for studying. Every child has the right to a desk, silence in the house while doing homework, and respectful attitude of parents towards their activities.
• Monitor the child's nutrition. Unhealthy food makes you tired, lack of vitamins relaxes you, and excess food provokes laziness, apathy and absent-mindedness.
• Work on motivation, while simultaneously learning to separate important matters from unimportant ones. Of course, for a child, computer games are more interesting than lessons, but you can explain to him that without knowledge there is a risk of being left without a computer at all, because technological progress requires smart and educated people.
• Demand that any work started by the child be completed. The motto “And so it will do” should become a taboo in your family for both children and adults.

It is worth noting that all these efforts may be useless if you do not engage in daily exercises with your child to develop attentiveness. They are simple and will not require much time and effort, but will provide you with a good mood and a pleasant time together.

• Word game “Find the object” or “I see.” Look at what surrounds you in the room or on the street, and name five to ten objects for a certain beech.
• Game with letters. Choose a long word and use the letters in it to create as many new words as possible.
• Write a text with errors and instruct your child to find them and correct them.
• Complete the puzzle.
• Describe the picture. You need to find as many objects as possible in the picture and present a list of them.
• Learn poetry by heart.
• Play chess or checkers.
• Wander through the drawn labyrinths and eliminate unnecessary objects from logical chains.

You can come up with exercises for training memory and concentration on your own, the main thing is that they are not a burden to the child. It is equally important that such educational games be part of the daily routine constantly, and not occasionally. It is best to give such exercises to children from a very young age, as soon as they begin to have a meaningful perception of the world around them. The sooner a child begins to develop his ability to concentrate, isolate the particular from the general, build associative series, remember, and note details, the easier it will be for him to master the school curriculum.