How to develop perseverance in a child? Some effective advice from an experienced mom. We develop attention and perseverance

Childhood is a time of joy, fun, outdoor games and mischievous entertainment. Toddlers are overflowing with energy and expend it on activities they find enjoyable and interesting. Sometimes parents want their noisy and frisky naughty to find a quiet occupation. Some children are happy to accept new rules and can get carried away for a long time by drawing, sculpting or building buildings from blocks. Others do not want to be in one place even for a couple of minutes, they quit what they started, immediately grabbing new objects. In this article we will analyze how to develop perseverance in a child.

What is perseverance and why develop it?

Perseverance is the ability of a person to concentrate on any activity. To acquire this ability, efforts of will, a desire to go towards the goal, restraint and discipline are needed. Not a single baby is born with such a set of qualities. They are developed gradually in the process of growing up, they require stimulation, influence from parents and teachers.

Already in the middle and senior groups of the kindergarten, lessons on the development of speech, the basics of mathematics, and creativity begin. Experienced teachers immediately notice which of the children are accustomed to perseverance and which are not. A child who does not know how to concentrate on an object or action does not perceive information well, does not receive knowledge and skills that will be useful in elementary school. Subsequently, this is reflected in the quality of education, the level of education and subsequent success in life.

How to determine that the child is restless?

It often happens that parents panic early, considering their child to be restless and inattentive. Modern fathers and mothers from the first years of life begin to stimulate the development of babies, sometimes making excessive demands. You should not expect a preschooler to successfully study the multiplication table or wish the offspring to put puzzles together for hours. Activities should be age-appropriate and take a certain amount of time:

• A child from 2 to 3 years old can withstand no more than 10 - 15 minutes, looking at pictures, collecting pyramids or adding cubes.
• At 3-4 years old, drawing with paints and pencils, modeling from plasticine can last no more than 20 minutes.
• By the age of 4-5, exercises in the development of speech and arithmetic, decoration and application should not exceed 25 minutes.
• A 5-6 year old preschooler can spend about 30 minutes working on logic puzzles and pre-school programs.

Given this scale, it is easy to determine the degree of perseverance of your baby. Offer him board games, book sharing, or creative work appropriate for his age. Children have different preferences, so some items may simply not be of interest. Change several options, if for a long time the child did not concentrate on any of the activities, you need to take on the upbringing of perseverance.

Methodology for the development of perseverance in preschoolers

The ability to concentrate often depends on temperament or heredity. It happens that matured fidgets miraculously turn into responsible schoolchildren, but in most cases the problem needs to be solved through systematic exercises. The result will not appear in a few days, the development of new skills is a gradual and rather long process.

1) Organization of the daily routine and personal example

You should not dream of a diligent and disciplined baby if family members are not a role model. It is useless to tell the baby how important it is to complete the work that has been started and follow the daily routine, if he sees completely different examples before his eyes: dad leaves the iron repair halfway, mom does not let go of the mobile phone, even when she cooks soup, and brother does not do homework exercise. Focusing on the elders, the child will quickly realize that the rules can not be followed.

Rise, lights out, meals, entertainment should take place at approximately the same time. Compliance with the regime contributes to the inculcation of self-discipline skills and a good mood. Classes are best done in the morning after breakfast or in the afternoon. A necessary attribute is a walk, during which the preschooler will get enough fresh air and throw out an excess of energy during outdoor games. In bad weather, going outside is replaced by a physical minute or dancing in a well-ventilated room.

2) Creating optimal conditions

A comfortable position is of great importance for the child. He won't want to listen to an audiobook, assemble building blocks, or draw if he's sitting in an uncomfortable chair in low light. Feeling uncomfortable, he will be distracted to change position or improve visibility. A table is a place where you can sculpt, build, paint. With the right choice of furniture, the tabletop should be located 2 - 3 cm below chest level so that the child can calmly lean on his elbows. Instances with a slope of the surface and height regulation are considered ideal. A good chair helps to improve the efficiency of the process and maintain posture, its height depends on the height.

A mandatory accessory is a table lamp, it is better if the design is adjustable. If your child draws and writes with his right hand, then the lamp should be on the left side, if the preschooler is left-handed, on the right. In the dark, you need to turn on additional devices with a soft uniform light. In order for the child to concentrate, it is necessary to eliminate distracting objects and sounds: turn off the music and TV, remove gadgets from the field of vision.

3) Involvement in group activities

If a child attends a kindergarten, he has to take part in collective lessons, sports competitions and preparation for matinees. This contributes to raising self-esteem, motivates to make efforts in mastering a particular skill. Parents who want their son or daughter to leave preschool prepared for school need to constantly communicate with educators, ask about the successes and failures of their child. Of great importance is the encouragement of attraction to any kind of creativity or sport. If possible, it is worth enrolling a preschooler in a circle or section, while not forgetting about limiting loads due to age. Today, many clubs and early development centers are open, where qualified psychologists and teachers individually approach the problems of each ward, working according to proven methods using a mass of thematic props.

4) Exercises for the development of perseverance

It’s great if parents have already revealed in their child a talent or craving for some kind of occupation. It could be music, sports or art. But at an early age, it is difficult for children to determine what they like best. Offering various types of creativity, it is easier to identify inclinations and develop perseverance. There are several proven and effective methods:

• Flat and three-dimensional puzzles, mosaic.
• Drawing with crayons, coloring pictures and three-dimensional figures, paper crafts, modeling from salt dough and plasticine.
• Reading of fairy tales with discussion of the text and illustrations.
• Logical tasks for finding differences, identifying objects of the same color, shape, size, experiments with counting sticks.
• Wooden, magnetic, plastic constructors, creation of paintings and decorations from beads and beads.
• Joint cooking, cleaning toys, decorating the house for the holidays.

5) Support and encouragement

The opinion of parents is the most important thing for a preschooler. He should know that his father and mother are not indifferent to his achievements. It is necessary to sincerely praise for successes and support in case of failures. In cases where the child cannot cope with the task, it is necessary to approve his efforts and provide assistance. Sweet and pleasant bonuses received for excellent work are considered a good incentive. The exhibition of crafts on the shelf and the diary of achievements perfectly raise self-esteem. The key to effective classes is the principle of "from less to more", start with the simplest and shortest tasks, gradually increasing the complexity and time.

With an integrated approach to the problem and the implementation of recommendations, there will soon be a reason to celebrate the first results. You should not stop there, and subsequently your beloved child will amaze you with his success and determination.

The question of how to develop perseverance in a child is relevant for many thinking parents. The vast majority of children are naturally restless because of their curiosity.

perseverance- the ability of a person to focus attention and show patience, doing a certain job for a designated period of time. The task of parents is to teach the child to be diligent and attentive, to bring the work begun to the end. It is you who is responsible for the formation of these qualities in the baby in the process of growing up. It is in your power to provide the necessary support and instill perseverance in the child.

How to develop perseverance in a child

Below we will look at the main ways to instill perseverance in a child:

• Choose activities for your child according to their age and abilities. Do not offer difficult tasks that can shake his faith in himself.

Children are passionate about cooking - the development of perseverance

• Please note that nothing distracts the baby from the process, be it TV or music, give him the opportunity to fully concentrate on the task.

• Offer your child a limited number of toys while playing. For the smallest, it can be 2-3 toys, but starting from 2 years old, you can gradually increase their number, but it is important to monitor whether the child has time to focus his attention, whether he is distracted. Rotate and change toys periodically.

• Involve the child in the game, interest in your speech, communication will help you form perseverance in your child. Explain the goals and objectives of the child. Speak all your actions during the game, so it will be easier for him to concentrate his attention.

• If you see that the child is tired, distracted or not interested, do not insist on continuing the lesson, stop, let him rest or change the game. Developing perseverance from the age of 2 is not an easy task, because babies at this age are very mobile and inquisitive, their attention jumps from one subject to another. Knowing this feature, conduct the lesson so that the child changes activities and does not get tired.

• Encourage the child, praise even the smallest achievements, but not in general phrases "well done", "great", "Great", but concretizing so that he believes in their veracity: "you drew a beautiful cat", "did you clean the dishes", "you built a good house" etc., this will give him the desire to move on, achieve more and, in parallel, will form perseverance in the child.

• An important role in the formation and development of perseverance in a child is played by the behavior of parents. From the lips of almost every respected psychologist, you can hear the phrase that it is necessary to educate, first of all, yourself and only then the child. He is your mirror. If the child sees that you are demanding from him what you cannot do yourself, he has a dissonance. Be consistent, do not quit what you started halfway, teach children by your own example, do the work with high quality.

• Do not doubt the strength of the child, in his ability to become assiduous. Do not offer help to the baby if he does not ask for it, even if it seems to you that he is doing something wrong. Let him collect the pyramid not in accordance with the size of the rings, let him draw with all the colors at once, let the animal stand on its head - do not distract him from the process.

Then, when the child himself turns to you, you can give him advice without belittling his achievements at the same time. If, on the contrary, it is difficult for the baby, he asks for help, be sure to cheer him up, help, tell me, do not let him be disappointed in his abilities. Tell your child more often that he will cope, that he will succeed, in this way you form his confidence in his abilities, the desire to go further, to strive for more. Believe me, in life all these qualities will be very useful to him.

Remember, your main goal, if a child is restless, is to teach him to be assiduous in a playful way, without forcing, without scolding, without blaming. In other words, he himself must want to develop perseverance. Choose a time when the child is rested and calm. For this, it is important to comply.

The key to a calm psyche of a child is a daily established schedule. He must get used to the fact that at a certain time he eats, sleeps, plays, studies, he will know what to expect. Forming perseverance in a child, do not overload him with activities. Alternate calm games with active, moving ones. First of all, realize that this world is completely new for the baby, he is interested in everything he sees, give him time to get to know the environment, be tolerant and patient yourself.


There are games that develop perseverance in a child. Drawing, modeling, applications, mosaics and puzzles, pyramids will help him become assiduous. Starting from the age of 2, a child can independently lay out toys according to colors and shapes. Also, you can make a hole in the lid of the jar and ask the child to throw coins there (this can be a piggy bank). This game perfectly develops coordination of movements and fine motor skills of hands. Most importantly, make sure that.

Come up with outdoor games to form perseverance, because the main thing in this matter is concentration. Scatter soft mushrooms and berries around the house and collect them in a basket with your child. For children 5-6 years old, beading, embroidery, if we are talking about girls, and designing, for boys, are quite suitable. Show your imagination and find a job that will please your child.

Hyperactive child - how to educate? (video):

Be sure to finish the game. If you do not have time in the morning, finish in the evening or the next day. Also, be sure to teach your child to order, teach them to clean up toys after themselves. It is desirable that the baby takes out one toy, plays with it, puts it in place, and only then takes another. All this can help you answer the main question How to Develop Perseverance in a Child.

“Your child is spinning, spinning, disturbing everyone! Do something already!”

Such a phrase can sound both from a kindergarten teacher and from a teacher of any class (more often, of course, an elementary school).

What does this phrase evoke in parents?

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

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

Exhale! We will deal with issues of care and perseverance. We will find ways to help develop mindfulness in children of different ages.

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

conditions for brain development

• 1. Security. This is the most important part of a child's development. Otherwise, the brain of any person, including a child, operates according to one of the schemes: "hit, run, freeze." Only in a safe environment can we 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 the conversations are 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 study.

How to increase mindfulness and teach perseverance?

You can teach your child to be diligent and attentive at home in warm, trusting relationships with significant adults.

If you were with a child at a neurologist and he told you that everything is fine, that the development of the nervous system is age-appropriate, then you can help your child like this:

1. Daily routine

Yes, yes, this is the basis of everything. When they talk about the daily routine, they mean sleep, food and walks. Behavior in the classroom, the mood of the child, his willingness to learn, listen to the teacher and participate in the life of the class depends on whether he had enough sleep, whether he was full, whether he spent enough time in the fresh air, whether he had enough physical activity.

It is useful to spend at least two hours a day in the fresh air (in any weather). Meals include breakfast, lunch and dinner.

2. Practices of daily life

Everyday activities (cleaning, washing dishes, cooking, laundry) can be an excellent simulator for increasing mindfulness not only among schoolchildren, but also among toddlers.

Already a two-year-old child can sweep the floor, wipe the dust, put the removed clothes on a high chair, help hang up the washed clothes, giving small things, put the sorted clothes into the washing machine.

All these things require concentration and care. Gradual learning, inclusion in the daily life of the family will make the process of developing perseverance painless.

If you find it difficult to think of what a child can do at a particular age, then you should look for various lists of household chores that you can entrust to children, or turn to the experience of Montessori pedagogy (from this approach practical life exercises will be useful in this case).

3. Game

It will remain a favorite pastime for a long time.

In a free, role-playing game, a child can cope with stress, find answers to important questions and just relax.

Card or board games require concentration, the ability to follow the rules, and they are often aimed at developing mindfulness.

4. Mindfulness Practices

Excitement, anxiety, stress often accompany our lives and are another reason for a child's restlessness.

Mindfulness practices are becoming more and more popular. Today, mindfulness has been used in the work with children by teachers and educators.

In Russia, you can read about mindfulness practices in two books by Thich Nhat Hanh “Seeds of Mindfulness. Mindfulness Practices for Children” and “A Fistful of Silence. Happiness in four pebbles”, books by Maria Montessori, Wolfgang M. Auer “The practice of awakening the senses. Games and ideas for kindergartens and preschool groups.

It is very important that the child learns:

• cope with stress;
• feel your body;
• understand your emotions: fear, joy, anger, chagrin, surprise, pride, excitement, delight.

The following exercise will help develop mindfulness and perseverance in a child. It takes skill to do it, and it's great if you and your child practice this at home.

Exercise "5-4-3-2-1"

1. Name 5 objects that you see in front of you.
2. Name 4 things you can touch.
3. Name 3 things you can hear.
4. Name 2 things that you can smell.
5. Name 1 item that you can taste.

Calming breathing exercise

What to do with a restless child? This exercise will help teach perseverance. You need to take a comfortable position (and the child must understand how comfortable it is) and close your eyes. Breathe slowly for a count of 10.

5. Physical activity

Paradoxically, at an early age, many parents remember that physical development is associated with the development of the nervous system. By school, attention usually shifts to the intellectual sphere. But the movement continues to be very meaningful! It is important that the child runs, jumps, plays ball.

How to increase the attention of the student? Two methods can be attributed to the special development of attention in schoolchildren, which are in some way close: they are about the importance of the connection between the body and the brain.

These methods are designed to help children who have difficulty learning the school curriculum.

Simple physical exercises will help form connections between the right and left hemispheres. And this will increase the attention of the student.

Here are some exercises that you can practice with your child. To master a more complete program, you will need the help of a specialist.

"Double Drawings"

You need a piece of paper and two markers.

The child looks at the leading hand and draws rounded shapes. You can draw one drawing first. Having mastered it, you can draw two drawings at the same time.

"Thinking Hat"

Three palms until warm, form a "warm ball", put it on the head and begin to massage the ears to the bottom.

"Lazy Eights"

With the right hand, draw a figure eight: up - draw outward, down - draw inward. You can start mastering the exercise together by taking the child’s hand in yours. Or draw figure eights on a piece of paper and ask the child to circle them. Draw a figure eight with your left hand: up - draw outward, down - draw inward.

6. Creativity

Any creativity is helpful! Needlework, drawing, music - whatever.

Now there are studies proving the usefulness of creativity for the development of the nervous system, the brain. Creativity helps to cope with stress and survive traumatic experiences.

If you were with a child at a neurologist and he noted some of the nuances of the maturation of the nervous system, then you can help the child become more attentive and diligent in the same ways, but in cooperation with a neurologist and a neuropsychologist.

Parents are often interested in the question of how to teach a child to be assiduous and attentive. Some children already at the age of two can play with their favorite toys for a long time, while others cannot wait until their mother makes a cake in the sandbox, and they are already running to play with the car.

To understand how to help a child learn to manage their own attention, you need to know and take into account the age characteristics of children. Often parents are faced with the problem of restlessness in a child in the senior preschool and junior school age. In the article we will look at how to deal with a similar problem in children of different ages.

Being born, the child for the first time cannot fix his gaze on the object. Gradually, he develops an attachment to his mother, who takes care of him. It is on the face of the mother, as a rule, that the gaze of the baby is focused for the first time.

Growing up, the child learns to follow moving objects and people, pick up things, examine them for a long time. This is how the attention of the child develops. It becomes interesting for him to interact with the world, especially when it becomes possible to crawl and walk on his own.

The child is already interested in balls, toys that can be pushed, rolled in front of him, monitor the result of his actions with them (roly-poly, musical toys). The peculiarity of children's attention is in its instability.

The child is very easy to distract, switch to something else. The attention of the child is attracted by bright, sounding toys, as well as toys that give various tactile sensations.

For a small child, this is a normal situation - to quickly switch from one activity to another, it is easy to start a new game. So children learn the diversity of the world, get acquainted with objects, people, sensations. But the task of parents is to gently and unobtrusively, in a playful way, form the child's perseverance, the ability to bring the work or game started to the end, to be attentive in their actions.

After all, so often first-graders face a problem that yesterday they played carelessly, but today they cannot concentrate and sit through a long lesson. It is in the power of each parent to help their child develop perseverance and attentiveness to school age, while not overloading the child and giving him the opportunity to enjoy the game.

What is needed for this?

First of all, the personal example of parents is important. You need to be consistent in your words and actions, bring what you started to the end, keep promises. After all, a parent for a child is the first and most important role model.

It is very important to form and observe the daily routine, performing the same actions at a certain time. The child should feel that the main points of the regimen are not subject to doubt and discussion (time to get up in the morning, daytime sleep, time to eat, play, walk, go to bed in the evening).

It is necessary to develop a regimen that will be convenient for parents and the baby, and will allow all family members to feel comfortable. The child, thus, will know in advance what awaits him during the day, and his energy will follow the right path, not wasted on unnecessary whims and disputes with his parents.

To teach a child to be diligent, you need to talk a lot with him from early childhood. Children who understand adult speech well understand the purpose of any action better, and their attention is easier to direct. If you notice that it is difficult for a child to concentrate on the game even for a short time, you need to tell him before the game what you want to do. For example, feed a bear.

Try to make the game attract the child, and with your participation develop the plot, come up with a story. Do not just feed the bear with a spoon, but go to the kitchen together, take some pasta, pour it into a bowl. “Cook” food, let the child do everything he already knows how to do. One action replaces another, not having time to bother the child. At the end of the game, ask your child to help put the toys away. Accompany any action with comments and explanations. Gradually, the child will learn to immerse himself in the game, it will become more difficult to distract him with foreign objects.

There are a few more tips that are important in order to instill perseverance in a child. During the game, you need to turn off the music and the TV, and there should not be too many toys. For very young children, these are 2 - 3 toys, for older children, a little more. The rest of the toys can be removed for a while, alternating and replacing them periodically. This makes it easier for the child to focus their attention and is less likely to be greatly distracted.

Even in a child of 4-5 years old, attention is still highly dependent on what he is interested in, easily switches from one to another. But, nevertheless, a child of this age can, as a rule, already play for a long time, including with other children, he is already captured by the very plot of the game. The task of parents at this age is to ensure the possibility of such a game for the child, carefully selecting toys, while paying attention to what is interesting to the child himself.

If it is very difficult for a preschooler or a first grader to concentrate on one lesson, to bring the matter to the end, you need to help him form such an ability. Various mosaics and puzzles, joint creativity with parents (embroidery and beadwork for girls, design and modeling for boys) develop perseverance very well.

For this purpose, coloring, modeling from clay and plasticine are suitable - any activity that requires concentration on the process of activity. It is very important that the child likes the lesson, you also need to make sure that he does not get tired and does not lose interest. It is better to break a big deal into many small stages, completing each of which, the child will see the result of his work, receive joy and satisfaction from what he has done. After the lesson, you need to teach the child to clean his workplace, this disciplines and helps to become more organized.

If the child is restless at school, you should pay attention to whether he has a good relationship with the teacher, whether the training program is interesting to him, whether it is too difficult for the child. Parents need to form in the child an interest in the learning process, without focusing on grades. Discuss with your child more often what happened in the classroom, talk to him about what they are going through now. Perhaps inattention is caused by a misunderstanding of the material, and, accordingly, a lack of interest in this topic.

For the development of perseverance and patience, any help around the house is also useful, the main thing at the same time is to praise and thank the child for his help. It is important to reinforce and maintain in the child the desire to help an adult, to instill in him the ability to bring things to the end, gently correcting his mistakes, and showing by example the correct course of action.

Help develop perseverance board games, selected in accordance with the interests and age of the child. Bright design and fascinating rules can attract the attention of any child, but participation, help and tips from parents are also important in board games. This is necessary in order to help the child understand the process of the game, immerse himself in it, form the right attitude to any new business that requires patience and care. Pay attention to the games "Kalaja Lux", "Tower", "Mikado".

Most importantly, praise your children more often for their successes. If something doesn’t work out for them the first time, remind the child that it is important to be patient, that sometimes you need to practice to build, for example, a high tower of cubes. Point the child to his achievements, to any step forward, thus forming in him the desire and desire to play, act and learn further. Be sure that your child can become diligent and attentive, show him that you love him no matter what, and your confidence will be transferred to the child.

Daria Evstyushkina

Many in our time complain about restlessness ... However, it is important to understand that perseverance is not an end in itself, but a means! And all efforts to improve it should be taken on the basis of this.
Therefore, the first principle of increasing perseverance is an interest in what you are doing. The more interesting the process or its result is for you, the less effort will be required for perseverance. Therefore, imagine as clearly as possible the result of your actions and the benefits that you will receive from it. Or visualize the harm it will cause if you don't achieve your intended goal. For many people, negative motivation (“from the contrary”) works better than positive.

The second principle is to set achievable goals. Nothing undermines the willingness to work like failure and the initial certainty of failure. And to increase your self-confidence, set only realistic goals that you can actually achieve. Time after time achieving your goal, you will believe in yourself and will be able to achieve more and more daring and bold goals.

The third key principle is to get yourself a daily routine and stick to it as much as possible. So your body and especially the brain will themselves tune in to the fact that at a certain time of the day they need to devote such and such time to this or that work.

The fourth principle is to start with small continuous periods of time and gradually increase their duration. If you force yourself "right off the bat" to sit on the same thing for a long time, you will nullify all motivation. And next time it will be harder to force yourself to work. Small periods of time will help you get used to this business, show that there is nothing to be afraid of.

The fifth principle is to follow the rhythm of activity that is comfortable for you. It is convenient for some people to do work in frequent small periods of time. It is easier for others to get down to business once, but for a long time. Find your rhythm and follow it. Violence against oneself in this case will only be harmful.

Whatever your rhythm, remember that any work must be alternated at regular intervals with pauses for rest. As a rule, it is recommended to rest 10-15 minutes after every 45-50 minutes of work. But you can work out another, more suitable regimen for yourself.
These simple yet very important principles will help you overcome your restlessness, and you will be able to cope with your tasks more easily and efficiently. And it doesn't matter in what area you will achieve your goals. Even if this activity is almost invisible to anyone. But thanks to perseverance, you will begin to cope with things better, faster and easier. So, you will get more satisfaction from them!

Sincerely, Anna Bychko
consultant on the development of speed reading, memory and attention