When Something That’s Totally Wrong Is Right: Helping Build A Child’s Attention

July 11, 2018 /

One of my babies has always had a hard time with attention. Even as a baby those little arms and legs would be flailing all over the place – never that calm, serene, peaceful baby even at a few weeks old.

We had early intervention from the very beginning to try to help with fine motor skills and build that attention up second by second. And then we moved and we had to move to a new early intervention. At first I was very worried when the new worker started working on gross motor skills the whole session. I always felt those were our strongest skills – walking and running around the house like a wild child, but then I started to see it! As that little body got stronger from all the climbing and moving the attention began to grow. Sitting longer, playing longer, staying still longer – these all require muscles that just weren’t there before. All that running, climbing and moving around rather than trying to sit or being told to sit still for longer and longer really paid off over just a few months versus all the time we had spent working on it before the move.

Perhaps more of our children need to get this total body workout in order to sit calmly. With all the indoor time most kids are getting this does explain the huge rise in attention disorders. Perhaps longer recesses might lead to better attention in school for this exact reason. I’m sure many of my teacher friends can add to this debate but to me it’s at least worth a shot as it won’t do any harm! For now though even when we are stuck inside on rainy days I’m making sure to build all our babies muscles with baby obstacle courses and fun marching/crawling games – and of course lots of climbing and crawling around in the sun or at the playground on the nice days.

Some of our favorites for indoors:

  • Propping up a couch cushion slightly and covering it with a blanket or a tunnel to make a fun slide.
  • Games like Ring Around the Rosie where we fall down and stand up over and over! If you don’t know the second verse it’s a great addition that my kids have lots of fun with!

 

  • Bouncing on the big ball – we have a big exercise ball that we love to take turns bouncing on (but any ball big enough to sit on will do!) and leaning in different directions (back,forward,left,right). I hold on but let the kids use their muscles to try to right themselves before leaning them in the next direction.
  • We also LOVE the bear hunt song – marching and crawling around our table.

When I’m feeling especially organized (like the days where everyone naps at the same time) we even have props for this one! Our table covered in a blanket or table cloth pulled to one side or our little play tent make a great cave, a big cardboard box (thanks amazon!) or big couch cushion for the boat/bridge and a teddy bear that the kids have to find! One time after a party we used those tinsel foil curtains for about a month to do the swishy/swashy grass which was a huge hit! In addition to be a great sensory experience for them. Whatever we’re doing we just try to make it fun and goofy and full of movement.

 

 

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