Often times we find it hard to get a child with autism to focus and
concentrate on what he is looking at, listening to or doing. Whatever
the cause for the lack of attention, it is important to inculcate the
discipline to pay attention. Lack of concentration can result in poor
achievement rates in whatever a person is doing. Poor attention skills
are also one of the many reasons why one is unable to communicate
efficiently.
There are exercises we can do to help children work on their concentration skills. Here are a few suggestions.
1) Maintaining eye contact. Getting the child to maintain her line of vision by following an object. Make it into a game. For example, you can shift the coin slot around the table and challenge her to slot in as many coins as possible.
2) Hand- eye coordination. There are so many games and toys out there in the market that promote hand eye coordination. For example, magnetic dartboard, ball and hoop and miniature bowling set.
3) Spot the difference. Engage the child in a game of 'spot the difference' between two identical pictures. Begin easy by using very basic and obvious pictures before moving to more advanced ones. You do not want to cause the child to lose interest or get bored easily. Another variation of this game is finding an object in a whole picture in which the child has to scan the whole picture visually to find the hidden object. You can also set up a treasure hunt game by hiding an object in a specific area that the child has to look in.
4) Listening comprehension. Tell the child a very short story. Start with only a few short sentences. For example, "John is going to the market. He wants to buy apples", to which you ask, " where is John going?" and " what does John want to buy?". Gradually progress to longer sentences and more questions. The key here though is not to overwhelm the child with too much information at one go. Ease the child into the fundamentals of listening carefully.
5) Reading comprehension. Read a simple book with the child. Depending on the child's focus level, you might want to read a few pages ( in some cases, one page) at a time. Ask simple questions pertaining to the pages read. Practicing this reading comprehension once a day might really propel your child towards better focus.
I hope that these suggestions give you a general idea on what exercises you can do with your child to work on his concentration skills. Remember, it is beneficial to practice concentration skills everyday or consistently to see results. Practice and exercises with your child can be as interesting as you want and make them to be.
If you have any suggestions, comments or questions that you would like to share with me and other readers out there , please do not hesitate to email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com.
Also, please visit my website, www.triumphantkids.com to find out more about the services that I provide.
Till the next post, I send you my deepest regards,
Daven.
There are exercises we can do to help children work on their concentration skills. Here are a few suggestions.
1) Maintaining eye contact. Getting the child to maintain her line of vision by following an object. Make it into a game. For example, you can shift the coin slot around the table and challenge her to slot in as many coins as possible.
2) Hand- eye coordination. There are so many games and toys out there in the market that promote hand eye coordination. For example, magnetic dartboard, ball and hoop and miniature bowling set.
3) Spot the difference. Engage the child in a game of 'spot the difference' between two identical pictures. Begin easy by using very basic and obvious pictures before moving to more advanced ones. You do not want to cause the child to lose interest or get bored easily. Another variation of this game is finding an object in a whole picture in which the child has to scan the whole picture visually to find the hidden object. You can also set up a treasure hunt game by hiding an object in a specific area that the child has to look in.
4) Listening comprehension. Tell the child a very short story. Start with only a few short sentences. For example, "John is going to the market. He wants to buy apples", to which you ask, " where is John going?" and " what does John want to buy?". Gradually progress to longer sentences and more questions. The key here though is not to overwhelm the child with too much information at one go. Ease the child into the fundamentals of listening carefully.
5) Reading comprehension. Read a simple book with the child. Depending on the child's focus level, you might want to read a few pages ( in some cases, one page) at a time. Ask simple questions pertaining to the pages read. Practicing this reading comprehension once a day might really propel your child towards better focus.
I hope that these suggestions give you a general idea on what exercises you can do with your child to work on his concentration skills. Remember, it is beneficial to practice concentration skills everyday or consistently to see results. Practice and exercises with your child can be as interesting as you want and make them to be.
If you have any suggestions, comments or questions that you would like to share with me and other readers out there , please do not hesitate to email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com.
Also, please visit my website, www.triumphantkids.com to find out more about the services that I provide.
Till the next post, I send you my deepest regards,
Daven.
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