I have parents approach me asking how to keep their child focused when learning something new or doing school work. This is something that we all face from time to time as parents.
Children can lose their focus for a number of reasons including…
- they are not interested in the task
- they are distracted
- the task is too hard for them
- they would rather be doing something else
Below are some tips that have helped in our household. Please share your tips in the comments below.

Breaking Up the Tasks
Our brains start to lose optimal focus after 25 minutes. Therefore in order to have optimal concentration, try to break tasks into 25 minutes of focused blocks of time. This is also called the Pomodoro Technique and will help your child focus on the task at hand. After 25 minutes has ended, have your child take a break. After the break, they can come back to the task for another 25 minutes.
Create More Beginnings and Endings
When reading a book, we tend to remember the beginning and ending for longer periods of time. Also, when we watch movies, it seems like the start and end of the story sticks in our brain. The proper terms for these occurrences are the primacy and recency effect. Primacy Effect is when you remember things at the beginning of the list because it happened first. The Recency Effect is when you remember the end of the list or an occurrence.
Remember we said the brain starts to lose optimal focus after 25 minutes. When you combine your knowledge of the Pomodoro Technique, Primacy, and Recency Effects, it makes sense to create more beginnings and endings. You may accomplish this by taking more breaks. Your child will remember more because there are more “firsts and lasts” bits of information that will stick in their brain.
Taking Responsibility
Many of us want to put ALL the blame on our children for NOT having better focus when it comes to school or learning something new. However, I think we have to look at our role in the matter as well.
For example, I wanted my son to have better focus in the morning while getting dressed for school. We were always rushing to get ready for school. The problem was I often got out of bed late causing him to rush. He is the type of child that gets the tasks done but likes to takes his time to do it.
Once I started getting up earlier in the morning, he seems to have more focus.
For the days when he needs to move a little faster, I created some games/activities to make our morning routine efficient and effective.
As far as studying, it is effective to make the information more relevant to your child and break it up into smaller tasks. We will talk about this in the next point.
Shaping
Sometimes children find a task so daunting that it is difficult for them to sit for 25 minutes. This is where Shaping can help save the day. Shaping is a technique many counselors use to teach kids new behaviors. It allows you to build a desired behavior in children using small steps. Once the child has mastered a step then you move to the next one.
If it is difficult for your child to focus for 10 minutes, have them try five minutes. If they are successful next time, add one or two minutes to the next session. Keep doing this until you have reached the desired 25 minutes. Also, give your child small rewards for completing a task. It will help keep them motivated.
Have Children Take Charge of Their Learning
I remember being in school thinking to myself, “Why do I have to learn this?” Some of the information we learned as children have never been used in our adult lives. However, learning something new strengthens your brain and puts you in better mental shape to be creative and work on your passion. When your child does not see the point in what they are learning, request that they be creative and make it relevant by using the Chain Linking technique. Chain linking is a memory technique that allows your child to use their imagination and creativity to link facts to pictures and stories.
Chain linking is a great way for your child to take charge of their learning because they are creating the factual links to pictures and stories. When they create ways to remember information, they have more of connection to it. It also helps them learn information faster in a fun way.
Bonus Tip:
When your child tells you a task is too hard, talk to them about the Power of Mistakes and its importance in learning.
I hope you find this helpful!
great post, my son loves sitting down to learn but his attention span lasts all of about 10 to 15 minutes so we do it in little chunks like you mention and it works far better =)
Thank you for your comment!
These are great ideas. I never thought of teaching my son the Pomodora Technique, but it makes sense to do that, especially since we’re homeschooling! Thanks!
No problem. I am glad you found this helpful!
As a teacher I always make sure to break the tasks into smaller (easy to bite) pieces. 😁 I do this so they won’t get overwhelmed. And it works! Oh, and it’s wonderful to know that there’s an actual term for it. 😁
Thank you for you comment Nessy! Sounds like you are a great teacher.
Thank you for these tips! I’ve been struggling with my son about his focus on studying. He focuses when he is interested about the topic, but complains a lot when it’s not, especially math. Bookmarking this page.
Thank you for your comment. I am glad you found this helpful.
Thank you for sharing! I’ve found too, that if i wake up earlier on school mornings, my kids focus so much better than on days we have to rush!
Yes it makes a big difference! Thank you for your comment!
Great reminder that not all of the responsibility lies with our kids. Thank you for the reminder to look at what I’m doing that could be contributing the frustrating situation at hand. (Now, to remember it as I make the same request to put shoes on for the hundredth time!)
Lol! It is a work in progress for us. But these tips have helped a lot.
My daughter has a short attention span, so these are great tips to increase it.
Going to try to implement these tips with my son who has dyslexia. Hopefully it will help his attention span and interest when he works on his writing. He gets frustrated and distracted easily on it because it’s a struggle for him.
Hello Sarah. Please keep me posted on how your son reacts to these tips.
Great suggestions! I just received an email from my child’s teacher regarding his lack of focus. It’s always been an issue for him. I am definitely going to try a few of these tips and see if they help!
Thank you for your comment. I hope you find them helpful!
Love this post.You have so many easy and doable techniques to get the kids more focused. Every parent, tutor, counselor and teacher could benefit from these.
Thank you for the Maria! I am glad you found this helpful!