The kid is often distracted during class, the teenager's performance decreases due to lack of assembly in the classroom, and the adult regularly forgets where to put the remote control or keys ... The problem is the same for everyone and is connected with a lack of attention, which is not a cognitive process, but organizes their functioning . Attention - a state of consciousness that allows you to clearly and fully reflect reality. How can one become more attentive and what is needed for this?
Attention Properties
A unique tool for focusing on something or someone has a number of properties that can be developed. Attention is characterized by:
- volume - the number of objects perceived simultaneously in fractions of a second (normally from 4 to 6);
- stability - the duration of retention;
- concentration (clarity of perception), which allows not to be distracted by less significant signals;
- switchability - the speed of transition from one to another, more important object;
- distribution - the ability to parallel processes;
- directivity (objectivity) - the allocation of certain signals as the main ones inside or outside.
How to help your child become attentive: recommendations of a psychologist
For future success in learning with a preschooler, it is necessary to engage in training not only cognitive processes (memory, thinking, imagination), but also attention. In the pre-conscious period, the child is situational, so for classes it is necessary to create certain conditions:
- the comfort associated with observing the daily regimen, the lack of the need to fulfill other needs, the adaptability of the room;
- the emotional richness of the activity with a change of activity attractive to the baby;
- clear and step-by-step statement of instructions in a friendly tone, because it organizes the baby and develops future planning;
- help in the fight against distractions in the form of verbal guidelines: “We will first complete the task, and then play with the machine”;
- support of interest.
Having created the necessary atmosphere, you can begin to perform exercises that solve the problem of how to become more attentive.
Toddler Exercises
The game "Three Points" on the amount of attention
A child in a comfortable position is given three tasks. In the instructions they are listed at the same time. Task: perform all the actions correctly and in the specified sequence. To do this, he is given a cheerful command: "One, two and three, run faster." Example task: 1. Clap your hands three times. 2. Name the second letter of the alphabet. 3. Pick up a soft toy.
With the successful completion of the task, you can complicate: 1. Clap your hands as many times as how old you are. 2. Write the first three letters of the alphabet on paper. 3. Pick up a thing whose name begins with the letter “c”.
The game "Signs" to switch attention
This kind of fun is best done with a group, but you can also have one kid. How can a child become attentive if he does not know how to navigate in a setting? The switch signs invented by adults in the course of any game help this: the words “Stop game”, the ringing of an alarm clock or a bell, the picture shown to the participants.
The game "Corrector" for the distribution of attention
The lesson is suitable for an older preschooler who knows the letters. He is given a text in large print, where you need to find and cross out all the letters "O". If during the game the baby does it randomly, it should be corrected. Complications of the task: 1. Cross out one letter and underline another. 2. Perform the task on time. 3. Arrange a competition with another child or adult. Having knowingly skipped the letters, instruct both of them to check the task of the opponent.
How to become more attentive to a teenager
A teenager is able to perform more complex tasks, increasing the amount of attention. He can be offered a tablet, where numbers are put down in various geometric figures, for example, 8, 3, 9. The figures can be any: a triangle, a square, a circle. Before you start demonstrating the labels, you should warn that numbers will be displayed. Raising them for a second, you can offer to write the numbers in a row, find the amount, product. Then ask to name the figures in which they are depicted. In the next lesson, the number of numbers and plates should be increased if the student easily copes with the task.
An interesting mathematical problem for switching attention is the requirement to write two numbers in a column. The next pair of numbers will consist of: the upper one - from the unit of the sum of the first two, and the lower - just the transferred upper one. For example, taken 3 and 5. At the top there will be 8, at the bottom - 3. The next pair of numbers is formed according to the same sign. It will turn out 1 and 8. The intrigue is that the participant is given a new task, in which the units of the sum are written below, and the lower number is transferred up. After mastering a new task, the participant is offered their chaotic change by a certain signal.
Computer help
Without modern technology, it is more difficult to define and develop such a property of attention as concentration. Computer video game Play attention with a special sleeve, where the sensor is built in, registers the degree of concentration of attention, as well as the level of thinking. The game is made on the basis of the techniques used by American astronauts.
A huge number of computer programs meet the needs of how to become more attentive. In addition to games, sets of exercises for the development of the basic properties of attention have been created. "Super attention" is one of them, which includes eleven sets of tasks: "Search", "Replacement", "Sort", "Errors", "Sum", "Corrector", "Three", "Breath", "Figure" , "Checker", "Rhythm". These complexes are available on the Internet, they are based on the interest of schoolchildren.
Group trainings
In large cities, there are psychological centers that conduct group trainings for older adolescents and adults of various kinds. One of the most popular ones is the development of memory and imaginative thinking. In parallel, they all solve the problem of how to become an attentive person, because they are based on perception, observation, concentration. Exercises are based on the basic properties of attention, developing and improving them. A whole eidetic science has been created - a toolkit for working with any amount of information of people of different ages.
There is a technique for activating the right hemisphere of the brain (St. Petersburg), the Super Memory course on the basis of the Presidential School (Moscow), using the ideas and practice of John Atkinson. To undergo training, you need motivation based on existing problems either when working with information or in everyday life.
Feedback from attendees
Warsaw somehow held a sale of things left in the transport that were not in demand for a year. Many inattentive passengers gathered at her, hoping to redeem her favorite bags, hats, gloves. One of them actually discovered and bought his former umbrella, on the same day again leaving it in the bus. There is a violation of concentration and distribution of attention. How to become more attentive in everyday life, which method suits such people the most? Feedback from participants in the training programs suggests that they are able to push the boundaries of the familiar. A man with five repetitions remembers for many years that which he could not master before. Dissatisfaction concerns only specific trainers, their quality of work and building a dialogue with participants.
There are special classes for preschoolers and elementary school students. Their quality is also highly rated by parents. The main criterion is improving the child's academic performance, developing skills that help to more effectively acquire knowledge on their own. Good reviews of computer programs that provide real assistance to school children. At the same time, answering the question of how to become more attentive in life, many agree that with properly organized regular classes with kids in the preschool period, a sufficient basis is created for independent development of attention in later life.