The ability to focus and concentrate on a specific task is one of the most important skills for later school success. Being able to focus on learning something new will
take your child a long way throughout its whole life. Supporting your toddler
to learn how to focus should therefore be one of your priorities.
But … If you have ever tried to settle your toddler on an activity, you probably realized
how difficult it is. Toddlers seem to never sit still. They get easily distracted
and jump from one activity to another.
So how to get started?
First, let’s be realistic. Expecting a toddler to focus for half an hour is going to quickly get you frustrated. Developmentally, toddlers have an attention span of 5 to 10 minutes maximum.
Adjusting your expectations will help you to positively embrace the moments when your toddler is finally absorbed in an activity, even if it is just for 5 minutes. Enjoy this time to breath and if you need, quickly get some stuff done.
Second, persevere. Learning a new skill takes time and practice. The ability to focus is no exception. You will have to work on it for some time, but you will quickly see that your toddler is able to better concentrate than you thought.
The key is to provide your toddler with activities based on her/his interest and an environment that allows her/him to blend out any distraction as much as possible.
Here are 5 simple ways to help your toddler focus and concentrate. You do not need any expensive toys or learning materials for it. Using natural and recycled materials you have available can be even more efficient.
Do you have an active toddler and would like to feel more confident how to engage and positively challenge her/him to develop his/her skills?
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1. Setting-up a water transfer station
Toddlers love to play with water. The best place for this activity is a space outside or in your bathroom. Set-up a big pot and a couple of yoghurt pots of different sizes and spoons to stir. Let your toddler explore how to transfer water. You can add food color for extra fun. By transferring water, toddlers practice hand-eye coordination, a sense for different weights and they learn concepts of full and empty.
Here is a fun activity prompt using water and natural materials:
2. Sensory play with grains
Different grains, such as beans, rice, lentils, etc. offer endless opportunities for sensory play that strengthens your toddler´s focus, fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Grains can be used in transfer activities, first tracing exercises, creative play and sorting and matching activities.
Playing with grains can get quite messy, you might want to set it up in a big plastic container or cardboard box, so that you can easily clean-up and avoid finding them everywhere around your house.
These are two activity prompts to get you started:
3. Focus and gross-motor skills
In the child development´s path, gross-motor skills come before fine-motor skills. Your child has mostly developed gross-motor skills as a baby and is still learning a lot as a toddler. To further develop fine-motor skills, children need to have a good basis of gross-motor skills. To use our fingers and start writing letters, we first need to develop our arm muscles and learn how to direct our arms and hands.
To help your toddler developing more focus and concentration, you can build upon the natural drive of toddlers to move and explore gross-motor skills. A pillow and blanket obstacle course is a great activity through which your toddler practices focus in a fun way and develops his skills to follow a path, overcome obstacles and balance.
Here is an example of a pillow obstacle course – a blindfold adds a nice challenge for preschoolers.
4. Sorting and Sieving
Sorting and matching different objects are an important step towards logical thinking and literacy and a great way to foster concentration. Toddlers can get completely absorbed in a sensory sieving activity, such as sieving flowers out of water. The repetition and sensory experience of feeling the water, differentiating the colors of the flowers and using their hands to handle the sieve all contribute to focus their attention.
Here is how to set-up a flower sieving activity.
5. Let them follow their interests and don´t interrupt
As parents we easily fall into the trap of interrupting our children once they start focusing on an activity or task. We might just want to encourage them with some supportive words or praise, but it actually interrupts them. If you see your child getting into an activity of his/her interest, whatever it is, take a step back and observe. Enjoy the moment, sit back with a coffee and take a short rest. Only intervene if things get out of control. To help your toddler concentrate starts with providing the space for concentration and free exploration of their interests without comments 
.
Would you like to get further advise on how to best help your toddler to become a happy learner and curious mind?
The Active Toddler Parent Program is opening soon. Find out more about the course here.