It is very common that sometimes we have attention problems due to various factors, such as fatigue, lack of sleep, significant events (that make us only think about them), among others. Although it is also possible to have attention problems, since it is something very common.
Exercises for better attention in adults and children
The objective of this post is to introduce you to some attention exercises effective that can help both children and adults; but first we must understand what is care, what are its types and characteristics.
Attention is part of our lives and is of great importance in various aspects of it. Although it is difficult to find a concrete meaning because multiple authors have defined it in different ways, each of them has the same validity. So, according to some authors, attention can be defined as a mechanism that allows the operation of other processes, which aim to process information and exercise control over cognitive processes.
Characteristics of care
When we refer to characteristics, we are talking about concentration, distribution, stability and oscillation. These characteristics, together with the types that we will mention later, will come into play when performing the attention exercises.
- Concentration: it is nothing more than the ability to put unimportant information in the background, in order to focus on the information with greater relevance. The contraction capacity depends entirely on the volume and distribution, since the more elements there are, the less likely it is to concentrate on just one and vice versa.
- The distribution: it is nothing more than the ability to give more or less importance to the different existing elements. A current example is when we are mainly focused on writing a message using our mobile, while in the background we are watching television.
- Stability As the name implies, it is the ability to stay focused for a period of time.
- Lastly, the oscillation It is when we move the point of attention. It commonly happens when we are focused and distracted by some other event.
What are the types of care?
- Selective attention no more than the ability to choose the most important or irrelevant elements of a situation, problem or task.
- Divided attention for its part, it is the ability of a person to pay attention to different stimuli or elements.
- Sustained attention It is when a person knows what the requirements are to perform a task and can perform it for a long period of time.
- Involuntary attention It is when we meet a new stimulus, for example, babies or children who are hearing their parents for the first time; while the volunteer It is when we have the ability to direct attention to any element according to our needs.
What are the best attention exercises?
There are various attention exercises to improve our abilities. Regardless of whether you want to use them for a child or an adult, all the exercises shown will be useful for both. However, later on we will emphasize children in case your child has a attention deficit; something quite common in users who usually look for this type of exercise.
Find the right stimulus
This type of exercise will help you improve selective attention, since you will be working with different stimuli. Many people believe that they have the ability to concentrate for a long time, but this does not mean that they can do so for a specific stimulus. For that reason, this exercise is ideal to improve the type of attention discussed above.
The idea then is to be able to find specific stimuli (in this case numbers or letters) in a conglomerate of other stimuli. As you will see, the exercise is similar to an alphabet soup, except that in this case the purpose is to find repeated stimuli that are in conjunction with others.
- You will have to find all 6.
- All letters R.
- All letters J.
Note: counts the time it takes to finish each of the tasks. If you want to practice selective attention more, you can create similar exercises. But do not repeat the ones you have already done, as memory will help you with each repetition you do.
Attention exercises looking for similar stimuli
Another very interesting exercise is to distinguish the differences between two similar images. This is usually very used for children, since it is usually a very fun activity. Selective attention is also worked in this way. A positive point is that there are usually many images of this type on the internet, so you can use a lot of them to improve your attention or that of your children.
Pay attention to other stimuli
Although we always tend to pay attention to a specific stimulus, sometimes it is necessary to give importance to other small details of it. Which means that we must pay attention to the stimuli of the stimulus. An example of this is when we listen to the teacher's instructions, where sometimes we believe that just understanding the general idea is enough; when in fact we had to pay attention to every detail so as not to make mistakes when carrying out the task.
One way to practice this exercise of attention is with an activity similar to letters and numbers, but in this case we can have a greater margin of error with fewer stimuli. The exercise consists of finding the number on the left in the options on the right.
Improve auditory attention
It's possible to do auditory attention exercises, since some people have this sense more developed than the visual one. To do this, you will need to get an audio, either through television, radio or YouTube video. The exercise consists of identifying a word that can be repeated, for example, if you are watching a car show, each time they say "car" you should write it down in one word.
Put this exercise into practice a few times a week and you will surely improve your listening attention. Make sure that the time period of the activity is a minimum of half an hour and a maximum of forty-five minutes.
Exercises to improve attention deficit in children
In the case of children who have attention deficit, there are quite fun activities that can help control it. Among them are assembling puzzles, coloring, doing mazes, among others.
Puzzle
Most children like puzzles and it is an activity that benefits their attention, since they will be focused throughout the exercise. Maybe you might get bored, but you will surely come back after a while to try to put it together again. It not only helps with attention problems, but also with memory; making it an ideal exercise.
Grouping and separating elements exercise
One way to improve the concentration and agility of the child is through the exercise of separation of common elements. For this you will have to collect a good amount of objects that are totally different, such as a pencil and a glass of stars. The idea is to tell the child that he should separate the objects that share a common characteristic, for example, tell him to separate those that contain the color yellow.
Complete mazes
Mazes are a very fun way to improve attention and children love them; that's why many products include them on the reverse, such as cereal boxes. You can find them on the internet at different levels of difficulty, which can be increased from time to time in relation to the child's progress.
So far we have come with attention exercises for both children and adults. We hope they have been to your liking and that they can improve your care or that of your children. If you want to share more information about it or ask about something, don't forget to use the comment box below.