Remember the last experience you had where you wanted to pay attention and focus but for various reasons you couldn't. What was distracting you and preventing you from focusing?
These days, we live under a constant shower of information and expectations in a world order that operates non-stop, literally 24/7. We do not complain about emptiness, but rather about not being able to fully focus and pay attention to one of the unlimited options. The same goes for children. It is very important to prepare children for this world of distraction and abundant stimulation, to which we have difficulty adapting even with our developed adult brains.
It is imperative that our children, who live under a shower of stimuli and content on screens, schools, at home, on billboards, everywhere, at any time, acquire the ability to focus and control themselves. We want to raise successful and happy children who can walk their own path in a world that is constantly busy and full of stimulation. For this reason, the most basic skill we need to acquire throughout the child's development journey is the ability to focus and self-control. Under this shower of information and stimuli, the child needs to be able to select the right information for himself, focus, and control himself regarding other stimuli.
We can examine focus and self-control under 4 main headings.
-Focus
-Cognitive Flexibility
-Working Memory
-Inhibition Control
FOCUS
For young children, the ability to focus means "being alert" for what they target and being able to "direct" to what they target. For example, you can observe a 14-month-old child trying to pick up a spoon of food to feed himself. You can see that the child is "alert" to what he wants to do and is "trying to move towards" that thing. As we grow older, another condition is added to this more basic "focus" skill. It means "staying awake and oriented towards the goal for a certain period of time, despite internal and external distractions".
It is possible to explain the ability to focus in this way. I'm adding a few items below so you can think about your own or your child's ability to focus. Focus on these questions by scoring them from 1 to 5 You can get an idea about your ability and benefit from the article "Things to Improve Your Focusing Skills" to improve your focusing skills.
-I pay so much attention to what I'm doing that I can focus on it for a long time without getting distracted. -I get distracted easily.
-I have a hard time keeping some things in my mind.
-I can keep my energy at the right level so that I can concentrate when I need it.
COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY
For young children, we can explain this as being able to flexibly change the direction of attention. For example, your little one may be watching someone talking in the environment. When the speaker changes, he shifts his gaze to the new speaker. For older children and adults, it means being able to change the subject of attention and perspective when conditions and demands change. For example, when your preschooler is playing the role of a cook and his friend changes the scenario of the game and invites him to a role that requires him to be a doctor, he can adapt to this. As an adult, when your friend gives you
his point of view on a subject, being able to detect a different point of view from him and paying attention to the new angle or changing your focus between these different points of view can be given as an example of cognitive flexibility.
If you want to think about your own or your child's cognitive flexibility, you can consider the following items.
-When what I try doesn't work, I find it difficult to give up and try another solution. -I easily adapt to change.
-When I can't convince someone of my point of view, I usually understand why I can't. -I'm not very fast at adopting new ideas.
WORKING MEMORY
Adele Diamond defines working memory as follows: Being able to keep this information in mind while working on information in your mind and performing new operations. That is, you are reading these lines right now and by keeping this in mind, you can make connections with what you read before. So your working memory is at work! Examples include making mental calculations, prioritizing the work to be done in your mind. We can reproduce it by putting it into perspective or by associating an idea you heard during a conversation with the idea you just heard.
You can get an idea about your own or your child's working memory skills through the items I will add below.
-I can keep more than one idea in mind at the same time.
-While reading, it is difficult for me to keep in mind what I have just read.
-I can add large numbers mentally.
-I can't always remember what he plans to do first and what next.
INhibition Control
Inhibition control means being able to control your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to achieve a goal. We do some of the daily tasks on autopilot. Like sleeping, eating and drinking, waking up in the morning and brushing your teeth. However, some tasks in the daily routine require you to really make an effort and inhibit alternative/more attractive things. Trying to hear what someone is saying in a crowded environment also requires an effort to not pay attention to other sounds. Working to finish a project that needs to be completed rather than going out and sunbathing in the heat requires you to inhibit the former distracting option and focus your attention on the second, less desirable goal. We call this situation inhibitory control, and inhibitory control is an important self-control skill that children must acquire in order to develop successful and happy life habits in the future. You can observe your own or your child's inhibition control skills by thinking about the following items.
-Even if I am in a noisy environment, I can still pay attention to the person I am talking to. -I have trouble keeping track of things happening around me.
-When I am interrupted by someone who needs me at home or at work, I can change the subject and pay attention.
-I tend to speak out what I think, even if it might hurt someone else. -If other people are eating sweets, I usually have one too, even if I want to lose weight. -Even if I'm not successful right away and want to give up, I won't give up on what I have to do.
The focus and self-control skills mentioned above can often be difficult even for us. That's why it's easy to empathize with children. we can install It is possible for them to acquire these skills and prepare for a successful and happy life within a safe and patient relationship that we establish with them. Because these skills, just like muscles, develop as they are practiced continuously and consistently. You can follow in the next articles how you can improve your focus and self-control skills, which we have titled as focus, cognitive flexibility, working memory and inhibitory control. It is hopeful that as we gain knowledge about these skills that need to be developed and work on them, they will develop like muscles!
Read: 0
