Top 5 Tips to Help your Child Focus Better While Studying

It is really not easy to have children sit with their books and notebooks for long periods; on the other hand a child can continue to play a game of their interest for hours together even forgetting to eat & drink. So the moot problem is not the lack of focus of the child but the lack of energy in the teaching / learning methodologies to capture the child’s interest. However, there are ways by which you can help them improve their concentration and fare better in studies. Lets look at five top tips to help your child focus & concentrate while studying:

• Schedule fun/play time for kids: Walking, biking, swimming or playing sports which interest the child will directly help them have a healthy mind which can process things faster and concentrate better on their studies. It will be best if you can enrol them in sports classes of their interest where they also get an added opportunity to hone their social skills while interacting with other kids.
• Use imagination & images: We all think in images and more so a child whose vocabulary may be limited otherwise. Hence use visual techniques while teaching your child e.g. jointly “draw” a chapter of a book with him/her. This may sound difficult but go ahead and try. You will be surprised by the way your child will be naturally engrossed in it.
• Use Associations and similes: A child looks at the rising sun, is reminded of a big red balloon, which in turn reminds him of the balloon seller in the market, the market reminds him of the sweet shop where his favourite chocolate pastry is available. He rushes to his mom & declares that he wants a chocolate pastry now! All this happens within a few seconds, this is the power of the child to associate. So while teaching ensure that you associate/connect all the information that you are providing to the child. An interesting technique which utilises this is Mind Maps.
• Prepare a plan: Prepare an interesting colourful plan for your child especially for longer tasks such as holiday homework or preparing for an exam. Mind Maps again can be a wonderful tool for helping your child navigate through such tasks and at the same time provides them with an extremely valuable life skill.
• Read new age learning & teaching techniques: Let’s face it, the way our teachers taught us is probably not the way the kids will be interested in learning. World over new techniques are being introduced to make learning an enjoyable experience; so read and learn from experiences of others on how you can achieve this. One interesting recent book on this is “How to Help your child focus & concentrate”. Check it out and re-discover  the joys of teaching.

With that happy learning !