Impact of Added Stimulus on Focusing Levels in Elementary Children During Online Classes

Maya Ford

Fordmay000@stu.sumnersd.org

Class of 2021

There is a problem with children focusing in the online learning platform. Although many students had no problem focusing in a typical classroom, online learning is proving to be difficult and parents are struggling to find a solution for their child. This problem is impacting students because they are struggling to focus, parents because they are struggling to find a solution for their child and teachers because they are struggling to teach students who are not engaged and ready to learn. A possible cause of the focusing problem could be a lack of stimuli. A study which investigates stimulus impact on focus in elementary students in the online classroom could remedy this situation. 

The COVID-19 pandemic forced students to move to online school in a matter of a few weeks. This left teachers, students, parents, and administration ill-prepared to teach online. It was proving difficult for children to focus in their new learning environment, as they had to relearn signals from their sensory system. Added stimuli are able to regulate energy levels and connect the brain to the sensory system.

Definitions

Western Washington: West of the Cascade Mountains in Washington State

Elementary Students: Students enrolled in an elementary or primary school, born Sept. 1 2008-Sept.1 2015

Online learning: students who participate in classes online for 50% or more of their school week.

Loses focus: playing with animals; being on phone (except for teacher assigns tasks using a phone), playing with toys; folding, cutting, drawing or coloring papers (except when directed by the teacher); staring at an object that is not school-related for more than ten seconds; excessive bathroom usage (more than 1 time in the ½ hour); excessive snacking or eating (more than 1  time in the ½  hour); talking to people outside of the classroom (people in the house or students in other classrooms for longer than 10 seconds) in the last ½  hour of their school day

Experimental, descriptive survey: Pre-test, post-test only design, each student will participate in each section of the experiment, creating their own data set. Each students data will be compared only to them, rather than comparing data across students.

The first day, each student will go about their school day as normal, with each parent/guardian recording how many times their student loses focus in the last half hour of their school day. On the second day, the student will be provided with a hand fidget toy, and once again parents will record how many times their child loses focus in the last half hour of their school day. The third day the child will chew on a piece of mint gum in the last half hour of their school day and parents will once again record how many times their student loses focus. On the fourth and final day, the child will listen to mozart music for the last half hour of the school day and parents/guardians will record how many times their child loses focus.

• Due to COVID-19, I, the researcher, cannot collect data in person, and rather must rely on parents to accurately record and report data. 

• This research project will find, communicate with participants and report data online, which limits participants to those with internet access. 

• Due to limitations on in-person contact, eye tracking software could not be used to measure focus.

Next Steps

Future investigations should study the impact of these stimuli on children over a longer study period. The stimuli should be studied in the online learning environment and the in-person learning environment to determine if the same stimuli are effective per student regardless of their location or environment.