Communication and Interaction|Concentration

Tools and tips

Planning for Attention

For students with attention difficulties it is no good just expecting them to give you their attention, they can't. Therefore we need to think to ourselves how will what I am teaching grab the attention of my students. To plan for attention I would think about the five senses for example; movie clips for sight and sound, tasks that require movement, a mystery item to feel, sounds to prompt and gain attention (rainmakers are good for this; rice and a cardboard tube). I have included some thinking 'Keys Resources' in the Toolbox which are fantastic for creating engaging activities for all learners.

Help to get Started

Often the hardest part of the lesson for someone with concentration difficulties is the first five minutes, as their mind is still occupied from the transition to the lesson. You could help the student to get started by helping them write the date and title, checking in with them, getting them involved through questioning.

Routines established

Students with concentration difficulties thrive on routines, they often struggle with change and routines allow them to feel secure in their environment. It is helpful to place regular routines as visual posters to prompt and refer to. See the Toolbox for some useful downloads.

Environment and Seating Plans

Think about your classroom environment, how distracting is it? Are their too many things to look at and fiddle with next too the student? Use seating plans to best place students away from distractions in your room. I have included a useful seating plan guide in the Toolbox.

Signals for Attention

Students with concentration difficulties often find transitions difficult even moving from one learning episode/task to another in a lesson can be a challenge. It useful to offer the student signals that a change is occurring or you require their attention. Using ether sounds or visual signals can help, Gimme Five is a useful one as it can be used and referred to in classroom display. Also teaching active listening skills can help the student develop core attention giving skills. I have included posters (in English and Spanish) for these in the Toolbox below.

Timeouts

It is important to consider when using 'Timeouts' whether or not a student may have emotional difficulties, as if this is the case a 'time-in' rather than 'timeout' approach may be preferable. However if you believe timeout is a useful strategy then give the student a timeout card (5 min) that can only be used once/ twice in the lesson to give the student more control over self-regulating concentration difficulties. If they struggle to do this without support you could hand the timeout card when you think they need it.

Movement/Brain Breaks

Students with concentration difficulties often find concentrating on one thing for a length of time difficult, try to plan in an opportunity to rest the brain or shake of stress with either a small monitor type task or use the 'Brain Break' cards in the Toolbox for some fun in the classroom.

Check understanding before moving on

Make sure a student is still with you and has heard what you have said, students with concentration difficulties often drift off half-way through someone speaking and only catch parts of what you have said. Asking students to repeat back a summary of instructions is a useful technique (do this with more than one student to repeat important information)

Numbered lists of tasks to check off

Students with concentration difficulties often struggle with sequencing especially if they have only taken in a part of what you have said. Having a checklist (numbered is best) will help a student to manage attention and break work into manageable sequences. The checklist itself can also form part of an attention keeping strategy and allow you to assess and give time targets to students- e.g. by the time come back you will have completed to number 3 etc. I have included a social checklist to give you some ideas for what a student specific checklists could look like.

10-20 min Learning Episodes (shorter if required)

It is vital that learning is chunked up. It is quite simple to do if you have small checking/ self assessment/ marking tasks in between larger sections of a lesson. The average concentration time of any child is around about the same minutes in their age. For students with concentration difficulties this could be up to half.

ADHD Plan

I have also included a copy of a typical ADHD plan (Toolbox) it has more detail about the individual aspects of learning that a students with ADHD or attention difficulties may have with learning- As well as the EPIC guides to ADHD and strategies to support.

Toolbox