Attention Strategies for Preschoolers

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Attention Strategies for Preschoolers

• By Laura Kavlie, Lauren Jakubowski, Kerri
  Rothanzl
• Preschool Interventions
• May 2009

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What Will You Learn?

• Development of attention, including attention
  control
• Red Flags for Attention Problems
• Universal Classroom Strategies
• Classroom Environmental Modifications
• Child Interaction Strategies
• Intervention Programs
• Brainstorming Attention Strategies

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Aspects of Attention

• Select
• Maintain
• Switch
• Shift
• Share
• Divide
• Ignore

Linder, 2008
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Early Development of Attention

• Birth 3 months
• Stimulus Orienting is present at birth
• 3 18 months
• Sustained Attention develops
• 18 months and Up
• Executive Functioning (i.e. planning, organizing,
  inhibiting actions, etc.) emerges and develops

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Development of Attention Control

• 0-1 Years Extreme distractibility
• 1-2 Years Single channelled attention
• 2-3 Years Adult-directed attention shift
• 3-4 Years Shift attention spontaneously
• 4-5 Years Attention is two channelled
• 5-6 Years Gradual ability to ignore distractions

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Developmentally Appropriate Behaviors

• Runs in circles
• Doesnt stop to rest
• May bang into objects or people
• Asks questions constantly

n.a., 1996
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Developmental Length of Attention (Approximate)

• 2 years 7 minutes
• 3 years 9 minutes
• 4 years 13 minutes
• 5 years 15 minutes
• 6-7 years 60 minutes

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Red Flags for Attention Problems

• High distractibility
• Impulsive behavior
• Unusual restlessness (hyperactivity)
• Difficulty staying on task
• Difficulty changing activities
• Constant repetition of an idea (perseveration)

Rief, 2005
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Is Attention a Problem?

• Observe the behavior
• In what activities does the child spend the most
  and least amount of time?
• How does the child approach and first engage in
  activities?
• How does the child leave activities?
• Consider the implications
• Are you reinforcing the childs restless behavior
  instead of the positive behaviors she displays?

Essa, 2003
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Is Attention a Problem?

• Explore Alternatives
• Is their attention span age-appropriate?
  Appropriate for developmental level?
• Are the offered activities age-appropriate?
• Be aware of ADHD symptoms and make a referral if
  necessary
• Make a realistic goal including procedures to
  obtain that goal
• Gather baseline data to compare later progress

Essa, 2003
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Universal Classroom Strategies

• Keep circle time at a developmentally appropriate
  length
• Change sequence of routine during circle time
• Incorporate movement and exercise (songs with
  rhymes and hand motions)
• Have fidget toys and disco seats available for
  children
• Use visual cues (e.g., ringing bells and turning
  lights on/off)
• Use sign language
• Keep learning fun!

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Classroom Environmental Modifications

• Reduce noise distractions by
• Putting a carpet in the block area and dramatic
  play
• Putting dividers between different areas of the
  room
• Putting pictures on walls and curtains at windows
  to help absorb sound
• Keeping doors and windows closed, when possible
• Consider room arrangement
• Separate quiet and noisy areas
• Use dividers to separate interest areas (create
  privacy in these areas to decrease distraction)
• Arrange the room so that traffic patterns do not
  interfere with activity centers

Essa, 2003
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Classroom Environmental Modifications

• Introduce new materials, new media, and new
  activities to keep things interesting
• Provide interesting/stimulating materials
• Provide a quiet place where the child can get
  away from the stimulation of the classroom
• Large cardboard box with throw pillows and one or
  two simple activities inside
• Create a quiet area with rules for only one
  child at a time

Essa, 2003 Linder, 2008
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Classroom Environmental Modifications

• Hold or place objects at childs eye level
• Provide interesting/stimulating materials
• Prepare the environment ahead of time if the
  child needs to perform a specific task
• Use light to point (laser pointers or
  flashlights)
• Peer modeling
• Use headphones

Linder, 2008
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Child Interaction Strategies

• Reinforce the child for attending to activities
  for increasingly longer times
• Gradually decrease the interval between
  reinforcements as the child stays with activities
  for longer
• Ignore nonproductive activity
• As soon as the child begins an activity or
  focuses attention, give her appropriate
  attention/reinforcement
• Use proximal praise (give verbal reinforcement to
  children around the child for paying attention)

Essa, 2003
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Child Interaction Strategies

• Model actions for the child
• Use objects of interest in an unusual way
• Talk the child through the task one step at a
  time
• Encourage a verbal child to explain what he or
  she is doing
• Avoid giving more than one direction at a time
• Change the typical rhythm of your voice

Rief, 2005 Linder, 2008
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Intervention Programs
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Shiny Light Bulb Strategy

• Increases students ability to self-regulate
  attention level
• Analogy of a light bulb to relate to attention
  levels
• Dark or unlit
• Dim (25 watts) Stop talking
• Semi-bright (50 watts) Stop moving around
• Brighter (75 watts) Stop looking around
• Very bright (100 watts) Stop daydreaming
• Students learn that each means to check and
  self-correct their four STOP behaviors and save
  the need for verbal redirection

Rief, 2005
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Attention Training

• Posner and Rothbart (2005) studied the effects of
  attention training on 4-year-old children to see
  if it might serve as a component of preschool
  education.
• Used the child version of the Attention Network
  Test (ANT)
• Alerting Network Score, Orienting Score,
  Executive Attention Score
• Results suggested that training exercises improve
  executive attention, altering brain activity in
  the anterior cingulate (EEG).
• Underlying attentional networks are influenced in
  ways that may lead to extensive generalization.

Posner Rothbart, 2005
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New Forest Parenting Package (NFPP)

• For preschoolers with ADHD
• Psychosocial interventions alone are not
  recommended to treat ADHD
• NFPP combines psychosocial treatment with
  behavioral management techniques and parent
  training
• Key treatment goals
• Reduce parental negative reactions
• Promote appropriate limit setting
• Increase the quality and quantity of positive,
  constructive interactions between parent and
  child
• Tailor motivation and scaffolding of attention
  and self-organization to the child

Sonuga-Barke et al., 2006
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The Listening Program

• A music-based auditory stimulation method that
  trains the auditory system to accurately process
  sounds
• Students listen to psychoacoustically modified
  classical music through headphones exercises
  the different functions of the auditory
  processing system
• Varied ochestration, tempo, octave, and meter
• Extensive techniques include filtration, audio
  bursting, blending, spatial dynamics, and audio
  morphing
• The ear receives the musical sound waves, which
  arrive in different frequencies to stimulate the
  brain and help organize information received

ABT, 2009
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The Listening Program

• Can be used for the following problems
• Attention and concentration
• Listening
• Speech and language
• Memory
• Communication
• Sensory integration
• Self-regulation, etc.
• Controversial
• Limited empirical support for its efficacy
  mostly case studies
• Expensive

ABT, 2009
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• Brainstorming Attention Strategies

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References

• Advanced Brain Technologies (ABT), LLC. (2009).
  The listening program Music-based auditory
  stimulation. Retrieved May 13, 2009, from
  http//thelisteningprogram.com.
• Essa, E. (2003). A practical guide to solving
  preschool behavior problems, 5th Edition. Clifton
  Park, NY Thompson Delmar Learning.
• Linder, T. (2008). Transdisciplinary play-based
  intervention, 2nd edition. Baltimore, MD Paul H.
  Brookes Publishing Company.
• n.a. (1996). The broad continuum of attention
  problems. American Academy of Pediatrics.
• Nwora, A.J., Gee, B.M. (2009). A case study of a
  five-year-old child with pervasive developmental
  disorder-not otherwise specified using
  sound-based interventions. Occupational Therapy
  International, 16(1), 25-43.

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References

• Posner, M.I., Rothbart, M.K. (2005).
  Influencing brain networks Implications for
  education. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience,
  9(3), 99-103.
• Richards, J.E. (2004). Attention.
• Rief, S.F. (2005). How to reach and teach
  children with ADD/ADHD Practical techniques,
  strategies, and interventions. San Francisco
  Jossey-Bass.
• Sonuga-Barke, E.J.S., Thompson, M., Abikoff, H.,
  Klein, R., Brotman, L.M. (2006).
  Nonpharmacological interventions for preschoolers
  with ADHD The case for specialized parent
  training. Infants Young Children, 19(2),
  142-153.