Helping My Child Build Concentration and Resilience

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This course is a part of our Discover range, which provide a short introduction to a topic. You will be asked to complete a variety of learning activities such as answering questions, sorting or ranking ideas, quizzes, watching videos, viewing PowerPoint slides, reading and more. Look for the learning box on each page, it will tell you what to do.

We hope that you find this course useful. The information in this course is provided for educational purposes only and should not be taken as professional advice on mental health. Please turn to pages 9-10 for details of who to contact for advice and support if you are concerned about the mental health of yourself or a family member.

By the end of this course you will be able to

• Name the seven ingredients of resilience and the four skills of concentration.• List four factors which can negatively affect concentration and resilience. • Use strategies from the course to suggest three tips to improve concentration

and resilience for a case study example.

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1. What is resilience and concentration?

Concentration is being able to control and direct our attention.

Task 1a. How easy do you find it to concentrate on a task? Jot down some notes here about how you feel about concentrating:

Task 1b. Choose at least two concentration activities from the list, and have a go with your child. Try the games in different places of your home, and with different things going on in the background (quiet, music or TV on, near other people’s conversations, near toys, whilst making a drink or folding washing etc). • Kim’s game: place 10-20 items on a tray, player A

looks at them for 30/60 seconds, then they are covered by a cloth and player B secretly removes an item, the cloth is then removed and player A has to remember what is missing. Adaptation for older children: after items are covered, you have one minute to list/write a list of all the items.

• Word challenge: list (or write down) as many words as you can in two minutes for a certain category. Pick a category from these options or choose your own: colours, foods, wild animals, countries, emotions.

• Pairs card game: place cards randomly face down, and take turns to turn over two to find a pair.

• Jigsaw puzzles• I went to the shops: Take turns to add to the list (with items starting with the

next letter of the alphabet, and remembering all the previous items) e.g. I went to the shops and bought apples. I went to the shops and bought apples and bananas. I went to the shops and bought apples, bananas and a cake.

• Draw a word on my back: One player uses their finger to ‘write’ a word on the back of the second player. The second player tries to identify the word. Players switch positions and take turns being the ‘writer’ and guesser.

Reflect here about what helped or hindered your / your child’s concentration:

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Concentration involves four main skills:

1. Being able to pay close attention to a subject.

2. Being able to manage distractions by controlling our impulses and

returning our attention when it wanders.

3. Being able to persevere – to keep going even if things feel difficult.

4. Having the communication, thinking and motor skills needed to

complete the task. All of us, and particularly children, will get frustrated and

lose concentration if the task is too far beyond our abilities to complete it.

As a rough rule, is that children can concentrate hard for a number of minutes of about their age in years. So 5 minutes concentrating for a 5-year-old, 7 minutes for a 7-year-old, up to a maximum of about 20 minutes for an adult. Our ability to concentrate varies depending on how much we want to do the task.

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Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from difficulties.

Seven learnable ingredients of resilience:

1. Emotional awareness and control – being comfortable expressing your

feelings, being able to tolerate the feelings of learning, and not getting stuck

in a negative emotion.

2. Impulse control – being able to stop and think before acting.

3. Realistic optimism – maintaining a positive but practical outlook.

4. Flexible thinking – being able to view problems from different perspectives

and problem-solve.

5. Self-efficacy – having a belief in our own effectiveness in the world.

6. Empathy – being able to understand the feelings and actions of others.

7. Reaching out – being able to ask for help, and not seeing failure or

mistakes as something to be avoided, but as opportunities to learn.

Task 1c. Watch this video about resilience. https://youtu.be/8YxqmWEmJTY Think about which of the ingredients of resilience listed are your strengths and which of these skills you would like to build on. Consider your child’s strengths in these resilience skills and areas to build on too.

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2. What factors may affect concentration or resilience?

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Environmental:Noise (too loud / too quiet)

Distractions e.g. TV, other things to do

Visual distractions e.g. cluttered workspace or bright colours

Too hot / too cold

Physical:Lack of sleep

Some foods/drinks e.g. too much sugar or caffeine

Being hungry or thirstyNot enough exerciseHormonal changes

Developmental:Young children cannot concentrate

as long as adults as they are still learning the skills they need to do

so.Conditions such as ADHD, dyslexia and autistic spectrum conditions

may affect concentration.

Feelings and emotions:We focus longer on tasks that are interesting to us and struggle with

tasks that do not interest us.Stress and anxiety

Depression

Factors affecting concentration and /

or resilience

Task 2a. Think about a time when you or your child struggled to concentrate or didn’t feel resilient in the face of a challenge. Which factors might have affected you or your child? Try to organise your thoughts under the headings: Environmental, Physical, Developmental, and Feelings and Emotions.

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3. Strategies to improve concentration and resilience.

The following strategies may help build your child’s concentration and resilience. Read them all and select three to try at home with your child.

Bring the learning to your child. Adapt the learning to your child’s interests For example, if they are struggling to concentrate practising writing spellings, try moving the learning to something they are interested in such as sticking letters to Lego blocks so they can spell with those, or chalk letters on the path for them to hop onto or touch with a football to spell a word.

Remove distractions. Clear the table or desk. Move away from the TV, radio or other noise. Some people find music helps them to concentrate so experiment with what may help.

Have brain breaks. Getting up to move, stretch or release some energy can help you or your child to come back to a task with renewed focus. Fidget toys can help come children to focus.

Exercise regularly. Any form of exercise is helpful, but some studies have shown martial arts, dance and yoga to be particularly good for helping children to learn to focus.

Break tasks down into smaller tasks. For example, “tidy your room, please” can be overwhelming! But telling your child: “put the books on the shelf, please” is manageable, then they can come back to you for the next task.

Keep instructions brief. If there are too many stages it will be difficult for your child to complete the task. With very young children you can work on this e.g. begin with instructions like “get your shoes, please” and build towards additional steps like “please get your socks and shoes and put them on.”

Eat a good diet. Reducing sugary foods and drinks and caffeine, and eating a breakfast which includes protein (which helps you to feel full for longer) can improve concentration.

Drink water. Dehydration can cause headaches and impact your ability to focus.

Try to get enough sleep. Lack of sleep makes it hard to focus. Try not to use screens too close to bedtime, and have a routine that is calming before bed.

Try to reduce stress. Activities like mindfulness colouring or breathing exercises can help.

Be supportive. Resilient children need supportive relationships with caring adults. Try reminding your child about their “fan club” e.g. “I told Grandma how your persevered with your writing. She’s so proud of you.”

Ask for help. Let children know that learning and being resilient means knowing when to ask for help.

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Play memory games. Games like Kim’s game and other games that help with memory skills can help with concentration too.

Provide opportunities for decision-making. Encouraging children to take responsibility for a choice can help them to feel like they are effective in the world

Encourage optimism. Acknowledge their feelings but show them a different view. E.g. “I can see that you are disappointed that you can’t go to your friend’s house to play. But what could we do at home that we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to do?” And suggest some ideas to help them.

Model resiliency. Talk through your feelings and show them how you deal with a change or disappointment.

Make time for creativity and play. These activities build connections in the brain, help with problem-solving, and encourage the brain to release ‘feel good’ hormones.

Build their problem-solving toolbox. Rather than problem-solving for them, given them the language to solve their own problems e.g. What could you try? What has worked before? How can we break this big problem into little steps?

Check out this link to find out more:https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/joinin/dualwa-listening-concentration-focus?collection=mindfulness-for-children

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Task 3a. Which strategies would you recommend for each case study?

Case Studies:

Situation Recommend at least 3 strategies to help each child build concentration and / or resilience. Explain why these strategies are appropriate:

Amy’s mind wanders when she tries to do her homework. She gets distracted by the TV and seeing people walk past the window. Not being able to concentrate makes her feel worried and anxious.

Amir gets cross if he can’t answer a maths problem straight away. He won’t try again and has begun to avoid maths tasks. He hates making a mistake in his work.

Teddy fidgets when he is doing school work. He rocks on his chair. If he finds his task difficult, he becomes upset and ends up looking out the window instead.

Free resources for supporting children’s emotional literacy are available from: https://www.elsa-support.co.uk/category/free-resources/

Information for parents about how to support your child to develop a growth mindset: https://www.mindsetkit.org/growth-mindset-parents

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Where to go for further help and advice

If your child is struggling to concentrate and you have concerns, you can get further advice from:

Your GP, Health Visitor or School Nurse

School/Early Years’ Setting: keyworker, class teacher, SENDCo, Parent Support Advisor

If you are finding it difficult to concentrate or would like to build your resilience, you can get help from:Your GPWiltshire IAPT – free courses for adults https://iapt-wilts.awp.nhs.uk/ Tel: 01380 731335 Email: awp.wilts-iapt@nhs.net

Useful websites:

If you would like to learn more about how thinking skills affect concentration, search “executive function” or follow this link: https://www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/child-learning-disabilities/executive-functioning-issues/what-is-executive-function

https://www.heysigmund.com/building-resilience-children/

https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/ - get a personalised plan of simple ideas to help improve your mental health and wellbeing

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/developing-resilience/

Ask Alexa to:Open Calm Now orOpen Sleep Superpowers for relaxing activities for kids

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Options for further study:

Family and Community Learning Courses e.g. Transitions: children moving through school life, Family Wellbeing, Confidence and New Directions etc. See our website for more information about the range of courses that we offer: http://wiltshire.gov.uk/family-learning-contactEmail: familyandcommunitylearning@wiltshire.gov.uk

Free Level 2 NCFE courses via Wiltshire College e.g. Level 2 Understanding AutismLevel 2 Supporting Children and Young People’s Mental Health

Free courses via MindEd https://www.minded.org.uk/ E.g. in the parents area of the website, within the common problems section there is a course on “Poor concentration and over-activity”

Free courses from the Open University via Open Learn: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/subject-information Introduction to child psychologySupporting children’s development

Courses for parents offered via your child’s school or children’s centre.

CrisisIf you are in need of urgent medical assistance please call 999. If it is less urgent please use 111If you have any concerns about your mental wellbeing or physical health please contact your General Practitioner (GP)

Call or email The Samaritans free on: 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org

Call the SANE Mental Health helpline: 0845 767 8000The Mental Health helpline offers emotional support and information to those experiencing mental health difficulties, their families and carers. Available 6pm-11pm 7 days per week.

If you are worried about the safety of a child:Call the NSPCC helpline: 0808 800 5000

If you are experiencing domestic violence:Call the National Domestic Violence helpline: 0808 2000 247

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