Scene: A typical kindergarten classroom. Children are working independently and in
small groups. The room is busy and
noisy. Scents from the cafeteria are
wafting up because it’s close to lunch time.
Now let’s focus in on three children as they go about their school day:
Child A walks aimlessly around the perimeter
of the room. He is occasionally
instructed to pick an activity from the shelves and get started on it, or to
join other students as they work at one of the small tables coloring and
cutting. He picks up a random item and
attempts to comply, but as soon as the teacher’s back is turned, he resumes
wandering.
Child B has chosen as his activity a picture
book. He is sequestered in the corner,
turning the pages, and does not appear to be aware of anything around him. When the teacher calls the children to
attention by clapping her hands sharply, he doesn’t look up.
Child C is sitting at one of the tables
working on a puzzle with several of his classmates. While they figure out where to put the
pieces, they chat about what they did over the weekend and compare various
sports figures. When the teacher comes
over to the table to check on their progress, they look up briefly, nod when she
tells them they have a few more minutes before lunch, then get right back to
work. When the puzzle is completed,
child C sweeps it into the box, gets up, and puts it on the shelf. He then gathers up his lunchbox and his
catcher’s mitt in preparation for recess.
Of the three children in this scenario, which
one do you think will have the most chance of succeeding in school?
Child A could not focus in the noise and
chaos of the classroom and so could not engage in goal oriented behavior.
Child B was able to concentrate on his
solitary activity, but only by completely shutting out everything around him to
the extent that he was not able to hear the teacher when she called the class
back to order.
Child C demonstrated the highest level of
attention. Despite the noise and chaos
in the room, he was easily able to do several high level tasks at once while
retaining a conscious awareness of everything else that was going on around
him, filtering out what was not relevant to him and responding appropriately
when it was.
This type of attention is called joint or
flexible attention. It is the ability to
concentrate on some things to the relative
exclusion of others. The ability to maintain sufficient alertness
and arousal to be available for learning and
to attend to what is important and filter out what is not while shifting
between several tasks at once is a complex, high level skill.
What is required for a child to be able to
sit for long periods, work in a noisy atmosphere, curb impulses, and focus on
challenging tasks?
- A strong, stable body that supports him
effortlessly against gravity.
- Good vision.
Many children have undetected visual issues. A child who rubs his eyes, can’t copy from
the board, slumps down over his work, habitually sits at his desk with his head
resting on his hand and turned to the side, reverses letters after the age of
seven, flinches when a ball is tossed to him, has a short attention span for
tabletop activities, and is resistant to doing written work may be having difficulty
with close vision.
- Adequate nutrition. Why is it that people
know very well that putting second rate fuel in their cars will cause them to
run badly, but then routinely feed their children bad food? Second rate fuel in a child’s body will have
exactly the same effect. It will cause
him to function poorly. A child cannot
be at his best on a diet of salty, sugary, chemical laden, highly processed
food. Fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains,
and lean proteins provide the nutrition necessary for the body’s ability to
support learning, and to grow and develop. Sugary breakfast cereals, artificial juice drinks, frozen pizza, and
toaster waffles do not.
A classroom of
children who have breakfasted on Froot Loops, been fed a midmorning snack of
blue gummi bears and Hawaiian Punch, and then eaten chicken nuggets and fries
for lunch, are not being provided with the necessary fuel to focus, attend,
solve problems, and curb their impulses. Healthy snacks, and nutritious breakfasts and
lunches, along with frequent drinks of water, are essential to the child’s
ability to learn.
- Good respiration. Shallow breathers and children who are
chronically stuffy and have a hard time concentrating because their brains are
starved for oxygen.
- Sufficient exercise, to develop and
strengthen their nervous systems and promote healthy digestion and elimination,
and for the manufacture of neurotransmitters that support learning.
- Efficient, reliable sensory processing. Sensory processing refers to the way the
nervous system takes in and perceives environmental information gathered by the
senses. If the child’s nervous system
does not adequately filter and discriminate, he is going to have difficulty
maintaining his focus because everything is bothering or distracting him. If his nervous system is misinterpreting what
is happening around him, his behavior is going to reflect that.
A child who habitually wanders around when
it’s noisy, tunes everything out, slumps at his desk, and can’t keep up because
he can’t pay attention, is living in a body that does not support learning.
Want to read more from Loren? Here are the other posts in this series:
