Attention development in primary school students: exercises, attentiveness test

The development of attention in children of primary school age is necessary to educate the baby and prepare him for the middle and senior classes.

In the past few years, psychologists have noted an increase in absent-mindedness, coupled with hyperactivity in children of primary school age. If a child cannot force himself to concentrate on something, then he misses a lot of the basic material of the educational program, which must be mastered for further successful learning. In such cases, it is necessary to develop attention in primary school students. Exercise will help achieve significant success in this.

Involuntary attention

From birth, every person has the principle of involuntary attention. So, among small objects, both a child and an adult will immediately find a large one, among green ones - red, among dark ones - light, etc. Marketing methods of many companies are built on this method.

In a small child (4-5 years old), the mechanism of involuntary attention is well developed so that it easily remembers something bright and colorful. Therefore, tasks for preschool children should be built on the principle of "colorful - it means noticeable."

Arbitrary attention

With age, a person develops voluntary attention, he learns to remember and find what he needs, and not what catches his eye. The task of parents is to develop this mechanism in the baby. Almost from the very conscious age, the child hears such words as “look carefully”, “be attentive in the classroom”, “listen carefully to the teacher and behave well”, etc.

Although the baby does not yet fully understand the meaning of the word “mindfulness”, it becomes clear to him from the words of the parent that his task is to remember something or just understand.

A scattered child sometimes not only does not understand, but does not want to understand, therefore tasks for the development of attention are designed to arouse in the kid an interest in what is happening around him. After all, if the crumb is passionate, he will want to learn something more, if he likes something, he will want to repeat it again and again (the same exercises and tests).

The development of attention in younger schoolchildren works according to this principle, tasks are built according to the method from simple to complex, so as not to frighten off the child’s interest, but also not to let him relax.

Attention Features

Some children are sometimes very difficult to get to sit down and do something. This is obvious, because a child of preschool or primary school age is quite active and seeks to run and play.

Such problems of attention development are not unique, therefore, psychologists and speech therapists primarily try to interest the baby in what is close to him: vivid pictures, toys (in the pediatric offices). When the crumbs interest is “captured”, the adult will be able to teach him something. For example, show a picture and tell how exactly one or another object is drawn on it. “The clouds are drawn using pencil movements in a circle. That's it, ”the adult shows the baby, and the enthusiastic child immediately takes up pencils and begins to create. When working with a group of children, you can act on the principle of "who is better." A child who is the first to complete a task without errors is encouraged.

Any kid needs to keep in memory instructions for certain actions, so the skills of any person are formed. Therefore, during work, it is quite normal if the child speaks out loud all his further movements.

Attention Development Issues

Quite often there are dilemmas associated with the inability of the child to develop attention, which is why the child is faced with difficulties at school and in games with other children.

There are several levels of such problems:

1. Small volume. A child cannot simultaneously concentrate on two objects and keep them in his mind.
2. Unstable attention and poor concentration. Psychologically, a kid cannot concentrate on anything for long, no matter how attractive it is. In such cases, simple games are needed for 5-10 minutes daily.
3. The problem of selectivity. The kid is not able to force himself to concentrate on the object that is necessary to solve the problem, there is no abstract thinking, the child tries to remember everything that is given to him, and as a result does not remember anything.
4. The distribution of attention. A baby cannot switch from one type of activity to another. It takes time for him to start performing tasks in mathematics after the Russian language, otherwise he will make many mistakes, although he perfectly understood the material.
5. The second type of distribution. The second problem of this kind is the inability of the child to do several things at once. Of course, it is good if he is focused on work, but this mechanism is necessary for a full life.
6. Arbitrary attention. A child cannot switch on demand from one type of activity to another.

As soon as the problem is clearly defined for adults, it will become easier for him to figure out how to solve it. First you need to accurately realize what exactly the child cannot do yet: concentrate or distribute it.

Pen Test - Sign Correction

Speech therapists, to determine whether a child is able to concentrate on certain objects, give him simple tests. In other words, they seek to check whether the baby has the skill of selective attention. The first task that is offered to children is to delete certain ones from the list of symbols. For example, delete the triangles from the columns of circles, squares, and triangles. Frequent assignments can help your baby deal with the problem of distributability.

This training is recommended to be carried out several times daily, but not to overburden the baby. The minimum threshold is five times a week. The child is given a minute to complete the work. When in a minute he will have time to cope with most of the task, you can complicate the latter in the following aspects:

1. To diversify the shapes. First add new black images, then (if possible) change the color scheme so that the baby does not look for squares, for example, but green little squares. But you shouldn’t get carried away too much, there shouldn’t be many colors, and they shouldn’t be bright.
2. Increase the amount of work. If the child quickly copes with this task, then you can simply increase the number of rows and columns, reducing the size of each image. So the baby will have to strain his attention even more.
3. Cross out differently. You can invite the child to find squares and circles in the proposed columns, but underline the circles and cross out the squares. A similar task for the development of attention is widely practiced by speech therapists.

Correct the text

The development of voluntary attention goes side by side with a decrease in the number of errors in writing. So, a sufficiently developed child should easily cope with school dictations in the Russian language. And so that the baby gets used to letters and numbers rather than icons, as in the previous exercise, he is offered to read a text that obviously contains errors. The task of the little schoolboy is to correct these errors.

Text for an example: “My grandmother’s garden has grown a lot of cucumbers. Grandma watered them well. In winter, the ns will have cherry jam. Mom bought a bunch of cherries for us. I am a good student in kshol, I have excellent flying skills. My friend plays football, and Masha reads kngu. In winter, mimosa blossomed outside our window. A warm wind shakes the branches of mountain ash letm ... "

An adult will instantly notice a malfunction in these sentences, even by simply glancing through his eyes without understanding the essence. However, an absent-minded child can easily miss most of these blots or refer after checking that he did not understand the word. Attention tasks are designed to teach your child to notice mistakes, and not read past the lines.

Regular passing of such tests stimulates the development of attention. 6 years - this does not mean that you can continue to run around the yard, everything must be taught the baby in a timely manner.

As a rule, first the children are given short texts, over time, sentences increase in volume and contain more grammatical and logical errors. The simplest logical mistake that children of 6-8 years old should understand is flowering of something on the street in winter.

Verification is carried out according to the following criteria:

1. Not fixed 1-2 errors - a high level of attention.
2. 3-4 errors are not fixed - a satisfactory (average) level.
3. Not fixed more than 5 errors - low.

Depending on the level of speech therapists, a plan is developed for working with the child.

Hugo Munstenberg Test

Nowadays, it is necessary to stimulate the development of attention in primary school students. The exercises proposed in the 20th century by the German psychologist Hugo Munstenberg will help children not only become more attentive, but also remember vocabulary words.

The essence of the exercise is to spell words together, possibly mixed with any letters. Moreover, the words are obviously written with a mistake that the baby needs to fix. For example: "" (in this line there are the words "gara", "yablan" and "yupka"). A line can be made arbitrarily long, but five or seven words is enough, otherwise the child may get tired and start acting up.

The second version of the same test for the formation of the development of attention consists in the continuous writing of a whole phrase without extraneous letters. As a rule, teachers and speech therapists take proverbs, sayings, ditties for the development of the horizons of children. For example: “kakusgusvoda” (like water from a goose) or “quietly drifted” (devils are in a quiet pool), etc. By presenting this test exercise as a game, you can easily teach your child the Russian language peculiarities, proverbs and sayings, expand his vocabulary.

Mathematics to help

There is also the so-called mathematical exercise, designed for children of the 1st and 2nd classes. The meaning of the exercise is as follows: the teacher offers several numbers and various actions with them, children must scroll through these actions in the mind and remember the numbers obtained. Of course, the complexity of the tasks depends on the level of training and program material. But it is better to consider with examples:

1. For the 1st class or preparatory (senior) group: there are two numbers - 5 and 8, subtract the first from the second, then add 2. Write. Answer: 5.
2. For the 2nd class: there are two numbers - 12 and 35. Add the second digit of the second number to the first digit of the first number, then add another 4, subtract 1. Write. Answer: 9.
3. For the 3rd class: there are two numbers - 26 and 58. Add the second digit of the second number and the second digit of the first number. Multiply the result by 2, then divide 4. Write. Answer: 7.

Math games for the development of memory and attention not only help distracted children, but they are interesting and exciting. With the help of such games, even the most restless child can be made to relax and sit still.

And here is another example, called a “digital table”. For adults, a square table is compiled from the numbers 1 to 20 scattered in different corners, for example. The child’s task is to “collect” the numbers in the table in order.

As soon as he finds the next number, he points a finger at him and calls.

Children of primary school age, as a rule, love such activities. Based on this game, you can come up with several arbitrary ones:

1. Find and name in order all the numbers from 1 to 10.
2. Find and name in order all the numbers from 10 to 1.
3. Connect the lines of all numbers in order from 1 to 20.

You can take larger tables: from 1 to 30, from 1 to 100. It all depends on the age and perseverance of the child. Tables with numbers from 1 to 100 are best given to children from 8-9 years old. As a rule, 6-7 year old babies do not have sufficient perseverance for such values. But if the child himself is interested in the lesson, then why not?

Ring method

The ring method was proposed by Landolt at the end of the 19th century, and was immediately recognized as stimulating the speed of writing and the development of attention. 7 years is the maximum age when this game can be applied. It received the greatest distribution in kindergartens at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.

The meaning of the game is that the teacher draws up a table filled with two types of rings (circles). The first set of rings has a cut at the top, and the second, for example, on the left. The child is encouraged to cross out as many rings as possible with different lines within 5 minutes. The first view is a horizontal line, the second - diagonally.

You can diversify the types of rings: with a cut on the left, bottom, bottom right (diagonal), etc. However, consider the development of the child, because he will need to remember what and how to cross out. During the training, every minute the teacher says a “line”, and the child puts a horizontal line in the place where these words caught him. After 5 minutes, the teacher says “stop”, the baby puts two horizontal stripes in the place where he stopped his work.

The child’s attention level is calculated using the following formula: S = 0.5N - 2.8n: 60, where:

• S - level of attention.
• N is the number of correctly crossed out characters (rings).
• n is the number of errors.

If S is more than 1.25, then the child has a high level of attention, 1.00–1.25 - medium high, 0.75–1.00 - medium, 0.5–0.75 - low, satisfactory. Less than 0.5 is very low.

This test of attentiveness in a short time can establish the level of development of any child of preschool (for the most part) and primary school age.

"Beetle in the clearing"

Children's game suitable for both schoolchildren and preschool children. The teacher offers the children a small field, cut out in cells (sizes 5 X 5 cells). In one corner there is a bug that needs to overcome this field.

An adult tells children the bug’s path along the “map”, for example, one cell up, two to the right, four down, etc. Toddlers cannot record or mark where the bug is, but after several actions the teacher says “stop”. The bug “stops” and the children or child must tell where he stayed. The field may look like the image below.

Such tasks to develop attention will help any child to become less distracted and prepare for adulthood. In addition, you can conduct a lesson with an unlimited number of children. The main thing is to have time to check the answers for everyone and not to get confused.

Words and colors

A similar exercise is used for children of primary school age with a developed reading skill. Preferred age is 7-9 years.

Perhaps many are already familiar with such an occupation, it can be used in the form of a game or as a test of attentiveness. The point is simple. The teacher offers the child a list of colors: red, blue, green, yellow, purple, etc., but their names are written in a different color. For example, the word "yellow" is written in red, "blue" in green, etc. The task of the student is to look at the word and say what color it is. What the exercise might look like is shown in the figure below.

If out of ten color words, 9 were correctly named, then the child has a high level of attention. If 6-8 is average. If 5 or less - low. In cases with a low level, the exercise should be carried out daily, grouping it with the game and other tasks so that the child does not get bored and is not capricious. This task best forms the development of attention in younger students, exercises of this kind are not only interesting, but also develop reading skills.

Associations

In training for developing attention in primary schoolchildren, exercises on the topic of “association” are included as additional ones. However, they perfectly help the child develop such a skill as abstract thinking and learn how to draw.

Before the start of the game, adults make a list of objects or objects according to the principle “from simple to complex”, in general there should be no more than 10 phrases. For example: a house, a bush, a chicken, a joyful child, a writing man, mother cooks, a teacher at the blackboard, a balloon in the sky. The task of the baby is to first listen to the entire list, then quickly draw objects within a period of 20 seconds so that he can then reproduce the entire list from the pictures.

If in 20 seconds the baby does not have time to depict everything, the adult dictates the list again. Maximum Dictation: 3 times.

“Remember”

So many games for developing memory and attention for young children are comically called. In the process, the child forms not only these skills, but also spatial thinking.

For the game you will need a few blank sheets of paper and the usual buttons. The first opponent takes three buttons and puts them on his sheet of paper in a certain order, allows the second player (child) to remember the position of the buttons (maximum 20 seconds), then closes the set with a second sheet of paper. The task of the baby on his sheet is to put the buttons in the same order as his opponent (adult or child). Over time, depending on age or development, you can complicate the game: add more buttons, draw a sheet on the cells and put buttons in them.

Search for letters

The development of memory, attention, thinking goes side by side with the expansion of the horizons of the child, which can not do without the skill of reading and writing. So, the next game is aimed precisely at the formation of this skill.

The child is offered a sheet with randomly spaced letters. The kid needs to collect words from these letters at the direction of adults. For example, an adult says: “Show me how to write your name,” and the child, speaking, shows the letters of his name in a certain order.

Hunters

The level of attention development directly depends on the child’s ability to self-control, if the baby learns to calm down on its own, without shouting and adult comments, he will take another step towards the successful formation of selective attention. This game is suitable for kindergarten children.

The teacher or parent tells the child (possibly a group of children) that they are hunters and they need to listen to every sound in the “forest” so as not to miss a good prey. For a while, the children should sit in complete silence (up to 5 minutes). Then tell the adult what they heard. Perhaps it will be the creak of a door or floorboard, the noise of cars outside the window.

You can connect other adults to the game, who will create any sounds. For example, ringing a bell or rustling leaves if there is no wind. Here, children need not only to hear any sounds, but also to remember them, so that later they can tell. This is how attention, memory, and motor skills of a child develop.

Thus, the developmental features of each child’s attention are individual, however, the techniques invented by teachers and speech therapists ultimately allow all children to grow up and live a happy, fulfilling life without problems with the attention mechanism.