Concentration

Parents today, in this technological age of the internet, smart-phones, and social media, face a great challenge—getting their children to concentrate. Before even talking about our children, let’s consider our own experience. How often have you found yourself intending to work with great concentration on a task only to be distracted by a little sound from your smartphone indicating that you’ve received a new WhatsApp message. You hear the sound, read one WhatsApp message, then read another, then click on a link to a YouTube video sent by a friend, and sigh…before you know it, 15 minutes have gone by and you’ve done precisely…nothing. We’ve all experienced these frustrating mental detours, and if we adults struggle with overcoming the distractions of the modern-technological age, imagine the difficulty our adolescents experience. Our children, like us, are being bombarded with stimulation. The daily deluge of emails, social media messages, and notification sounds are making it difficult for young people to concentrate on a single task. For example, just consider the fact that there has been a noticeable decline in the amount of reading (reading of books) that young people, especially late teens, do. This should come as no surprise. How can young people maintain the sustained concentration necessary to read a book when they are constantly being besieged by the stimulation of the smartphone age, and when many of them have acquired a deeply ingrained habit of checking their smart phones every so often, lest they start to feel “anxious” and “disconnected.” As parents, we should be concerned about the effect technology is having on our children’s ability to concentrate. There’s no need to offer a defence of the great value of being able to focus on a single-task in an immersive way. The ability to focus is indispensable for success; it is perhaps the one commonality that all successful people share. Those who can focus are those who can develop software programs, write great books, earn doctorates, etc. In other words, those who can concentrate are those who can achieve, plain and simple. Therefore, one of the greatest things we can do for our children is to find ways to foster their ability to concentrate. To do so, however, parents need to realize that their adolescents’ ability to focus for an extended period of time is something that must be earned; it does not come cheaply. Our minds are like muscles that can be strengthened with exercise; and research suggests that exercise means prolonged periods of uninterrupted concentration, says Earl Miller, a professor of neuroscience at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Just as a runner must put in the road time to develop physical stamina, one must endeavour to concentrate for extended periods of time in order to develop mental stamina. There are no shortcuts or easy methods. But, the rewards of putting in the “road time” are great, no question. So, the question is: how can parents foster their adolescents ability to concentrate? 1.) Instead of chastising your children for checking their Facebook while trying to do their homework, parents should positively talk to their children about the value of being able to concentrate without getting distracted; positively motivate your adolescents by explaining to them the great benefits that result from having great mental stamina. 2.) Designate a serene place for your children to work. 3.) Ask your adolescent children to turn off their phones when working and set reasonable goals for how long they should try to work without being distracted. At the beginning, start small; ask them to try to work for 15 or 20 minutes without getting distracted. Then, allow them to take a small 5-minute break before another 15- or 20-minute session of focused work. As your children practice focusing without distraction, they will begin to enjoy working in an undistracted way, and it will slowly become their habit to do so. They will realize that by working without being distracted they can accomplish more in less time, leaving them more time for recreation and other interests, like…Facebook.