by Nan Keltie

Created on: June 08, 2009

Children come "hard-wired" with short attention spans, a fact many parents bemoan. It is possible, however, to help them learn to pay attention for longer periods of time. In fact, it's one of the most important skills you can teach your child.

Why paying attention is vital ~

The safety factor: Learning to pay attention saves a lot of heartache. An attentive child listens when you instruct him to "wait" or "stop" or "come here." A child that has never learned to pay attention may run ahead and step in front of a speeding vehicle or stick a knife in an outlet or refuse to come to you when there is imminent danger. Paying attention is a safety net.

The frustration factor: When a child is attentive to the parent, it does away with a lot of unnecessary frustrations in the parent-child relationship. Constantly reminding, correcting, sending a child to his/her room or taking away privileges builds frustration and anger. There is never any real solution to the problem until the child learns to pay attention the first time.

The success factor: Paying attention is foundational for success. If a child never learns to pay attention, she will struggle in school, homework, daily communication skills, responsibility at home - and later, on the job. Learning the consequences of failing to pay attention is a valuable lesson. No employer is going to repeat an instruction five or six times.

Helping your children pay attention ~

If you think training your child takes too much time and energy, think again. Constantly reminding, correcting, and/or butting heads takes far more time and energy later than it would have taken to do it right in the first place. When you teach your children to pay attention, you hand them a key to future success...

Since children love to play, capitalize on that while teaching them the art of "attentiveness." Simple listening games help reinforce the importance of paying attention. Inside, have your child wear a blindfold or cover her eyes while you make various noises. Can she guess what you're doing? Take a quilt outdoors and play, "What can you hear?" (Examples: train whistle in the distance, a bird chirping, the neighbor mowing grass, etc.)

Children also like to pretend, so make up Let's Pretend games that reinforce paying attention. Consider the following examples: "Let's pretend we are at the park and you want to swing higher and higher. When Daddy tells you to slow down, what should you do? Most children will respond

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