Any Ideas on How to Help a Child Stay Focused and on Task?

Many children his age have difficulty following multi step taskd, and boy especially tend to forget directions after about 10 seconds if they are not already doing the task. I would not worry too much about it. I would just start breaking things down into smaller steps for him, only ask him to do 1 or 2 things at a time, then ask him to do another 1 or things until what he needs to do is done. Good Luck!!

Hello... I don't want to jump the gun AND realize its way over diagnosed, but has he been screened for ADD or ADHD?? You can ask his teacher if they've considered this too. Just a thought.

I have a six year old boy who sounds a lot like your son (although my son also had a severe speech delay). My son also has trouble staying on task although we are very lucky to have a wonderful teacher and school support system that works with us to help with the classroom environment. I would suggest asking to meet with the school psychologist to see what they can do to help and personally I wouldn't let them push me into an ADD/ADHD diagnosis. I know we discovered my son had some sensory issues which makes it difficult to focus in certain situations (a big one for him is if it is noisy or a lot of activity is going on but it can be anything from a smell distracting a child with sensory issues to the type of lights in the classroom which may be causing him to lose focus). The clinic where we pursued sensory treatments was called Sensory Systems in St Clair Shores (www.sensorysystemsclinic.com)

Also, you could look into the avenue of food intolerances (as stated below they are different than food allergies in that they often don't have a histamine response that would show up on a standard allergy test or present itself with hives/rashes, etc.) There are two options for testing for food intolerances: remove the food from his diet for a few days and then add it back in to note any changes in his behavior or we took my son to a NAET/Bioset practitioner which uses acupressure treatments to overcome the intolerance. It is a completely non-invasive treatment and so far we've seen some improvement. Our practitioner is located in Troy: Terry Robinson at New Life Allergy (www.newlifeallergy.com)and she was not only able to treat him for several food intolerances but also had an ADD/ADHD treatment kit which we believe had an positive impact. Our son still doesn't have a "strong" ability to focus, but every little bit helps.

Overall, I would recommend continually researching options for your son, talk to your pediatrician and push the school district/teacher to provide you with some ideas and solutions. It's not an easy road, but anything we can do to understand and help our kids is worth it.

Hello L. B.

You certainly aren't alone! My 5 y/o is the same way! We didn't really notice it until this year. She's always been a bit forgetfull, but SUPER smart. Far past her age level.

I couldn't figure out for the life of me why she couldn't remember the easiest things, or why she would so easily get side-tracked!

I just wanted to thank you for bringing this topic up! I have no advice as I am in the same boat as you are!

I can tell you however that by trying to fix it now you are doing a great thing. A good friend of mine is a kindergarted teacher and she tested my daughter to see what level she is operating on. She says she was far advanced in everything but comprehenison. She can read, write, add, subtarct et. etc. But she can't re-tell a simple story! I've noticed this when I ask her what she did in school. I get short answers that are usually the same daily...played, lunch, art, etc.

My friend says that to work on this I should read a story to her, make sequence cards, and have her put them in order. I think this may work in every day life as well.

Hope you find a solution! Thanks again for asking, you helped ME out!

I know that this is not true of every child, but we have found that our 4 year old cannot focus or listen whenever he gets eggs or soy in his diet. It isn't a food allergy in the sense that there are no hives, breathing difficulties, etc, but instead a food intolerance (which is known for causing behavioral changes). The difference in his (in)ability to focus and 'keep it together' if he eats eggs or soy is shocking. If he were older and eating eggs, he'd get labeled as ADD, and yet we have discovered it is not the case at all.

I don't know if food reactions are something you will want to explore with your child, but I did want to pass on our experience. Best of luck to you.

I would love to read the other advice you receive. I have a third grader who is showing the same signs as your son. When he is at home doing his homework he will breeze through it. But his teacher also has said something needs to be done before he goes into the fourth grade.

Hi you may want to have your son tested for A.D.D If he is found to have it will help him with the problems with staying on task that was what my daughter problem is. L.

I am not a doctor, this is not medical advice: Epsom salts baths help some children w/ focus. To test them, try them every night for two weeks -- don't skip a night -- and then stop on a Friday night and watch him over the weekend for differences. Get your pediatrician's okay first. Susan Owens is the name to google in terms of sulfation and epsom salts baths.

Additionally, a visual schedule with a place to check off what he's completed might be helpful so that visually, he can see what he still has left to do.

I have 3 kids that fit that description. They all have high IQs, and I guess that's a very common issue with smart people. He could be occupying his active mind with more interesting things than the mundane tasks at hand! Unfortunately, the smartest of our kids are the ones getting left behind. If he was doing badly, there would be more help available to him!
Here are 2 good websites that I used to educate myself:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/gifted_101.htm
http://www.sengifted.org/index.shtml
Of course he could have other issues with concentrating as well. Find out the intelligence factor 1st. The "symptoms" are very similar. On the SENG website the Misdiagnosis book on the bottom of the home page is great for distinguishing the differences. Especially ADD and ADHD are similar behaviors. My oldest is 14 now and we still can't give him more than a few directions at a time w/o something getting forgotten. But, he can ace his Geometry exam w/o any review and is incredible at self-teaching. If it catches his interest, he remembers it. Good luck!

Sounds silly, but he could be board or just a day dreamer. The ADHD lit (not that I am suggesting that is his issue) has a lot of really great suggestions for structuring, diet modifications and behavioral changes that work for kids who have a hard time with concentration tasks. Dr. Barkely is a great resource... many time kids who are smart are told they are not living up to their potential and it could be inattention type ADHD, boredom with the task or just that they are used to being able to get away with not working as hard.

My son is 10 1/2 and has been like what you are describing all his life. As he gets older, you will find he will continue to get good grades but his writing grades will reflect his inability to stay on task. Therefore he will try to get by with the minimal required to still get those good grades. This will be OK most of the time but you will see a problem in writing and language arts. What we have done is given him a list of all he has to do and we tell him to check off this list before he can have video game/play time. This can be daunting as well but at least you are working on one thing, the list, and not trying to remember all the things you want him to get done that day. This is probably who he is so try to look at the positive...good grade, healthy, good kid, etc. Every kid has challenges. Good Luck!!

I am a chiropractor in Eastpointe, MI, and I have seen and helped several children and adults that have a hard time concentrating and focusing. There are several areas that we address in the office. The first is the nervous system. Chiropractors are not neck and back pain doctors, we are nervous system doctors. Our bodies are self healing and self organizing. The central nervous system (our brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (the nerves that branch out of the spinal cord and go to the cells, tissues, and organs in our bodies) control how our bodies heal and organize itself. If there is any interference in the communication of our nervous system with the body, then there will either be increased activity or decreased activity, either way the body is no longer functioning at it’s highest potential. Chiropractors call this interference a subluxation (sub-lux-a-tion). This interference/subluxation is caused by three major life stresses- Physical stress (trauma, repetitive motions, poor posture); Biochemical stress (preservatives in food, drugs- prescription, alcohol, smoking); and Mental or Emotional stress. By allowing the nervous system to function properly this allows the symptoms to decrease as the underlying cause is treated.
The second area that we look at with patients having a hard time concentrating and focusing is their nutrition. Many people have food allergies that result in behavioral issues as well as being deficient in vital vitamins and minerals. We have a creating Wellness and Intervention Program that we co-manage care of our clients that focus on the nutritional and chemical aspect and other areas of health and wellness.
If you would like additional information for you and your family, we have a website www.khalilchiropractic.com with a link to the Wellness Center. I can be reached at Khalil Family Chiropractic ###-###-####.

Yours in Finding better ways to health and wellness.
B. G DC

I have an 8 yr son with similiar characteristics. He is very bright too. He really struggled in 1st grade and now that he is in 3rd grade he has demonstrated improvements but he still needs some cues. I have not had him tested for ADD as I feel people are too quick to jump into that arena. I know he is capable of focusing but his mind is filled with other more interesting things. Give him a test and he will get an A on it however, have him write his spelling words 4 times each and he will be very slow to complete. I would be too! We have tried positive reinforcement with him and this has really worked. In 1st grade, the teacher would just tap him on the shoulder if she saw him day dreaming. Just stay on top of it and talk with the teacher regarding strategies to help him before you diagnosis him. Kids have so much pressure these days. Sometimes we forget they are children and shouldn't have the attention or focus of an adult. Good luck to you...

It sounds like he is a smart little guy to me. Maybe the structure is what he needs. You may find that he does really well in the second grade. I would recommend adding some structure to his morning. List out all of the things that he needs to do. Have him lay out his clothes the night before... you can help him (have him do it, with you there and then remind him that he forgot something, and have him figure out what it is, and if he just can't then you can tell him). Have him write a list of things that needs to be done every morning, write it on poster board, so that he can see it easily, You can make it a dry erase board so that he can check it off as he goes.

This will be a good test to see if maybe there just isn't enough structure in the classroom. It will give you a talking point with his teacher.

As far as the writing goes... my nephews and my son have all had difficulties writing... I think it is a boy thing. Talk to him about how important it is, and tell him that you are going to help him by giving him more practice. Give him rewards for doing the extra work. Make it fun. Have him write little stories about what he did on the weekend. Or have him write 4 or 5 sentences of a story that he gets to create. Praise him even if he is writing a complaint about the extra work... at least he is writing. As he gets faster at writing, it will be less of a chore. I would be that he doesn't like it and procrastinates, because it take too long to do, because he is slow.

Talk to him about what is bothering him. Maybe you should do that first. Ask him what he thinks about writing. Don't try to change his mind about, only try to counteract the situation.

My soon to be 11 yr old 5th grader has been this way forever. Our problem is he was a 26 week preemie and everyone wanted to write it off to "prematurity". Well, I've discussed this with his pediatrician and instead of opting to throw medication at him, she suggested a sleep study to be done at Children's Hospital. We discovered that he didn't have enough deep REM sleep and his patterns indicated that by the afternoon, he was just exhausted. Hard to focus on stuff when you're plain ole tired.

We've stabilized bedtime back to being 8:00, whereas he was wanting to stay up until 9:00 before. We also have everything ready for school the night before so there isn't so much to do in the morning, which allows him an extra half hour of sleeping in, verses his sister. For breakfast, he gets a 1200 mg capsule of flax seed oil and about 8 ounces of green caffinated iced tea with a high fiber cereal or oatmeal or a grain based cereal, occasionally a scrambled egg with veggies in it (he loves onions and peppers). The grain and/or oatmeal is slow release energy for him. The regularity of the flax seed capsules seems to have made the biggest change with him.

For a snack mid morning, he takes a home-baked baked oatmeal bar with some type of fruit in it (apples, raisins, etc). Very easy to make at home and has no preservatives, dyes, etc. Again, the oatmeal seems to get him through the day better.

When they go outside for their 3:00 recess, he sneaks another little snack of some sort- usually a baggie of presliced apples or a box of raisins. Just something to keep the energy going.

He has no food allergies that we know of and has never been a picky eater, but I try to stay away from the convenience foods as much as possible. Just too much unknown stuff in them and I'm not sure that he doesn't just have some of those normal sensitivities- dyes, HFCS, etc, like so many others.

I was so glad that his pediatrician didn't just throw a prescription at him and rather, guided us in a better path. Certainly if someone could prove to me that his body NEEDS the ADD medication because of some chemical imbalance that can't be controlled any other way, then I'd work with that too; kind of like when a diabetic needs insulin.

We also have to break up tasks into smaller jobs or he is easily overwhelmed. We have written on our bathroom mirror (in dry erase markers) to remind him to brush his teeth and wash his face before bedtime - seems that when we say "go get ready for bed", he sometimes can't get it all together without a little reminder. We do pick out clothes the night before and I have 3 x 5 cards, a different color for each day, with his school specials (one day is music, one day is computer lab, one day is gym, etc) as a reminder. I attached magnets to the back of the cards and since our entry door is steel, I post which ever one is needed on the door by his backpack. Same with a card "remember lunch money!" or "get lunch box from fridge" or "don't forget meeting with your tutor today" type notes.

I try to give him chores that are repetitive - like taking out the trash on Wednesdays because it becomes a routine then and something he doesn't have to really think about. (It's another 3 x 5 card we post on Wednesdays). On Mondays I wash whites and his job is to sort the socks and underware and put everyone's away- we call it "sock day".

As we progress through the day, the 3 x 5 cards are changed as needed which means he did what he needed to do (Sock day sign is put away) and he can see when he's "done".

Now that we're in 5th grade, things are much better. I think the fact that boys mature a bit slower than girls also plays in to all this as well. He's leaned how to manage his homework- again by breaking it into smaller tasks. He normally gets all his homework for the week on Mondays, and then priortizes it by the due date. We spend 1 hour on homework, and half hour on independant reading per night, and it's up to him to see that what needs to be done is done on time. SO, if he gets Tuesdays work done and has time left over, he will sometimes work on Wednesdays to fill out the hour, etc. Beccause we limit the homework time, he gets some time to himself each day to do whatever he wants and doesn't feel under the gun all the time. Afterall, they are still kids and need to do kid stuff too!

Another trick I learned is give things a time limit. Don't say "get the homework done", say instead "spend 15 minutes and work on spelling first, then let's see where that puts us." By giving a time limit, there's a finite end to the task and it's not so daunting to see the mile high pile of papers and not know where to start. It also lets him feel in control of the homework, and that he is in charge for that hour. The little break after 15 minutes is enough to allow the mind to rest a bit, then we go for another 10 minutes or so, or just work on math problems 1 thru 3, and take another breather before finishing. This time limit thing works wonders with messy bedrooms too! ("Hey, can you take 5 minutes and see how much you can get done with your room" is so much more effective than "Go clean up that mess you call a bedroom!" It's amazing what can be done in 5 minutes- and be excited to see what was done, even if it is only 85% done in the end)

Sorry I rembled on too much - hope there was some information in there for you!

Hi L.---I'd also like to share from my experience. My first thought is to be sure his diet does not contribute to a 'less than desirable' attention span. Minimize, or remove entirely, all chemical additives; preservatives, food dyes, MSG, aspertame and all processed foods. Read the labels and if you can't pronounce the word, you probably shouldn't eat it. Support brain health by making sure he has plenty of complex carbs, especially at breakfast. Fruits, veggies, whole grains and legumes are all appropriate. Lots of good fiber will slow the rate at which sugars (all food breaks down into sugar) enter the blood stream. So instant oatmeal is not as good a choice as quick oats, which is not as good as rolled oats, which is not as good as steel cut oats. Add ground flax seed to his cereals, pancakes or muffins that you make. Flax is the BEST source of omega 3 fatty acids, extremely important for brain function. You may even eventually want to see about what effect gluten has on him. Gluten sensitivity is an immune response problem, and eating lots and LOTS of fruits and veggies will help to strengthen and balance his immune system. (If you would like to know how to add 17 different fruits, veggies and grains to your diet everyday, let me know.)

The behavioral part I'm not so good at. But I do know that structure is very important when learning to complete tasks. You might have to spend more time with him at first, while trying to establish a routine that he can follow. I think the chart idea is good, although it may take awhile to find what works with your son. Your efforts now will be realized later when he is older. Trying to help him establish new habits will be more difficult in the future.

Oh, and be sure he is getting adequate sleep. I am taking a Wellness Class offered by a Naturopath who has her PhD in nutrition. So I have articles and files that I can share with you, if you like. I'd also like to let you know that a Naturopath from Kalamazoo will be in Birmingham, MI to speak about brain health. She has written a book on ADD and she might offer some ideas and insight as to what you might want to do in the future. The date is February 19. Call me, or send me your email address and I will send you the flyer. Hope these ideas help.

In health, D. ###-###-#### ____@____.com

Hi L. B, I commend you for working on this now. The concern about 2nd grade is real.

I have had experience with this. May I ask you a couple of questions? Does your son have allergies? Do you know if he does better with hearing directions or seeing them?

What is his diet like?

Could we talk about this some more?

M.