Re: Childhood Attention Span

[Guest guest]

Mel Siff wrote:

<PP 35. Is the Attention Span of Children as Short as Is Claimed?

Sports coaches are always warned to teach children sporting skills

in short learning sessions, because psychological research apparently has

revealed that children cannot concentrate on any given task as

well as an adult.

Yet, we have all seen that many children can play the same computer

game for hours without break or watch TV all day, if they are not

controlled. We need no further psychological research to determine that children

CAN

CONCENTRATE for very prolonged periods. Moreover, very young gymnasts and

ballerinas voluntarily spend hours practising their skills.

Are the psychologists wrong and should we teach children sporting

and other skills in a less patronising way? Is it not possible that the

allegedly brief attention span of children has more to do with interest

level, novelty, variety and teaching style than any instrinsic lack of ability

of

children to concentrate on one topic for prolonged periods? >

It's funny that kids can recite every word of a new song after

listening to it only a few times, yet they can't learn math, english,

science, proper pass patterns, proper reads, proper technique, etc. -

after hours of teaching or coaching!

Wilmington DE

> Dr Mel C Siff

> Denver, USA

> mcsiff@a...

> Supertraining/

[Guest guest]

I certainly agree with Dr. Siff that children are capable of much longer

attention spans than most child psychologists give them credit for. (I

could pontificate a VERY long time about pop psychology and what it's done

to our society). However, the length of that span is significantly

affected by how interested the child is in the activity. I do believe

sometimes that young people think boredom is a fate worse than death.

[Lest some group members think that I am simply theorising about children

and their attention spans, I have spent my entire adult life teaching children

of

all ages from early school to university postgraduate and I am just sharing

some of my practical experiences. For example, I taught at a so-called school

for highly gifted children (8-14 years of age) and my classes sometimes lasted

more than 3 hours at a time and I never ever had a sleepy or restless kid. Mind

you,

I always mixed input with demonstration, activity, Socratic questioning, acting,

lots of humour, 'stretch' breaks and paradoxes and only occasionally some

audiovisual input.

One possibly hazardous side-effect in more recent years was when I collapsed in

front of my engineering class with a near fatal heart attack - my students

initially

thought it was just another example of the Siff teaching style!

My teaching philosophy? Well, after years of suffering at the hands of years of

certain

school teachers and professors, I swore that I would not do to youngsters what

was done to me in the name of education! Simple, but very effective! Mel Siff

]

If the child is not INTERESTED in the training activities for either sport

or strength, then an instructor or coach must think of ways to keep the

child's interest. A good teacher knows this, and can stimulate interest in

children as a matter of course. Else, we'd not have learning in first or

second grade, and certainly not in high school. I suppose the argument may

be made that we don't HAVE learning in our schools these days. The case

might also be made that our teachers are succumbing to the psychology that

children don't have long enough attention spans to learn to read and

write. :-)

Back to strength or sports training - a child who loves training or sports

sometimes takes it way too far, and must actually be limited by their

adult supervisor for their own well being. Children who are not so

interested in physical activities however, must be motivated in some other

way. I think it all boils down to the fact that children are

individuals. Sometimes the sessions must be shorter than the CHILD

desires, and sometimes they must be shorter than the coach thinks is good.

Long live individualism in both children and adults.

Madeline Chen

Colorado Springs, CO

Madeline Chen

Project Consultant

719-338-6757

[Guest guest]

Mel Siff wrote: Is it not possible that the allegedly brief attention span of

children has more to do with interest level, novelty, variety and teaching

style than any instrinsic lack of ability of children to concentrate on one

topic for prolonged periods?

Kelley responded: It's funny that kids can recite every word of a new

song after listening to it only a few times, yet they can't learn math,

english, science, proper pass patterns, proper reads, proper technique, etc. -

after hours of teaching or coaching!

*** These statements serve to point out that the teaching method is extremely

important. ly, I think this is true even with adults. The more

fascinating one finds a subject, the more likely one will remember it with

less study or at least be willing to make more effort to learn. The last book

I read, " The Changing Brain, " could have easily put me to sleep, yet it was

written in such an interesting manner that I kept on reading even when I

didn't quite grasp all the scientific concepts. Just when things got really

dull, Dr. Black interjected something especially interesting about the

scientist or took the reader back to find out what was happening to Enoch.

If I contrast this to my oh so dull high school history texts, one can readily

see the problem. I absolutely detested American history, yet Europeans I met

said just the opposite, but they usually didn't like the history of their own

countries, which I often found fascinating. It seems each country rewrites

it's story, making it's leaders holier than thou, which most never were. Thus

they become sterile and totally boring when in fact they were extremely

interesting if only the school system would allow them to be portrayed as they

actually were.

I recall catching a glimpse of Sesame Street many years ago that was teaching

multiplication tables. It was a cartoon of five Keep on Truckin' characters

who marched along to a jazzy tune with the words " 5, 5, 5, 5! It's so alive!

5 times 1 is 5, 5 times 2 is 10, 5 times 3 is 15, 5 times 4 is 20 and 5 times

5 is 25! This verse was repeated over quite a number of times before it

continued on about 5 times 6 on up to 5 times 10. All the while the cartoon

characters continued to dance and sing. Even though I already knew my

multiplication tables, I have never forgotten this. Had I been a small child

when I saw it, I would have known the 5 times multiplication table after the

15 minute presentation.

The dullness of class may also be some of the reason a lot of kids are on

drugs to calm them down. When I think of some of the boring stuff I've been

required to sit through, it's no wonder I twitched and fidgeted about.

Fortunately in my day, Ritalin didn't exist. As an adult, having learned

proper behavior, when the subject gets dull, I simply fall asleep and hope

that I won't snore.

Rosemary Wedderburn-Vernon

Venice, CA