Memory at work: Attention Span

We've all had them: the students who have attention spans of gnats who need constant stimulation and still struggle with attending. Last year I worked in a preschool where morning circle was punctuated with a couple of students inevitably getting frequent redirections and reprimands to pay attention and keep their hands to themselves. At the time I postulated that the 45 minutes of circle was to blame, but as a guest in the classroom, was hesitant to comment as "my" student generally was on target with his behavior. Now I have research to use to help with this assumption. Francis Bailey and Ken Pransky wrote Memory at Work in the Classroom: Strategies to Help Underachieving Students. On page 87 they posit several rules of thumb for attention span:

• age +2 minutes
• 3-5 minutes per each year of age
• adults have 20 minutes

That rule of thumb is complicated with interest. If someone is very interested in something, they have a longer attention span than if they are not interested in it. This explains why those darlings with ADHD might be able to play a video game for an hour without a break, but can only work on a math worksheet for 3 minutes before getting wiggly.

I really like the age + 2 plan. Some of those preschoolers were deeply engaged in morning circle which included calendar, weather, singing group songs, reviewing the day's agenda and a story. Some were not so deeply engaged. They were not the one checking the weather and need prompting to sing the "What's the Weather" song. Bland readings of stories without exciting previews, engaging voices, and teacher enthusiasm were less engaging to many. Collectively students needed more action- songs with motions and movement- and more hype. One challenge to teaching this age group is the constant need to be enthralled with whatever is going on regardless of how routine it is. These kids needed an activity change at least every 6 minutes and without it, were behavior problems.

Bailey and Pransky suggest both classroom and individual strategies to address the executive function of sustained attention (p. 90). From a classroom standpoint:

• Preferential seating- surround with good attenders, away from distractions
• discuss distractions and suggestions for dealing with them
• explicitly teach what paying attention and listening are and what they look like
• be intentional about time chunks
• include more steps to help break up longer tasks
• have part of the instructions for the group include specific training in behavioral expectations.
• use total participation techniques.

This is not just for our classic struggling students- the ones with IEPs and 504 plans or ADHD diagnoses. Many students without diagnoses benefit from these strategies so teaching the group makes sense.

Some students need more than the instruction for the group. Their strategies need to based on each child. From an individual standpoint:

• have a signal for redirecting students- with my preschooler, I used the sign for look
• establish a self-monitoring checklist
• utilize metacognition- when can the student focus, how does it feel, how can that information be used in the classroom
• have the student have a signal for waning attention: perhaps a break card

We can help our students develop better attention, but we need to start where they are and teach skills. While some students may need medication to help them learn these skills, medication only opens the door. They need instruction to teach them to step through. This is especially true as they age and have learned habits of inattention which must be broken before they learn skills of attending. A difficult task, but well worth the investment.