We recommend some simple ABA attention activities that you can do at home.

Hello, I am BCBA Minjeong Kwon.

Attention is an essential skill for a child's learning and development.

We need this ability to focus on homework, listen to a friend's story time, and even create something during playtime.

But did you know that attention has four different functions? Understanding the different functions of attention can help you better understand your child’s development.

Today, we'll introduce the four functions of attention and share some simple and fun ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) activities you can do with your child at home.

Understanding the Four Functions of Attention

Before we introduce the activities, let's briefly look at four attentional functions that children use in their daily lives:

1. Dividing attention: The ability to focus on several things at the same time. This would be the case when a child is playing with a toy while listening to their parents.
2. Selective attention: The ability to focus on what's important (e.g., a parent's voice) and ignore distractions (e.g., the sound of a TV in the background).
3. Sustained attention: The ability to focus on a task for long periods of time. For example, the concentration needed to finish a puzzle.
4. Shifting attention: The ability to shift focus from one task to another, such as stopping play when it's time to eat dinner.

People with attention deficit disorder may have difficulty with just one of these functions, or they may have difficulty with all four.

The important thing is that these areas can be improved through sufficient training. What activities can help children improve their attention span if they do them consistently every day?

Fun ABA Activities to Try at Home

1. Distribute attention: Talk while doing activities

• Talking during the puzzle:
• It would be good to do this in the middle of an activity that your child is usually absorbed in and good at (it could be a puzzle, a memory game, or a craft activity). Make eye contact for a moment during the game, and ask a question that has nothing to do with the game! Start with very simple questions, and gradually ask more difficult questions.
• Tip: Use visual aids to show your child a list of questions. Continue the puzzle and conversation by praising or rewarding them as they complete each question.

2. Attention to selection: Focus play

• Scavenger hunt game:
• Have your child search for objects of a certain color or shape through scavenger hunts. Give instructions appropriate to your child’s language development level, such as “Find the object that has four wheels and many square windows!” This activity helps develop the ability to focus on important details.
• Tip: Play the game by adjusting the number of objects, sentence length, vocabulary, etc. to suit your child.
• Clean-up activities:
• Have your child sort toys or household items by color or sort socks by size. These activities help develop selective attention, which focuses on one feature .
• Tip: You can use a timer to measure time and see if your child's attention span is improving.

3. Sustained attention: continuous activity

• Puzzles and Block Stacking:
• It may seem like a classic, but puzzles and block building are actually great activities for developing your child’s ability to focus on a task for a long period of time! Start with easier puzzles and gradually increase the difficulty level to improve your child’s attention span.
• Tip: Set the level of the task to suit your child and motivate them with positive reinforcement like high fives or stickers every now and then :)
• read:
• Set a daily reading time or set a reading amount to read. Whether it’s reading together or the number of times your child turns the pages of a picture book, setting a goal and looking at the book every day will ultimately help your child develop concentration and attention span.
• Tip: You can add stickers that your child likes here and there in the book, ask questions about the story, or talk about the pictures! If your child really hates books, you can make a photo album that looks like a book and flip through it.

4. Shifting attention: Flexibility training

• Simon says the game:
• Simon Says... is a game where you say things like "jump", "dance", "clap", etc., and then say what you want your child to do. Not only are children really enjoying it, but it also helps develop the ability of children to quickly shift their attention according to changing instructions. Let's play a game and practice your child's attention-shifting skills.
• Tip: Start with simple words like “Nose!” “Knees!” “Ear!” and test your child’s concentration by gradually increasing the number of sentences . You can try variations like “Jump three times!” “Find the toy!”
• Obstacle Course:
• Create a mini obstacle course in your living room. Have your child follow different directions, such as crawling under a chair or jumping over pillows. This will help your child shift his attention quickly as he listens to the directions and moves through the course.
• Tip: If there is a prize for each successful completion of a course, your child will be more excited and motivated to complete it.

Today, I introduced some activities that can improve your child's attention span. I will come back with another post when I think of more activities that your child can enjoy :)