Use these games to support attention
In the previous blog post, we discussed one of the most important cognitive skills in the development of children and their language: attention.
We have seen what attention is, how to understand if our child has difficulty with it, and I have mentioned some games to play at home that can support attention during childhood.
Today, I want to talk to you in more detail about 3 games that can support attention. The first is appropriate for children as young as a few months old, the second for children as young as three years old, and the third for children as young as five years old.
Let’s see them together!
Action Songs – 0/3 year-old children
Action songs are children’s songs that use simple actions together with words. These are a successful strategy for stimulating children’s attention and language development from birth to three years.
The main reason is that the music captures the child’s attention, and the various actions help to maintain the child’s attention on the song.
Although there are action songs available on the internet, simply watching videos is insufficient. In fact, in order to use them to support attention and language, we parents must sing the songs with our children – without music – while performing the actions.
As our children become more attentive to our songs, we can assist them in performing the same actions that we do. This will help them remember the actions, associate the actions with the words, and encourage them to sing along with us, stimulating their language skills.
Red light, Green light – Children aged 3 and up
Red light, green light is a fun and motivating game that helps children focus on auditory stimuli. It is highly adaptable and can be used both indoors and outdoors, with a single child or with a group of children.
The adult takes on the role of a “traffic light”, saying out loud the colours Red, Yellow, and Green. Children will perform different actions based on the colour they perceive.
When the parent says the colour Green, the children can run or jump from one part of the room to another. When the children hear Yellow, they must walk slowly. When the adult, on the other hand, says Red, the children must remain still.
During this game, children must pay attention to what they hear and act accordingly. as the adult may say the same colour twice in a row!
I Spy – Children aged 4 and up
This game is good for supporting visual attention.
This is also a simple and adaptable game: the adult describes an object in the room, and the children must find it in the shortest amount of time.
For instance, the parent could say, “I spy with my little eye… something red” or “something used for brushing your hair.”
In this case, we will practise receptive language as well as attention.
For a tougher challenge, there are pictures called “busy pictures” because they contain a large number of elements.
In this version of the game, the adult describes an element in the image, and the child must locate it.
“I spy with my little eye… a red and white striped balloon,” for example.
These are three games that can be used to help your child’s attention.
Join my parent training for more information and other games to help with language development.
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See you soon!
