A visual timer that shows your child how long they have to keep focusing can be good too. These supports also help you with breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable steps. You could use visual supports, checklists, timetables or social stories to show the activity’s beginning and end. If you have an older child or a teenage child, you might bake a cake together. You can gradually increase your child’s attention by building up from a two-bead necklace to one with more beads. The task gets finished quickly, and you can praise your child for getting the task done. Put on the first bead together, and then let your child put on the second one. It’s best to avoid open-ended activities, because these can make it difficult for your child to know what they need to do and when to finish.įor example, if you have a younger child, you could try making a necklace using two beads and a piece of string. It’s also important to choose activities that have definite end points, clear guidelines and goals. You can build your child’s attention by choosing activities that your child finds interesting, like Lego or trains, or that use your child’s strengths. You can use the strategies below as part of everyday play with your child. Play is one of the best ways to help children learn and develop skills, including skills for paying attention. Choose interesting activities with clear end points.These ideas and strategies can help you build your child’s skills for paying attention: Skills and strategies to help autistic children with paying attentionĪutistic children can learn to pay attention, and they can get better at it with practice. When autistic children work on their ability to pay attention, it can help them cooperate and avoid challenging behaviour. The child might also find it difficult to shift their attention to other tasks or miss cues that it’s time to pack up. For example, a child who’s keen on trains might be able to focus for a long time while setting up some train tracks. They can be very good at shutting out other things. This includes activities that involve shared attention, like reading a book with a carer, doing a puzzle, or even walking safely across the road.īut autistic children might also be able to keep their attention on things they like for long periods of time. Some autistic children can find it difficult to pay attention to and focus on things that don’t interest them. It can also be difficult if children feel they can’t do the task or have been sitting still for too long, or when there are distracting things going on around them. Many children find paying attention difficult sometimes, especially if they’re very young, tired, hot, not feeling well or not interested in the task. Children also need to be able to keep their attention on tasks to be able to learn.Ĭhildren develop their ability to pay attention as they get older. For example, children need to pay attention to a teacher’s instructions to be sure they’re doing things the right way. Paying attention is a key skill for learning. And it involves maintaining attention and shifting attention to something else when we need to. This allows us to sort out the right information from our surroundings and put this information together. Paying attention also involves being aware of what we need to pay attention to. For example, we listen to what someone is saying while ignoring other conversations and background noise. When we pay attention, we focus on something and ignore other things.
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