concentration problems

They keep coming, the questions about concentration problems. However, these questions are rapidly being overtaken by questions about performance anxiety.

What's the matter that children are being referred younger and younger with these kinds of problems?

To put it in a bit of a focus, I usually say that these kinds of problems don't exist. Of course that is not entirely true, but it is very useful to look at where there really is a request for help instead of haphazardly making a diagnosis of concentration problems or fear of failure.

What is going on

It will not be a coincidence that in this day and age fear of failure and concentration problems arise. In contrast to roughly 30-50 years ago, school and preferably a high level of education has become increasingly important. In addition, it seems as if everyone is in a terrible hurry to teach children to read as quickly as possible. Take the very rapid advance of the digital and visual world and you see all kinds of pale children with screens in front of their faces.

Where are the children at play?

Where is the "old-fashioned" screening for school readiness?

Where are the parents who dare to let go of the fact that good grades and the highest possible education in the future make children happy?

Where has the vision gone that a child develops according to a fixed given and that development determines its own time?

When the demands on children keep getting higher and children feel that they have to perform more and more, things start to squirm and we see that reflected in the behavior of children.

What is Concentration

Concentration is the ability to direct your attention and maintain your focus for a period of time. At the same time, you must also be able to be aware of the environment in a natural way.

You must be able to make a choice where you focus your attention and be well alert in the here and now.

In order to still be aware of the environment, you must have a certain degree of flexibility so that you can switch from your internal world to your external world. Stimuli and influences can come in and you switch while your attention remains on what is needed. This way you can concentrate on your task, but if the teacher explains further, you can focus on it and then continue with your task.

This also requires a lot of effort and perseverance. In addition, you must be able to act in a targeted and planned manner.

Overfocus or underfocus

When you are completely absorbed in your work or activity, as for example many children can play games or watch TV, you actually have an overfocus. You no longer notice the environment and you no longer perceive whether something important is said or done.

On the other hand, if you allow yourself to be distracted by any sound, movement, feeling, thought or other stimulus, then you have an underfocus.

What does the brain do

Our brains allow us to concentrate and, in the first place, they enable us to survive.

And this is where the whole story begins.

Our reptilian brain that ensures our survival is continuously focused on possible danger.

Our mammalian brain takes care of our emotions and, after all, we have our front brain that allows us to think.

From our very beginning during pregnancy, our brains are also built in this order. In concrete terms, this means that a toddler cannot think very well and easily.

For example, if this toddler had a difficult birth, experienced stress due to circumstances, had little exercise and, for example, has not or little crawled and does not feel at home in the classroom or with the teacher, then that is almost the recipe for concentration problems.

What should a child be able to concentrate for

A toddler still reacts very primarily, as we call it, to stimuli and impulses from the environment because the front brain has not yet developed in such a way that the toddler can mentalize.

This is being able to shape what is going on in your mind and thereby also reassure oneself. It is naming and reasoning in thoughts and ensures, among other things, that a child can pick up tasks systematically without starting at random.

So if you want to be able to concentrate naturally, your brain must already be capable of quite a bit. This is only possible to a limited extent for young children because they are still practicing this.

For older children, it is imperative that their brains control their bodies, that they feel completely safe in the environment, that they have a certain motivation and know what they are doing and what they are doing it for.

So children have to learn step by step to structure their tasks and their thinking and thus learn to learn.

How do you recognize children with concentration problems

• The child can be hyperactive and move and act without thinking

• The child can be impulsive and react and act without thinking

• The child can worry a lot and is unable to work

With these three forms of concentration problems, the reptilian brain is often very alert in these children. This reacts more quickly before the thinking brain takes over to think of WHETHER it will respond, HOW it will respond, and WHEN it will respond with WHAT behavior.

• The child is quickly startled by touch, sound or visual stimuli

• The child has tense shoulders and neck

• The movement of the eyes is not flexible

• The child blocks when stressed and may have performance anxiety

In these forms, the mammalian brain is often too alert and stimulated too quickly, after which the reptilian brain can turn on again. Here, too, the brain does not come to think.

• This is common in highly sensitive children

• The child appears dreamy and his thoughts are absent

• Listens, but does not hear

• Looks, but doesn't see

• Literally sinks into his chair

• Must make an effort to maintain attention and focus

In these forms, the senses may not work well with the areas of the brain. Every person has a preference for left or right. Not only with your hand and football foot, but also with your eyes and ears and your brain hemispheres. If you are in class and you sit with your ear to the left while you prefer the right, the sound will not come in as well. If you also suffer from stress and therefore your thinking brain is more out of order and your reptile brain is more concerned, the mutual cooperation is also lost more.

What now?

So you can discover which form and when a child suffers from concentration problems. What strikes me time and again in children, adolescents and young people, especially children with ADD, is the attunement of the inner antenna as I call it. Children who have a lot of problems concentrating very often do not feel comfortable in their class or do not feel heard or seen by other children or the teacher.

Problems are often completely resolved when dealing with this fact. It is about the basic security and recognition of your existence and learning to feel safe, even when the situation is difficult. In any case, that requires a lot of mentalizing.

In addition, you have the children whose bodies cause a lot of restlessness, the wobblers and fiddlers. These children often need to move and it often turns out that they still suffer from poorly processed or integrated reflexes. These children often have difficulty with the cross walk and other games that require their body to move from left to right, up or down and / or front and back. This is also often reflected in dyslexia and dyscalculia.

Conscious movement exercises are necessary here. Especially the so-called braingym exercises are very effective.

And then we have a large category of children who need peace, clarity, overview, to be taken seriously and challenge and motivation. These children also need mentalizing and often braingym exercises.

Concentration and fear of failure therefore have everything to do with development in the first instance.

And so the circle is complete again that I started with. Children need time to develop to go through all stages of development at their own pace. Learning to walk quickly and quickly knowing letters and colors and being able to count is not taking all the time over the years to learn to crawl, to roll, to bend, front and back, above and below and to do everything with your body. before the knowledge in the front brain can actually land and be processed.

So let's get high hopes and put out the iPads as much as possible and roll around on the floor and laugh with our young children. The more the body knows that it is safe and can do all the movements it is capable of, the better the capacities of the child will be given a solid basis to be able to do everything the brain has to learn later because everything has matured.

Because…. The grass also does not grow faster by pulling on it.