Developing my 3 and a half year old son's attention span

[ilovecolinfirth]

I'm fully aware that boys have a tendency to have a low attention span, and also 3 and a half is very young still, but does anyone have any tips? From a young age my son has had excellent speech, imagination and is very inquisitive. However, his ability to sit and concentrate for mark-making activities, jigsaws and similar activities is very low.

[whattodoo]

We've had similar issues with DD. She's 5 now, but her ability to pay attention at school has been commented on.

We've been trying board games and using a timer to see if she can 'beat the clock' while doing a jigsaw. And how many shapes she can cut out in x minutes etc.

I wouldn't worry though, he is very young and its great that he is inquisitive.

[ilovecolinfirth]

Thanks for the suggestions...I know he's still young but would like to avoid problems in the future.

We definitely need to make a greater effort to keep tv switched off. We have a 5 month old, so sometimes tv seems a quick-fix solution when I'm trying to feed or get ds2 down for a nap. Right...mission is on!:)

[FariesDoExist]

Story CDs have been excellent for my DDs from the age of 3 years old they have enjoyed listening to CDs. It helps them to learn to listen, there is nothing visual so they have to concentrate.

Mine started with Spot stories as they're 5 minutes, then we had Fireman Sam, Noddy, lots of others too. My 6 yr old still loves listening to her CD player but now it's Famous Five stories and things like that.

[redwellybluewelly]

My DD has concentration flagged as an issue, she is being reevaluated when she turns three (she has existing sensory seeking behaviour) because when they are young its very hard to know why they have such limited attention.

However because I have reached the 'awkward' stage of pregnancy we have been doing a lot more sitting down 1-2-1 play and it seems to be paying off in that she will now sit and work at a puzzle, sits and thumbs through a book and will even on occasion entertain herself.

We were told the same thing about TV by our OT and so we only have a few programmes downloaded on our ipad whoch are slow frame rates and don't seem to cause her to become hyperactive (Pocoyo is our favourite).

[cloudhands]

Lots of play wrestling and laughter games (except tickling) will help him to burn off excess energy so he can sit and concentrate it has been also showed to help build brains

[Emperorsnewclothesshow]

We have the same issue with our three year old... Watching with interest.

cloudhands why except tickling?