How to increase attention span in 8 year old DS

[MarvellousMidgeMaisel]

DS has never been one to sit and focus, he has lots of interests but never gives any of his interests more than a few minutes attention at a time.

We've had him assessed for ADHD but were told he doesn't fit the criteria and his focus was put down to his age, but it's now getting to the point where his learning is being affected by his inability to give anything more than 5 minutes attention without moving on.

For example- he loves music, we've recently bought him a keyboard and lessons but he just won't practice for (literally) more than 2 minutes at a time before wandering off.

My question is, are there ways of building up attention span in children? Is it like a muscle which needs working on? I think he could be quite good at various things if he just gave them a bit of attention instead of approaching everything in a scattergun fashion.

Does anyone have any strategies/tips?

Has he been assessed for dyslexia?

My 10 yr old ds has always struggled with concentration/focus since starting primary school really. We have now had a diagnosis of dyslexia and was told the main area he struggles in is his working memory and visual processing. (Not what I thought being dyslexic meant at all)

Sounds like a silly question, but when you say he was assessed for adhd, do you mean formally assessed by a specialist in adhd or just an informal assessment?

My 8 year old is exactly the same. I had him assessed for dyslexia but the assessor said its still a little too early to tell for sure. I am convinced he is dyslexic. He is also on the waiting list for adhd and asd assessments, although it's a 2 year wait, so we are stuck with knowing something is up but not knowing what it is exactly.

I find my ds concentrates better 1-1 or in very small groups, with minimal distractions. I play lots of games with him that require concentration - matching pairs, guess who, etc. We can only play when it's the 2 of us though, not with other people or he will get distracted and stressed. He fidgets loads in class so his teacher does a thing where she sets a small piece of work for him and tells him when he has finished that piece of work he can play with the fidget toy for a little bit. He's very motivated by fidget toys so this works well. Your dc might be motivated better by something else, whatever works best for you. You have to keep the piece of work short and the reward small, so they're constantly getting positive reinforcement though. Setting a big piece of work with a big reward at the end doesn't work so well.

Does he use a lot of tech? If so, get him off it, or at least reduce the time on it. The instant gratification from eg online games ruins the ability to concentrate for very long on something that requires mental effort.