How to teach a Child that can't Focus?

[ariel]

l am trying to teach my daughter reading using Starfall. She is about 3 and1/2 years old.  We have even set out a reward for her for when she finishes all the lessons on the site, she can get a rideon car. 

My major problem is when it is her turn to read sentences she doesn't focus, takes forever to read.  I have tried reading one word and she reads the next, then she reads a little faster.  She doesn't read per se but tries to combine the letter sounds. The major problem is when I tell her to take a break because she can't focus, she gets mad and insists on reading.  So when we try again, she loses focus pretty fast. 

I am really not sure about how much attention span should I expect from her.  I have tried writing the sentences too and drawing a picture after finishing each word but even then she takes a loooong while.  Initially, I thought maybe cuz we are using the computer.  We don't have books as we have recently moved and our stuff is not here yet.  What to do?   I get really bored too but then doesn't let me end the lesson.   I hope that I end the lesson sternly and fast that she will do a better job and focus more next day or later but it doesn't happen.


Thanks!

[A_BC]

If focusing on the computer is the problem, try their printable material. They provide coloring activities etc. for each high frequency word, phonics lessons, etc. Maybe it will get her engaged better and lengthen her attention span. (these are available on more.starfall.com)

Using Montessori's word, you need to look for the "sweet spot" that's between boredom and frustration: you may try several activities till you find what she likes the most, then you can go from there.

I hope this helps.

[ariel]

Its not that she can't focus on the computer screen it is just that she doesn't focus well esspecially when reading sentences.  I basically have zero teaching tools other than laptop and ipad. I have no printer to print stuff.   Its cuz we moved across country.

Sometimes when she starts to get tired, I ask her to do Simon says...jump, skip....     

How do you encourage them to read sentences?  As I said before sometimes she herself doesn't let me switch or close reading exercises but then she doesn't focus and finish them either. 

Thanks,

[A_BC]

Well, let's try something else... Does she really need to sound out the words or recognizing them is just enough? Because if the latter is the requirement, you can play the following games with your laptop/ iPad and handwritten flashcards/ labels:

- 1st step: matching: match picture on the screen with flashcards
- 2nd step: I spy: you say a word and she needs to find it both on the screen and among the flashcards.
- 3rd step: Building sentences using the flashcards/ labels she got right in the first 2 games and hopefully reading them aloud

Another idea using iPad, iPhone:

There are Grasshopper apps where you can personalize flashcards with her voice. You can ask her to read them aloud, she may like listening to herself afterwards and that will help her to focus better. (you can also do the same thing with Little Reader especially for longer sentences & stories)

[Tanikit]

Is your daughter not perhaps struggling with the amount of print - could you not cover up all of the sentence (use a piece of paper over the laptop screen) and then gradually uncover one word at a time - I do this if my DD has trouble with phonics and sounding out new word though instead of uncovering a whole word I will just uncover a few letters of the word for her to sound out. This seems to help her attention as she can only see a small amount. As she has got older I let her see only one line of print at a time rather than a whole page and that also helps keep her attention.

[Maquenzie]

If I understand correctly, she's reading the sentences...just very, very slowly.  Is that correct?

My son can be this way as well.  I've tried many things to help, and some have probably been harmful (regrettably).  What I've found that seems to work for us AND happens to be the most peaceful, is to 1) stop MYSELF from expecting the reading be done in a certain time frame, 2) stop all other forms of coercion, and 3) simply ask lots of questions always referring back to the story; become engrossed in the story myself.

It might look something like this,

Child: "Once upon....hey, what are we having for dinner?"

Adult: "hmm...um, I want to hear what's going on here first, once upon...an elephant? No, that's probably not correct, what does it say?"

Child: "Once upon a time, there was a prince....look, his hat looks just like mine! Where's my prince hat?"

Adult: sensing this won't fizzle out, "I'll go grab it for you to wear while you read the prince story.  Why don't you finish that first sentence while I grab it.  I want to know what that prince is doing!"



Or, that's how our reading sessions sound like.    Good luck!

[Frukc]

My girl wants to read only about princesses. So, I open Word, make big font, and write stories about princesses, from tales and cartoons. Daughter stands with me and reads words as I type them. I try to write something fun.

[lzp11]

My DD aged 3 loved Starfall alphabet but she never really clicked with the sentences and stories. I found that they were a bit slow, with print that was too small and shown on the same page as the pictures so she could not focus. Also I don't think she found the stories engaged her interest.

After that I moved to teaching phonics sentences using short power points. I use the format - show the key word alone, followed by using it in a sentence with the key word in red. The third slide repeats the sentence and has a picture.

I found this helped her to focus on nothing but the words. I also found it was essential to tailor the sentence to her interests and have a funny picture (google images is amazing!!).  Bringing in songs and rhymes helps a lot. And we also read fun poems, interesting EK topics and stories the same way. 

having said that, she can also be extremely slow! I have shortened the length of the presentations to make it easier to get through it all in one sitting. Sometimes when she's less focused then I read part of the sentence myself and ask her about a few of the words or we sound them out.  some days I read virtually all and other days she seems able to fly through herself. But even if I do the reading / sounding out she still does seem to learn.  Her pace of learning new words seems to be really increasing at the moment.

[Frukc]

What I do with my 2 year old - I use family pictures in powerpoint. I take one picture, write very few short sentences about it (one word per slide), and repeat the picture after each sentence. Slideshow is very short. New slideshow every day.

Thanks lzp11  for your idea - to repeat the sentence.

[Frukc]

And why I have minus 7 karma points

Minus 8. Please do not bury this very useful thread. It is not about the teaching to read and about failures. It is about kids who are already reading and going to the next milestone - sentence reading.

[Mandabplus3]

Arial. A 3 year old does haves a short attention span,    but they can be increased and it is good to do this. The best idea I have used successfully is to set a goal before each lesson. So you would say "we are going to do only 1 sentence today then turn it off and try again later in the day.  OK. " Then show the one sentence and absolutely don't budge and turn it off after that one is done. If you think you need to pretend you are in a hurry to go out. Be happy and mention that you achieved our goal. Do one sentence for a few days, then add one more and do 2 sentences for a few days. Then as her fluency increases add another. If you think you are getting to the upper limit of ability and it all slows down, do a few days of  easy sentences. But the same number of sentences overall. After a while you will find the overall attention span has extended. Oh and kids often takes a jump in the ability to focus somewhere around age 4, especially if encouraged.
Since you have an IPad you could try some e books instead. This may be more enjoyable as you can have a snuggle while you read together. Try grasshopper apps "I like..." series and also preschool prep have ebooks someone here told me.
If none of this works just continue with building word knowledge for a month and try again after a break. Don't continue if you find it frustrating or boring. If you are bored they usually are too, although my kids can star at ants ALOT longer than I can! 

[Maquenzie]

Ariel, I am also assuming that your daughter is already past the begginning sounding out stage.  I also agree that deep phonological awareness is important, but assumed this was not an issue you are seeking help with.  I did understand your question as asking about attention span or getting through a lesson that you believe your daughter is capable of.  A 3 year old not maintaining focus for a short span of time on something an involved parent thinks they are capable of does not always equate to your child not actually being developmentally ready for the task at hand.  You are the parent there, who knows the situation best.

I did hear something recently that may a useful tool for what to expect regarding attention span.  You should expect 1-3 minutes per year of life in attention span, which will increase when the activity is particularly engaging.  So, on average, a 3 year old will have a 3-9 minute attention span.  I've personally seen classes of children with longer attention spans, but it's something that needs to be cultivated...with special attention paid to increase intrinsic motivation (and yes, the research I read does tend to point to rewards and punishments as being detrimental to intrinsic motivation).  I can recommend further reading to you if that is something that piques your interest.

ReadingWhisperer,  I am fearful for you.  I feel like you genuinely have a lot of valid points that could be really helpful for a lot of parents here that may go unheard.  You have given me some new ideas to integrate phonological awareness in our daily lives that I was not already doing.  I am afraid less people will hear your message because it seems to always be mixed in with a battle of some kind. And I'm sure that's frustrating for you as well.

[ariel]

Thanks everyone, some tips were quite helpful. 

I think we just need to do 1 sentence as Manda recommended.  Maybe, I am expecting too much.  The Starfall books are pretty interesting for her, she loves looking at the images so I really thought that she should be able to finish them.  It is difficult for me to close after one sentence because I just want to finish the whole thing.

I have tried books with family pictures with little hope.   But I should try using powerpoint books with one page sentence and other page picture.  The reason I concentrate on Starfall because it has the lessons in series so it is easier for me to gauge that she's learned the rules, like when two vowels are walking, the first one does the talking.  My daughter even loves their rules, we can say anytime during the day. 

As for Reading Wishperer, definately, a good point that reward might not be a good idea, as she will not be intrinsically motivated to read then.  I will definately keep that in mind.  But sorry, I think the rest of your message gets lost because you assume rather than ask.      You didn't ask whether my daughter can sound out the words.  She can sound them out and try to blend, with help.  I definately help her with blending and understand that she will need this help for a while. 

Maquenzie, heee... that was funny...I swear that is how reading is too,  she brings up weird things in between.  But I've tried actually many things...positive feedback, I think I just hit a deadlock but she doesn't let me close reading...I guess she thinks Mom, won't come back to it later.  I'll go with reading only one sentence at a time and wait for her clue to have more.     

Thanks everyone for the great tips.  My apologies if I forgot to include a few in these comments.   

[Korrale4kq]

Ariel'

Have you tried a few confidence boosting High Frequency Readers. She make fake the reading initially. But it is more about making her feel confident about being able to read a whole book.

Here is an example of a high frequency reader. You could write you own after introducing some high frequcny sight words. And then hide the picture and see if she can decode the one word in the story that changes on each page.

In the below example those would be the animal words. My son loves this book by the way. The last page is always unexpected and makes him laugh. Then he has a blast running away. 

http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/Who_Ran_Away...RRSP_Letter_A.pdf


Here is the site with a few more.

http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/easyreaders.html

[Korrale4kq]

Have you also considered teaching her just sentences and stopping the books.
Some games you could play:

Matching sentences to pictures. Have a sentence such as "The dog is brown" and then have a picture of a brown dog.

How about writing sentences on pieces of papers and creating a scavenger hunt with a prize at the ends. Maybe the prize could even be a book with words she learns on the scavenger hunt.  Write things like. "Look on your door" "It is under your bed"

Also you could put sentences in a hat or bucket and have things to do. "Talk in a silly voice" "Jump 3 times" etc and you can take turns acting them out.

Have her dictate a story and you write out her sentences so she can see them being written.

Lastly... Create sentences and lay out 4 of them and tell her the sentence and have her try and figure out which sentence you read to her.

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