As time goes on, one may notice that it is more common to come across a child that has been diagnosed with ADHD or ADD – meaning either attention deficit hyperactive disorder, or just attention deficit disorder. Now some parents find that putting their children on medication has helped them pay attention and focus more easily, while other parents think their kid is just being a kid. 

Whichever group you may fall into, there are ways that you, as a parent, can help improve your child’s concentration skills. This can be done with simple activities that are not only fun, but can be done at home with very little financial investment.  A suggestion is to try out these activities before bringing your child to a doctor to see if you notice any improvement with their concentration skills.

Four awesome activities are as follows:

• Missing numbers
• Tongue twisters – tongue twisters are hard to say no matter what age you are, but practicing them with your child improves concentration greatly.
• Opposites – this is a great game to play with children who are younger, simply say a word such as “hot” and allow your child to answer “cold” and so forth

For the game called missing numbers, this is a wonderful game for children who can of course count. It is simple and you start counting from one to whatever number you desire – not to high, you don’t want to bore your child, and leave out numbers periodically. If a number is skipped, the child should pick up on that and call out which number is missed, if the child does not realize, maybe point out “hey – we missed one” and start the game over. This will make your child pay attention and wait for the next number that is missed.  A variation on this game for children who are even older is to do multiples!

Do not forget that there are also numerous websites that offer brain training games also – they are great for picking up more ideas, but also allow your child to do something educational as well as have fun and improve their focusing skills. It is not hard to keep a child captivated, being creative for your children is always suggested but this can also help parents stay connected with their children and build a strong foundation. Not to mention that these little “games” can help improve your concentration skills as well.