How to help your kids concentration levels

Very shortly all children in Turkey will be back at school in their classrooms.For all children,but especially for those who are dyslexic or have a learning disability, concentration can have a key impact on their success or failure to achieve.

Often childrens' concentration can be affected by seemingly simple things such as uncomfortable seating, poor nourishment and dehydration.

*The World Health Organisation found that if a person is 2% dehydrated their ability to concentrate will fall by 20% .
You need to drink about 2 litres of water a day, depending on the weather conditions and your level of activity. As a result we need to encourage our children to drink sufficient water while at school.

*In addition school pupils need to eat healthy foods and snacks. Unfortunately in most Turkish schools the canteens where children can buy snacks at break and lunch-times only offer unhealthy fast foods and sugary drinks such as cola. Instead of giving money for the canteen you could give your child some fruit or nuts etc to take with them.

*In addition, parents should encourage children to take regular exercise and to reduce tv/ computer time. Watching too much tv can drastically affect concentration.

*Children also need a good nights sleep if they are going to be able to concentrate fully .So make sure your kid goes to bed early !!

Mark Champkins ,a clever inventor, runs a UK company which develops and make products to help children concentrate at school.His products include a chairpadbag - a bag that doubles as a padded seat. Also a bottlecoolerpenholder - which
has an insultating jacket for water bottles that store pens/pencils and reminds the children to drink during lessons.

Mark Champkins has won some awards for his product designs.

Have a look at his company site and also his blog which has some interesting information about concentration.

http://www.concentrate.org.uk/

From Dyslexia Blog we wish all returning dyslexic students success in their studies !

STROOP TEST

The Stroop Test is a psychological tool which is often used to assess attention problems.

Children with dyslexia often have accompanying problems with concentration and attention .In fact,researchers suggest that at least 40% of children with dyslexia also have ADD/ADHD.

The”Stroop Effect" is named after J. Ridley Stroop who discovered this in the 1930’s.

The test involves identifying colours from a list of words which are displayed in a colour ink different from the colour it actually names.

Eg GREEN ( the word green is printed or displayed in red ink).
You would give the answer ‘red ‘.

The test involves focusing on one particular feature of a task ie identifying the colour of the word, while ignoring other information ( ie reading the word ).This makes it a hard exercise to do and involves a lot of concentration.If GREEN was written in green ink it would make it a lot easier to give the correct answer.

Animal Stroop : If children are younger and can’t read then they are given animal pictures to look at. Pictures are used where the head of the animal has been swapped with another animal. The child is asked to give the name for the “body” of the animal

The Neuroscience for Kids site has mini stroop test flash cards which you could print out and test yourself or your child.

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/words.html

http://www.adhd.org.nz/stroop1.html

The One Show on BBC talked about the Stroop Test :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/onepassions/2009/02/body-tricks-stroop-test.html

For more information about animal stroop look at the Open University site

http://www.open2.net/healtheducation/family_childdevelopment/2005/animalstroop.html