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Unlock techniques to enhance your child's focus with Dr. Kimberley O’Brien's online course at Quirky Kid. With over two decades of experience, she shares effective, step-by-step strategies to significantly reduce inattention. Dr. Kimberley reveals how to build perseverance in children with short attention spans through preferred and non-preferred tasks, employing visual timers. Her engaging activities use sound, colour, and movement to increase rewards for children who are easily distracted, boosting their engagement and concentration.
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In this chapter, we explore the nature of inattentive behaviour in children from toddlers to teens. Afterall, children under the age of six years are not commonly diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) because healthy young children aged 2 to six years, should be active and inquisitive.
According to the Australian Government of Health and Aged Care, children under six years require ‘energetic play’ like running, jumping, climbing, kicking, rolling and playing for at least three to five hours per day. This is best done outdoors with a safe boundary to ensure children can move freely without parental hyper-vigilance. Running games, such as ‘tip’ among same-aged peers help inattentive children to focus and to follow rules. Physical activity is more important early in the morning for school-aged children to increase attention spans and reduce distractibility.
Children aged two to five years are also more attentive with practice and praise.The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests looking at picture books, or walking with young children to ensure they are cognitively stimulated when resting from vigorous play. Screen time does not help to extend a child’s attention span. It is a distraction and should be avoided as children often become more hyperactive and/or aggressive after extended periods with iPads, mobile phones or larger screens at home.
Instead, visit your Community Library or or flip through a picture book together at home to engage your child’s attention. Move faster to summarise the story (using your own words) rather than reading the text ‘word for word’. This will encourage greater focus. Ask your child questions and use a varied voice tone to maintain engagement.
Only a psychologist or paediatrician can diagnose ADHD. After the age of six years, the DSM-V defines ADHD as the following combination of traits:
In the clinical case study of “Vishaal”, Dr Kimberley explains how a 10-year-old boy with limited focus experienced academic performance anxiety, low self-esteem and eventually school refusal.
This sequence of issues arises when children are not well-supported at school. In most cases, students with limited attention spans are recognised at the age of 5 or 6 years due to an inability to sit and participate in passive group activities, such as listening to a story at school. Educators often notice children with a tendency to be distracted. In some cases, distractibility is mistaken for a behavioural issue.
Children with limited focus are typically surprised when their actions related to inattention or hyperactivity attract negative attention or a consequence. For example, wandering around the classroom during Story Time is common for children with a limited attention span. Finding a pencil sharpener to play with might feel like an exciting option for a distracted child, while their educators may perceive this as deliberate boundary pushing.
Being told to “Sit Down” or “Put it back” can be both shocking and humiliating for a curious child. The act of being ‘singled out’ in front of peers can also have long-term social implications. To protect a young person’s self esteem, it is important to speak to them individually away from their peers and to find other activities to reduce distractibility, such as a movement break or being given a special job. Parents are encouraged to work closely with educators by communicating at least once per week, if they have concerns about their child’s inattention..
Psychometric assessments are most helpful when they incorporate a range of observations from home, school and in the clinic setting. Educators and parents are typically asked to complete a record form or survey to help measure a child’s presentation across a range of areas, including when being asked to listen, write, clean-up or focus on a task. By incorporating a range of opinions, including both parents, a more objective and accurate assessment can be completed.
The results of an assessment for ADHD can help to attract more individualised support for children in classrooms and in test conditions. Students often respond well to working in quiet spaces and being given regular movement breaks. Praise for focus also helps children to feel positive about themselves.
If children express negativity towards themselves, such as “I’m not good at school”, “ I never finish first” it is useful to write down the quotes that concern you. These can be spoken about at a later date, and this could be shared with your child’s educators to be sure additional praise and more achievable tasks are made available at school. This will avoid School Refusal, which typically occurs when students don’t feel heard, safe or supported in the school setting.
Schools are usually happy to offer greater supervision if parents have any concerns about distractibility or low self esteem. By learning your child’s triggers, educators and parents can work together to create alternatives or bite-sized tasks to tackle periods which require greater focus. Asking an educator to record peak periods of distractibility such as morning, before or after lunch, can be helpful as a means of better understanding your child’s inattention and activity levels.
This is an example of a Distractibility Diary to help educators track your child’s focus over the course of a week. Parents may also find this useful to complete at home or in the community. By tracking distractibility, it is easier to guess what triggers may be partially responsible for energy peaks and troughs over the course of a week.
Before exploring the techniques you have observed on the video with Dr Kimberley, it is important to understand why fast-paced, tactile activities are ideal for inattentive children. Rather than medicating children to help their brain slow them down in order to hyper focus, Dr Heidi Kadison (101 Play Therapy Techniques) advocates for faster interactions in order to move at the inattentive child’s pace.
When parents, educators and health professionals work faster, children are less likely to disengage. This is an evidence-based behavioural strategies to encourage engagement and the same technique is often used by magicians and casino operators to keep their patrons interested. Think: flashing lights, rotating tables, fast fingers and more regular small rewards to sustain a sense of hope.
In Technique 1, we explore using a visual timer and how it can be incorporated into activities your child enjoys. Dr. O’Brien provides detailed instructions on effectively utilising this timer and balancing desired tasks (the Dominos) with a less preferred one (the Find-A-Word). In this task, the use of structure and clear instructions allows children follow the facilitator after trust has been established.
Children with ADHD traits are often highly intelligent and they respond to clear guidelines and confident leadership. Distractibility is more likely to arise when there is an absence of structure and solid leadership because children find gaps to explore while the content is being delivered. Let children know what the rules of the activity are before you commence. Keep your instructions brief and use hand gestures where possible.
Reward children often for focus. Every 10 seconds give the child a small reward for sustained focus. This could be one piece of Lego from a piece kit. This will help your child to stay involved. Ask questions and build curiosity, by asking questions, like “How many pieces do you think we’ll need to build the entire model?” or “Have you built something this big before”? Engagement is your focus, because sustained focus should be practiced in order to be more comfortable in a study or exam context.
Technique 2 introduces a unique approach using a glass jar and coloured beads to provide fast and frequent rewards. Dr. O’Brien explains how to set up a reward system that encourages sustained motivation through more frequent, visual rewards. Children who struggle to focus are more invested when small, more generous rewards are delivered on a frequent basis.
Align the rewards with your child’s goal of achieving greater focus by developing some targets together. Do you remember when your child was learning how to drink from a bottle? Babies quickly lose interest and become frustrated when learning a new skill. They become emotional and frustrated until a new skill is learnt. In the case of bottle feeding, most babies learn how to suckle on the teat of the bottle within a few minutes, but they may forget gain the next time they’re hungry and frustrated.
Perseverance is key when working with children to expand their attention span using rewards. By recording your child’s Person Best (PB) you will be more able to track their progress and you’ll also be reassured to learn that your perseverance is paying off.
The following Chart is for recoding PB’s for a variety of tasks based on time or success.
Now you know more about the pace and purpose of evidence-based behavioural strategies designed to engage and motivate children with inattentive traits. The next step is consolidating your support network to include educators, health professionals, adults thriving with ADHD traits and other parents navigating the educational system on behalf of their children.
Have you joined your school’s Parents & Citizens (P&C) or Parents & Friends (P&F) committee to help advocate for the large proportion of children with diverse learning styles? By listening at these meetings, parents have the opportunity to better understand the school’s priorities, which is a great place to start before making any suggestions.
To make suggestions at a P&C meeting, do some research first to find out about what resources are available in your area for children with inattentive traits. This may include tutors who have special interest in ADHD or National Associations with resources or journal articles based on best practice. Government websites will give you a foundation to use as a springboard. This will help you to be fully informed about what funding (if any) is available to students with ADHD and what strategies educators should be using in classrooms.
See example on Inclusive Practices from the NSW Government.
The next sector to navigate (after Education) is the Health. Research paediatricians in your region and contact them to learn about their waitlists. It is important to know what assessments they may conduct (if any) for children with limited focus over the age of 6 years. The gold standard in testing at the time of writing is the Conners 4 which includes a parent and educator survey, plus scoring and interpretation by a psychologist after meeting with your child online or in-person at the clinic.
To discuss your child’s individual needs and to make decisions about next steps, a Telehealth appointment through www.britechild.com is recommended. This will be an opportunity to speak with a Child Psychologist and to clarify the most essential priority for your child, based on their age and your current concerns. In some cases, additional resources, such as book recommendations for children and parents or tips for teachers may suggested within a Telehealth appointment for all the relevant parties, including parents, educators, speech pathologist, OTs and your child’s psychologist to enhance the focus of your allied health team.
Dr. Kimberley O’Brien underscores the importance of prioritising goals and working consistently to achieve outcomes with regular case conferences every six weeks to maintain communication and motivation for change.
These may be useful resources
Unlock actionable techniques to extend your child's focus with this online course, guided by Dr. Kimberley O’Brien, Principal Child Psychologist at Quirky Kid.
With more than two decades of experience working with inattentive children and adolescents, Dr Kimberley shares her practical step-by-step ideas to reduce inattention significantly. Dr Kimberley explains the delicate process required to develop perseverance in children with limited attention spans by practising preferred and non-preferred tasks using visual timers. Her activities are designed to engage the senses using sound, colour and activity to up level rewards for children prone to disengagement and distractibility.
Over three engaging chapters, you'll learn how to enhance your child’s focus and reduce inattention using evidence-based techniques to boost your child's concentration.
We hear real-life stories and the techniques that helped Dr Kimberley’s clients gain greater awareness of their attention span and how to enhance it, particularly in the classroom, doing homework, and in exam conditions. The lessons continue to unveils two powerful techniques - the Visual Timer Approach and the Visual Rewards System - designed to make learning more enjoyable and accessible for children who seek multisensory input by touching objects and moving while learning. We wrap up with ideas to implement immediately in the community setting, including referral suggestions.
Overall, this course is about empowering young people to manage their own inattention by fostering a lifelong love for learning using tools to overcome distractions. By the end of the course, you'll know how to systematically expand your child's focus using more engaging rewards and strategically timed tasks. You’ll also clearly understand how to work with your child’s school and your local health professionals to ensure the best outcomes for your child. Join us today to embark on a journey that empowers your child by boosting academic motivation and focus using fun.
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