Challenges of Distance Learning: 6 Tips to Help Your Child Focus

I asked the group members in our social-emotional learning Facebook group how distance learning was going, and if there were any challenges they were facing. One of our members posted this:

We are struggling!!! Well... one child is flourishing, one child is majorly lacking focus!!! HELP!!!! How do I get my 8-year-old son to pay attention to a boring teacher online?? (While some teachers have really figured out how to engage students with online learning, others are still really trying to figure it all out.)

A big part of this is that you can’t really blame kiddos; this is not a natural way for their brains to learn. In all my years of teaching, I learned a major lesson from all the master teachers I encountered: the best teachers are part game show hosts too! They make learning itself feel like valuable prizes. But we have all sat at meetings where it’s been easy to disengage, and the way this member wrote her question, it sounds like the teacher from the Peanuts cartoon is talking on the other side of her son’s screen. 

If your kiddo feels that way, I hope some of the suggestions I gave her help you, too!

6 Tips to Help Your Child Focus with ONLINE Learning

Let Them Fidget 

Maybe you remember the fidget spinner craze and the notes sent home from school saying they weren't allowed in class due to their distraction to others. While fidgeting has gotten a bad rep, the truth is, studies have found that appropriate fidgeting can help your brain focus. Carey A. Heller, PsyD, assistant clinical professor of clinical psychology at The George Washington University, points out that fidgets should ideally not take away visual or auditory focus. One should be able to use it while looking straight ahead and being engaged in whatever task one is completing or listen attentively to what is going on in class or a meeting (or zoom class).  If you find that fidgeting helps your child stay engaged in learning, let them hold or play with something while listening. 

Consider Alternative Seating

Several studies, including one by Mayo Clinic, found significant benefits to alternative seating when it comes to helping keep kids focused and engaged. The Mayo study focused on how to improve learning and reduce obesity in kids through activity. Diana Henry, an occupational therapist, commented that “there is a neurological pathway that goes from your body’s balance and movement system to your alert system in the brain.”

There are many alternative seating options, but an exercise ball is a simple option that works well and is easy to find. Adding movement helps keep brains active and engaged and may actually help them engage for more extended periods of time without the yawns creeping in.

Grab Some Chewing Gum

A study done by Kate Morgan from Cardiff University focussed on the potential benefits of chewing gum during an audio memory task. Kate Morgan explained the study results by saying, "Interestingly participants who didn't chew gum performed slightly better at the beginning of the task but were overtaken by the end. This suggests that chewing gum helps us focus on tasks that require continuous monitoring over a longer amount of time."

If you don't usually let them chew gum, this could be a big incentive for them to sit through class - even the really boring ones. If you do allow gum, perhaps you get a special gum that is only available to them during lesson time. They may think they're being rewarded, but by knowing the brain benefits of gum chewing, you can secretly consider it a reward to yourself and your child's teacher.

Make up a Listening Game

Add a bit of the old Mary Poppins quote, “in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game.” Making a listening game by asking them to listen for keywords. These can be silly words or words that apply to the lesson. You can have them tally every time someone says a keyword and see the most used word at the end of the lesson. You can even pick a keyword to be a secret word (put it in an envelope), and then after the lesson, see if the highest tallied word was the secret word. If your secret word wins, add in an extra five minutes of fun after the boring lesson before you move on.

If you are trying to balance your own meetings and work obligations, sit side by side and put the list between you, making it a cooperative game. If you hear the word in your meeting, you tally them. If your child hears it in theirs, they tally. Then after both your meetings, you can compare and see who wins. 

Dangle a Carrot

Try and really determine whether you're experiencing a focus issue, or if they just don’t want to do the task at hand. If the focusing/not focusing is a choice, meaning someone is choosing to slide off the chair, disengage, etc., try pulling out some delayed gratification practice and put a carrot on the end of the stick. Delayed gratification is a skill worth building as it boosts brains, so don't be afraid to put this in place at home.

Many kids have trouble staying focused simply because they haven't been brain-trained for focus as often as distraction. If this a battle you have to deal with (but really don’t want to), try using some delayed gratification such as “earning” something for making an effort to stay focused and on task. Can your kiddo work toward something special or fun during the day? Perhaps movie night, or family game time, or having a friend over? (Want more help with focus? Grab our Finding Focus kit!)

Communicate with Teachers

Don’t be afraid to change things up and talk to the teacher about things that might help your child learn. If your child has back to back to back zoom calls, their poor brain may need a break. Like all of us, sometimes teachers get wrapped up in all they are trying to convey and might not realize that your child needs a break between meetings. Don’t be afraid to reach out to the teacher and let them know that your child needs help or modifications.

We had a situation where one of my pod kids had an hour and a half meeting. Now, that was technically two different meetings, a morning meeting and then a smaller group meeting, but it was a straight one and a half hours on zoom. Their focus was depleted after about forty-five minutes. We simply reached out to the teacher and asked to switch groups, and the teacher was more than accommodating. Now, this kiddo gets to take a break, play outside and then circle back in for the next meeting refreshed and ready to go.