Focus and Self Control
Children need focus and self control in order to achieve their goals, especially in a world that is filled with distractions and information overload. This skill involves paying attention, remembering the rules, thinking flexibly, and exercising self control.Take the words often used to describe the world: complicated, distracting. Or the words about time: 24-7, rushed, time starved, too much to do and not enough time to do it. To navigate this world, children need to focus, to determine what is important and to pay attention to this, amid many distractions.
Focus and self control involve many executive functions of the brain, such as paying attention, remembering the rules, and inhibiting one’s initial response to achieve a larger goal. Scientists call these executive functions because these are the brain functions we use to manage our attention, our emotions, and our behavior in pursuit of our goals. Many scientists now believe that executive functions predict children’s success as well as—if not better than—IQ tests.
Focus and self control can be broken down into four components: focus, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control.
Focus: Researchers talk about young children being “alert” and about “orienting” (being able to focus on achieving what they want to achieve) -- think of a fourteen-month-old trying to get Cheerios onto a spoon in order to feed herself or himself). For older children and adults, focus includes those two aspects, plus being able to concentrate.
Click here for a quiz that will help you assess your ability to focus.
Cognitive Flexibility: the ability to flexibly switch perspectives or change the focus of attention; and flexibly adjust to changed demands or priorities.
Click here for a quiz that will help you assess your own cognitive flexibility.
Working Memory: enables you to hold information in your mind while mentally working with it or updating it. For example, you need working memory in order to relate what you’re reading now to what you just read a minute ago.
Click here for a quiz that will help you assess your own working memory.
Inhibitory control: involves the ability to resist a strong inclination to do one thing and instead do what is most appropriate. Inhibitory control involves controlling your attention, your emotions, and your behavior to achieve a goal.
Click here to take a quiz that will help you assess your own inhibitory control.
The following articles are about Focus and Self Control:
Why I Am Concerned About Learning
April 16, 2010
by Ellen Galinsky
It’s Toddlers on the Loose! The Challenging Transition from Baby to Toddler
April 15, 2010
by Morra Aarons Mele
The leap to toddlerhood is both thrilling and upsetting for a parent. Your baby clearly has a mind of his own: you can see the wheels turning in his head 24-7. Little babies are cute but their repertoire is limited. But for a toddler, each day brings something new to learn.
As a young parent working with Ellen Galinsky on Mind in the Making, I sometimes take the life skills to heart a little too much.
For instance, I breathlessly reported to Ellen that my 14 month old was clearly making connections: when he heard a phone ring, or even the sound of my text message chiming, he put his hand to his ear to mimic the phone. I was so proud of my clearly brilliant son and his ability to make rather abstract connections for one his age: connecting the bell of an incoming text message with talking on the phone. Literally the same day I bragged to Ellen, my husband called to tell me our son had an ear infection and that’s why he was touching his ear!! The mommy guilt I felt was astounding.
But mostly, using the skills in Mind in the Making gives me more joy and patience as a mom. It’s almost as if I have a new language with which to interpret my son’s needs.
read moreToo Exhausted for Homework?
March 16, 2010
A Parent's Perspective
Focus and self-control -- I'll venture to guess that most parents want to increase these skills in themselves, not only their kids. But the great thing is that, when we promote these skills in our kids, we often exercise them too, offering kids a learn-by-example moment in the process.
Updates on the Science of Child Development
February 17, 2010
A New Study by Annie Bernier, Stephanie Carlson, and Natasha Whipple on How Parents Can Help Young Children Gain Life Skills
By Ellen Galinsky
I have spent the past eight years reading child development research, interviewing leading scientists, and we have even filmed these scientists as they conduct their studies. I have been driven by the question: what can we learn from studies of child development that will help our children thrive now and in the future?
As the parent of grown children and as a professional in child development, I have the time and knowledge to understand this research and I have the passion to translate it for all of us.
I have put many of these lessons learned into my forthcoming book, Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills that Every Child Needs, to be published in April by HarperStudio.
But there is always new research and we continue to go out and interview and film these studies. So this begins a new series of blogs where I will share what I am learning.
read more
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