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:
Once Upon A Time ... Tales of Executive Functions at Work
April 22, 2012
Julie A. Riess, Ph.D., is the Senior Advisor on Child Development and Education at Families and Work Institute. She is a developmental psychologist and the director of the Wimpfheimer Nursery School at Vassar College.
This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal by Gannett Publications on April 15, 2012.
In the glorious days before homework ruled our evening household schedule, our elder daughter, Leslie, would come home from nursery school and see to the lives of all 27 children single-handedly. She knew precisely what each child was doing, and helped him or her carry on with many adventures. Occasionally, we would come into her bedroom and see their world for a moment in time, a panorama of drama and action sprawled before us from one end of her rug to under her bed. Through our naïve adult eyes, the whole community seemed frozen in motion. Leslie knew otherwise.
Got the Winter Blues? Time to Plan a New Project!
January 25, 2012
Julie A. Riess, Ph.D., is the Senior Advisor on Child Development and Education at Families and Work Institute. She is a developmental psychologist and the director of the Wimpfheimer Nursery School at Vassar College.
This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal by Gannett Publications on January 22, 2012.
Two years ago, my son started a “365” project. He wanted to improve his skills as a photographer and made a pledge to himself to take at least one picture a day for the calendar year. On New Year’s Eve, 2010, we watched them as a slide show on our TV. We had had many sneak previews, including following along on his Facebook photo album. Yet the whole show, a year in pictures, was poignant in a new way.
There were some obvious things that made us smile, such as family blowing out birthday cake candles or the annual posed picture at our family’s summer vacation spot. Surprisingly, the more salient photos for me were the unexpected moments in daily life. There was the light switch in a darkened room at 11:59 p.m. (determination to keep the project afloat on a day he forgot to take a picture). There was the half full glass of water on a nightstand, from when he was sick in bed. There was a photo of a train window and another of car tail lights, as he traveled to interviews for graduate school.
Research on children’s memories, including interviews with children, often highlight the snapshots of our daily lives more than the center stage events. Memorable moments come in all shapes and sizes, yet the details sometimes tell the story better than the canvas. It isn’t as much about the trip to Disney World as discovering the little chocolate on a hotel pillow. It isn’t as much about a new bicycle as the moment a parent let go and you didn’t fall.
read moreWhy 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.
follow us on Twitter
become a fan on Facebook