Activities that require a child to focus help with developing concentration skills. The period of time a child can concentrate for is hugely dependent on their age and developmental stage. It would be unrealistic and unhelpful to expect a baby, for example, to concentrate for a set period of time. There are lots of lovely activities that you can do with babies, toddlers and young children to help support concentration skills through play. Here are two, play-based activities that encourage this skill:
Rainbow Ice Towers
Suitable for: toddlers and pre-schoolers
Attempt to build a slippery, frozen tower together with colourful ice blocks and then watch as it melts and mixes the colours together. This is an exciting activity that helps to develop concentration skills as children attempt to balance the ice blocks on top of one another.
It also provides an opportunity to practice problem solving and motor skills through play.
Equipment
Ice cube tray, water, food colouring to correspond with the colours of the rainbow and a tray.
How to
- Pour Water into an ice cube tray and add different colours of food colouring to each ice cube well. Leave to freeze overnight.
- Empty the ice cubes out onto a tray, show the children a picture of a rainbow and look together at the order of the colours. Encourage the children to build a tower with their ice cubes in the same order of the rainbow. This will require a fair bit of concentration.
- As the activity goes on the ice will start to melt. Discuss why the ice is melting and what is happening to the colours as they mix.
Alternatives
- Allow the children to try and make secondary colours by putting two primary coloured ice cubes together and letting them melt and mix. Watch what happens.
Extension activity
- Draw a tower of coloured blocks on a piece of paper, for example a tower of red, green and blue. Show the children the picture and ask them to copy it using their coloured ice cubes or coloured blocks.
Skills developed
- Numeracy
- Concentration
- Problem-solving
- Motor skills
- Sensory Integration
- Working Memory
Colour Toy Sort
Suitable for: toddlers
Playing together at sorting toys into piles based on their colours can be a really fun game that toddlers can enjoy, while developing their memory and concentration skills through play. It’s also wonderful for colour recognition and speech, language and communication skills.
Equipment
- Selection of colourful toys
How to:
- Choose a small selection of toys that the children will be able to sort with you and place them in front of the children.
- Demonstrate, playfully, how you are organising the toys. You could put two green toys in one pile and say ‘green toys’. Then put two yellow toys in another pile and say ‘yellow toys’.
- Encourage the children to have a go themselves, supporting and praising them throughout.
Alternatives
- Try sorting the toys by how they feel, such as a pile of soft toys and another of hard toys. Or furry toys and smooth toys.
Extension activity
- If the children are starting to use words or sign language to communicate, you could encourage them to say or sign the colour names themselves when organising the toys.
Skills Developed
- Concentration
- Language and communication
- Problem solving
- Motor skills
- Working memory.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
This is the second article in an eight-part series on practical ways to support the development of essential skills in children from birth to five, including those with special educational needs and disabilities.
Georgina Durrant is author of 100 Ways Your Child Can Learn Through Play, a book of play-based activities that help develop important skills for children with Special Educational Needs. She is a former teacher/SENDCO, private tutor for children with SEND and the founder of The SEN Resources Blog www.senresourcesblog.com.
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