Get Updates, Tips and Insights
Articles, stories and advice for parents and educators of kids who could use a little help paying attention.
LINKS
CONTACT INFO
HOURS
Mon – Fri: 8:00AM – 6:00PM
Sat – Sun: Closed
While the Attention Arcade is great for strengthening attention skills over time, we know that parents sometimes need ideas to help with attention skills in the moment. So, we reached out to the occupational therapist (OT) community to get some ideas.
We got lots of ideas as OTs see different challenges and approach them differently:
“For attention, I almost always use a visual schedule and visual timer during sessions, especially since many kids have not grasped the concept of time quite yet.”
— Beth Vidmar, OTD, OTR/L, LEC
“Some may seem pretty simple and obvious but they really do work.
Oral strategies:
* Gum
* Drinking thick liquids with a straw (sucking activates the proprioceptive system and is alerting)
* Drinking sparkling water (fizzy is alerting)
* Sucking on a sweet/sour hard candy (sour also alerting)
* Eating chewy foods while working (same reasoning with gum and sucking) such as beef jerky, dried fruit, raisins, licorice
* Crunch foods such as pretzels
Vestibular Strategies (movement)
* Sitting on a yoga ball while at desk/computer
* Tie a bungee cord or theraband around the chair’s legs so that your child can kick and stretch their feet.
* Sit on “sit and move” or “wiggle” cushion
* sit on a “T-stool” or swivel chair
Proprioceptive Strategies – heavy work and activating muscles and joints is also alerting. It is usually recommended to receive proprioceptive input prior to doing an activity requiring sustained focus and attention such as reading, during class and doing homework.
Any activity that activates muscles such as running, jumping, carrying heavy items, chair or wall push ups, etc provides proprioceptive input.
Tactile Strategies – fidgets such as gummy erasers, a stress ball, a small bit of play dough, Wikki Sticks, pipe cleaners, or rubber bands, wrapped around a pencil, strand of paper clips
Olfactory Strategies: Peppermint and lemon scents are alerting; vanilla and rose scents are calming”
— Debbie McNulty, Pediatric Occupational Therapist
“Social stories, peer/therapist modeling, visual schedules, and heavy work (proprioceptive and vestibular input) prior to seated tasks have been successful for me thus far.”
“1) Exercise for 5-10 minutes before beginning an activity. Exercise releases chemicals in the brain which can help with attention, executive function and memory.
2) Choose to work in a place that has minimal distractions. Use headphones to keep noises out, and sit facing a wall to not be visually distracted.
3) Use a list of steps needed to complete an activity. Check off steps completed as you go through the task.
4) Use a timer to keep track of time
5) Take movement breaks every 5, 10, 15 minutes depending on when it is needed. Time between breaks can slowly be increased as you’re able to attend for a longer time.
6) Have a reward at the end of an activity such as a favorite toy, iPad, or snack.”
— Melissa Talavera, OT for NYC Schools
“Have you tried breaking the task into smaller segments? Or incorporating things that motivate them to attend to the activity? Another OT intervention is allowing the child to lead the activity and the therapist gradually builds on the activity. I’ve also incorporated therapeutic listening which is a specialized treatment that is extremely helpful to modulate sensory input.”
Articles, stories and advice for parents and educators of kids who could use a little help paying attention.
Mon – Fri: 8:00AM – 6:00PM
Sat – Sun: Closed
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Accept settingsWe may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.
If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:
You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.