A lot of kids struggle with math in school. Once you get past the basics, the concepts can feel foreign and disconnected from everyday life. Weak attention skills can make it even harder.
Did you know that attention is really about noticing less? That is not the way most people think about it. However, in a scientific review paper “Visual attention: The past 25 years” I read recently, Dr. Carrasco makes that case and it is clear once she explains it.
“Can you play the Attention Arcade without an eye tracker?” The answer is No. Controlling the games with just your eyes is key to the way the games train attention skills.
Is it easier to get children to practice their times tables or get better at playing a video game? Silly question, right? But why do kids like playing video games? They are designed to allow players to gain mastery through practice in a fun environment. When you practice times tables, it feels bad to get them wrong. In a game, you are just playing… even when building skills.
If you are trying to understand the challenges around attention, you will likely come across three words regularly: attention, focus, and gaze. What are the differences between them? How are they the same?
To read anything, you need to attend to it and the better you can focus, the easier it is to read longer passages.
The attention skills trained by the Attention Arcade can have long-term effects, even after children stop training. Learn how it works.
The child with better attention skills can read for longer stretches, work through more complex math problems, and plan projects that require multiple
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.
As an occupational therapist, you understand how difficult it can be to train attention and focus in children when you are unable to see them every day or multiple times a week. When you send your patients home, you need to be confident that they are practicing recommended therapies at home. As you know, practicing these activities is like practicing a sport, or practicing the piano.