8 seconds. Multiple sites on the internet state that a teenager’s attention span is 8 seconds… and that the attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. Dig a little deeper and you find that this is an urban myth. (Just goes to show that you can’t believe everything on the internet… you have to know your sources.)
So, why does attention really matter in your child’s life? Intuitively, most parents and teachers recognize that children need to pay attention to learn something or follow instructions. However, attention is more foundational than that. For example, attention is needed to sustain appropriate focus on a task.
For both teachers and students, paying attention can be especially challenging during the coronavirus crisis as it upends what everyone is used to. It is a lot harder for students to pay attention on Zoom than during in-person classes (a distraction is only a click away) and teachers are still getting comfortable with the new way of teaching.
One of the great joys I have is talking with parents whose children are using the Attention Arcade. Recently, I spoke with JoAnn, whose son has been using the Attention Arcade very diligently (20+ minutes nearly everyday) for three weeks.
Our daughter struggled, with a capital S, in middle school. It made me remember the soul crushing awkwardness of that age, the confusion of higher expectations, the need for social acceptance, the loneliness of exclusion, the fear of being less-than. Yep! Middle school is hard for lots of people.
What’s the difference between students who do well in the classroom and those who don’t? In many cases, attention is the underlying difference between classroom success and failure. Students with strong attention skills do markedly better than those with weak attention skills.
Most educators know that attention is important to learning.