Spark Your Preschooler’s Thinking Skills: Attention, Memory And Comprehension

Your preschooler is learning every day. And millions of neural connections are being created in their brain with every new experience. A report from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child by Harvard University states that the first five years of a child’s life are crucial for their development, as their brain develops faster during this time than at any other stage of life. They are rapidly developing skills in many areas—cognitive (thinking, learning, reasoning, speaking, communicating), social (pro-social skills), emotional (self-awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, resilience) and physical (gross motor skills and fine motor skills).

We aim to throw light on one important skill among these, and its significance on your preschooler’s development—thinking. Thinking is a cognitive skill that enables your child to process information, make decisions, create ideas and develop logical connections. This series will focus on the different types of thinking skills to develop in your preschooler, starting with attention, memory and comprehension. These skills are involved in helping your preschooler observe, remember, understand and respond to meaningful stimuli, like words, pictures, sentences or conversations. Further articles in the series will explore creative thinking, logical thinking, scientific thinking, and critical thinking skills.

Attention

Paying attention to a task is giving undivided attention to it, without being distracted by other external factors. Do you often wonder why your preschooler finds it difficult to sit still and pay attention to a task for a long time? One minute they might be playing with their toys and the very next moment you might find them coloring or trying to open the fridge. This is because their attention span is still developing, and paying attention to the task at hand can be difficult for them. The average attention span of a preschooler can range from 6 to 15 minutes. Remember that your child’s attention span is also influenced by factors like their interest in the task, or the distractions around them.

The need to build this skill

• Key to effective learning

Paying attention is the foundation for learning. Your child must be able to pay attention to learn new things, understand them, and apply them to real-world situations.

• Develops impulse control

Learning to pay attention builds your child’s ability to stay focused on a task by controlling their desire to shift attention to other tasks or actions. Children with better impulse control are more confident, make better choices and are able to regulate their emotions.

• Helps identify areas of interest

How much time your child spends on a task can also tell you how much they like it. This will help you identify their potential areas of interest. For example, if your child loves stories with animals, they might also enjoy learnng more about animals.

• Develops competence

Paying attention enhances your preschooler’s ability to work on a task when asked to, helping them keep their focus on the task till its completion.

Tips to build attention span

Here are some ways you can enhance your preschooler’s attention span, while keeping in mind the developmentally appropriate limitations.

• Break down tasks

Your preschooler may zone out and stop paying attention if an activity seems difficult or boring. Break down the task into activities of shorter duration and give them step-by-step instructions, instead of long explanations. For example, instead of asking your child to just color a page from their coloring book, you can say, “First, let’s color the flower. What color would you like it to be?” When they have done that, you can say, “Now, let’s color the leaves green.”

• Keep a flexible routine with a lot of breaks

Taking breaks between tasks improves your child’s attention and helps them concentrate better. Make sure that their breaks involve movement. Let them play outdoors, dance to their favorite song or take a bike ride. Remember that your preschooler’s attention span is still developing, so focus on keeping them engaged only for 15 minutes or less at a time. If the activity involves sitting in a place for a long time, and your preschooler seems to be fidgeting or turning away from the activity, it’s a sign that they need a break to move around.

• Incorporate their interests in activities

Just like us, preschoolers also spend more time on an activity if they enjoy doing it. For example, if your child loves dinosaurs, incorporate that in their play session, take them to the library to read more about them or get them dinosaur coloring books. Look out for signs that tell you what activities interest your child. Do they seem eager and happy or bored while doing the activity?

• Engage them with focus games

Simple board games like snakes and ladders or ludo involve keeping the rules of the game in mind, and remembering whose turn it is to roll the dice. These activities can improve your child’s attention when they play these games. Other games like ‘Simon says’ or ‘I spy’ also encourage paying attention to auditory and visual stimuli.

• Focus on their sleep and nutrition

Your child’s sleep and dietary patterns can affect their attention span. Ensure they get a good night’s sleep and plenty of rest throughout the day. Your preschooler may not be able to pay attention when they are hungry or tired. Giving them a healthy snack (nuts, fruits, raw veggie sticks with fat-free dip) before they start a task can help them reenergize and focus.

Memory

Memory is the ability to acquire, store and later retrieve information by the brain. Simply put, it’s the ability to recall past experiences or information. Early childhood (from birth to age 8) is an important time for memory development. During this time rapid brain development enhances memory and planning abilities in children. In preschoolers, recognition memory (identifying faces and objects) and episodic memory (memory of recurring events) improve. As your child’s memory development is still in progress at this age, understand that remembering begins with understanding. So, rote learning is not a realistic way to help them remember.

The need to build this skill

• Improves cognitive skills

Memory is a complex cognitive ability that is key to development of thinking and learning skills like reading, paying attention, comprehending, problem-solving and imagining.

• Enhances executive functions

Executive functions are mental skills that we use to perform tasks like planning, organizing, setting goals and self-monitoring. Building memory enhances executive functioning skills, helping your preschooler follow directions, form concepts in their mind, and connect existing ideas with new ones.

• Adds new learning to existing knowledge base

Memory and learning are closely related. Learning is gaining new knowledge or skill and memory is how one expresses the acquired knowledge. While memory is essential for learning, new information acquired through learning is used by memory to create associations with the existing knowledge base.

Tips to build memory

Good memory skills will help your preschooler perform tasks better and learn new concepts. Here are a few tips to improve your child’s memory skills.

• Say it with songs

Musical patterns seem to jog a child’s memory, so creating rhymes and songs to help them remember simple tasks might help. For example, you can create a song that tells them how to tie their shoelaces.

• Encourage mind mapping and visualization

Let your child paint a picture in their mind about what they read or hear. As they progress, they will learn how to build a virtual map in their minds, connecting different ideas. This will help them actively engage in the topic and develop a deeper understanding. Flashcards or images improve their visual memory and can help them remember concepts.

• Take a multisensory approach

Help them learn by engaging all their senses. For example, if your child is learning about a fruit or vegetable, instead of just reading to them about it, let them hold it in their hands, smell it and taste it. Such experiences improve memory retention.

• Connect with experiences

Draw from personal experiences whenever you can to help your child create a strong memory. For example, when you read to them about farm animals, you can talk about your visit to the farm, what animals they saw there and what each animal ate. This will make it fun for your child to remember what is read.

• Play memory games

Games like matching picture cards and magic cup game (finding out which inverted cup has a hidden object) can help your preschooler enhance their memory skills. You can also create new games at home or when you travel. For example, you can show your preschooler 10 household items, ask them to close their eyes and then remove one item, asking them to guess which one is missing.

• Repetition is key

Repeating things initiates long-term memory by creating strong neural connections in the brain. This in turn improves learning, both implicit (riding a bicycle) and explicit (learning the meaning of a word). Sing their favorite songs repeatedly. You can even dance together to these songs on repeat. Read their favorite book to them over and over again. Let them try tying their shoelaces or putting on a shirt every day.

• Ensure they get good-quality sleep

Several studies performed over the years indicate that sleep plays an active role in brain plasticity during the developmental stages, promoting memory consolidation. Memory consolidation is the process by which a temporary memory is transformed into stable, long-lasting memory. Slow-wave sleep or deep sleep is seen to trigger this process, and so, your preschooler’s sleep quality is important for better memory retention.

Comprehension

At the preschool stage, your child begins to listen to conversations, follow instructions and ask questions. These simple activities build their comprehension skills. Comprehension is the ability to interpret, understand and think deeper about things. The different types of comprehension skills include the ability to understand instructions, identify new words in context, identify the main idea in a text or conversation, sequencing events, answering questions on what was read or heard, problem-solving and drawing conclusions. These skills lay the foundation for learning, reading, writing and communication skills, and also build on your child’s existing knowledge base. As your preschooler interacts more with their environment at this age, enhancing their comprehension skills will help them learn better from the stimuli they are exposed to.

The need to build this skill

• Language development

Being able to comprehend what they listen to or read is the path to language development. It improves language fluency, vocabulary and sets the stage for understanding academic lessons.

• Builds knowledge

When your child is able to comprehend what is being spoken, told to them or read to them, they continue to enhance their knowledge of the world around them.

• Enhances critical thinking

Comprehension isn’t just being able to understand what is read. It also involves being able to find the meaning, summarizing, drawing inferences and presenting ideas about something. Such analytical activities improve your preschooler’s critical thinking skills (the ability to analyze, evaluate and judge a situation).

• Improves attention and memory

Being able to comprehend a text or conversation increases your child’s mental stimulation. It keeps them focused and attentive while trying to figure out the meaning of the text or speech. If your child reads or listens to you reading repeatedly, it also improves their memory.

Tips to build comprehension

Even though your child may not be reading yet, simple daily activities can enhance their comprehension skills. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

• Have lively conversations with them

A simple conversation that encourages back-and-forth talks between you and your child can improve their comprehension skills. While you show your child how to talk and listen, you also give them insights into your thoughts and ideas. Make use of mealtimes, when you travel, or when you play or watch a movie together to strike a conversation.

• Read together

Reading aloud is one of the best ways to improve your child’s comprehension skills. Reading helps them learn more about the world, make real-world connections to the stories and also form a special connection with you. Read to your child their favorite books over and over again if they want you to, and also introduce them to new topics. Oral storytelling is a great way to engage them. As you read or narrate a story, pause and let them repeat after you.

• Build on their background knowledge

As much as it’s important to introduce your child to new concepts, it’s also essential to build on the knowledge they already have on certain topics. Background knowledge will help your child make associations of what is being read or discussed with them to what they already know. For example, when you read about fruits to your child, you can list their favorite fruits first. “Apples and strawberries are your favorite fruits. Bananas and guavas are also fruits. So are melons and papayas.” Use references from movies, songs or toys to add information to what they already know.

• Ask open-ended questions

Instead of questions that require single-word answers from your child, ask questions like, “What do you think happened next?” or “What do you think we must do?” or “Why do you think the lion let the rat go free?” Such questions will prompt elaborate answers.

• Let them explore their environment

Take a walk through the neighborhood and ask them to point out things they see. Listen to their observations and respond. For example, if they see a vegetable at the grocery store that you read about, show it to them, connect it to what they have learned. You can also ask them to name the vegetables or items on the shelves that they recognize.

• Play games that spark their comprehension skills

Urge your child to start telling a story and make up the plot as they go. Make up songs about things they love and keep adding new words to it. Play games like ‘Simon says’ or ‘Red light green light’ that require children to listen and follow directions. You can also play ‘Tell me about it,’ a simple game to help your child open up about their experience.

Paying attention, recalling from memory and perceiving information form the basis of thinking skills for preschoolers. During this time of active development, it’s important for parents to gently nudge children toward improving these skills, while keeping in mind their developmentally appropriate milestones.

Also read:

Parenting Tips For Preschoolers

Building Skills For Kids

Cognitive Skills For Kids