Parents panel advice: “Have a quick chat with the teacher to see
if your kid’s attention span is atypical compared to his/her
schoolmates. Back at home, try doing more activities together
that require multiple steps and prolonged concentration but
produce fun results, like making smoothies or baking a pie.”
“There are video games that encourage deeper attention and
longer-term strategy: Spore, for one. Or the Wikipedia game
where you start them at one entry (the Liberty Bell, say) and
challenge them to get to another (ice cream) in the fewest
possible links. At the same time, since short attention spans
seem to be related to one or another of the home’s video
screens, consider going back to the strict usage limits you
enforced when they were younger and you were more idealistic.”
“It’s highly unlikely a child’s attention span is actually
getting shorter,” says Susan Kaiser-Greenland, author of “The
Mindful Child: How to Help Your Kid Manage Stress and Become
Happier, Kinder, and More Compassionate” (Free Pres