Helping kids concentrate: what supports focus

According to a 2016 survey by the Forsa Institute in Berlin commissioned by the DAK-Gesundheit health insurance fund, concentration problems among children increased sharply over the previous ten years.

The 500 teachers surveyed from grades 1 to 6 reported that up to 63 percent of their students have poor concentration. On average, 45 percent of schoolchildren display behavioral problems.¹

What is meant by poor concentration?

The length of time children can concentrate depends on their age. On average, the following attention spans are considered normal:

Normal attention spans for different age groups.

If a child's thoughts sometimes wander or they are easily distracted by external stimuli, this is perfectly normal. It is considered a genuine concentration disorder only when the child forgets things, suffers from fatigue, and makes careless mistakes.

Those affected are easily distracted and then turn to something completely different because they can no longer remember the previous activity. They keep starting something new without finishing the old task. Children with impaired concentration often do things twice or even three times.

They are less resilient than healthy peers of the same age and often feel overwhelmed and weak. You can use a simple test to check whether your child is easily distracted.

If your little one is doing homework or drawing, tell them something. A child who is concentrating well will continue their activity undisturbed. Children with poor attention, on the other hand, immediately stop drawing or writing and look at you.

The so-called omega-3 fatty acids are particularly important for your child's concentration, as they are essential for brain development. You can find a detailed explanation of why omega-3 fatty acids are so important and how they accelerate signal transmission between synapses in our comprehensive specialist article.

Find out more about: The benefits of omega-3 algae oil for children.

Also discover our sugar-free omega-3 gummies for children and teenagers, which provide plant-based, high-dose, and especially child-friendly support for the daily routine .

How does a concentration disorder develop in children?

Poor concentration can have many causes. It is often due to excessive demands at home or school. An overly busy leisure schedule may also be a trigger. When our bodies or minds are under intense strain, our organism repeatedly needs rest to regenerate.

Nowadays, children and teenagers constantly want to experience something new. As a result, they often do not get enough time to recover. Other possible causes of concentration problems in children include:

• Stress
• Emotional imbalance
• Too little sleep
• Sensory overload from television and computer games
• Lack of exercise
• Anxiety, sadness (depression)
• Food intolerance, allergy
• Environmental toxins
• Insufficient intake of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients²
• Insufficient fluid intake
• Insufficient muscle relaxation
• Underactive thyroid
• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD)

What diagnostic and treatment options are available?

During a personal consultation, the pediatrician or child psychiatrist first assesses the living situation of their young patient. Asking the parents and teachers questions can also be helpful in making a diagnosis.

For schoolchildren, the Test Series for Assessing Concentration Ability (TPK) and the Concentration Test for Third and Fourth Grades (KT 3-4) are frequently used.

The subsequent treatment depends on the underlying cause. If the cause is ADHD, many child psychiatrists prescribe Ritalin.

What role does nutrition play in poor concentration?

To perform its tasks optimally, our brain needs sufficient amounts of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, water, trace elements, vitamins, and other micronutrients. In this article, we explain why vitamins, minerals, and omega-3s are so important.

However, insufficient magnesium and vitamin B12 can also lead to concentration problems.^3,4 A varied diet rich in fresh salads, fruit, vegetables, fish, and seafood (Mediterranean diet) provides the brain with all the essential nutrients.

Several recent studies have shown that this type of diet reduces the risk of memory impairment in children with ADHD.^{5, 6}

Conversely, the risk of developing the condition increases when children primarily consume fast food and other highly processed foods, red meat, animal products, bread and rolls made from refined white flour, refined grains, and sugary drinks. This type of diet is also known as the Western diet (Western dietary pattern).

Several clinical studies reached this conclusion. The key findings are summarized below:

• Artificial food colorings and the preservative sodium benzoate (or both) in the diet lead to increased hyperactivity in children aged 3 and 8, respectively 9 years old.⁷
• A Western diet may be associated with ADHD.⁸
• The consumption of sugary drinks is associated with an unfavorable relationship to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.⁹

White industrial sugar is found not only in sweets, cakes, or cola drinks, but also in many salad dressings, yogurts, and juices from the supermarket. When your child consumes complex carbohydrates through their diet, the body gradually breaks them down. Blood sugar levels rise slowly and do not require any countermeasures from the body.

Commercial white sugar, on the other hand, causes a significant short-term rise in blood sugar, to which the body responds by releasing the hormone insulin. As a result, blood sugar levels return to normal after a short time. If these sugar spikes occur over a prolonged period, so-called insulin resistance may develop, with symptoms such as fatigue and lack of energy.¹⁰

How to improve concentration in children

Poor concentration is often caused by the lifestyle of modern society. A few changes can quickly bring about noticeable improvements.

The following tips have proven particularly effective for children:

• get enough sleep
• always interrupt schoolwork with breaks
• do not overwhelm your child during leisure activities
• limit video games and television
• play outdoors in the fresh air every day
• in summer, spend a short time in the blazing midday sun on sunny days
• exercise at least once or twice a week
• strictly limit the consumption of sweets and other unhealthy foods
• instead, opt for a healthy, varied diet
• pack dried fruit, nuts, a banana, or an apple for school
• drink 1.5 to 2 liters of unsweetened tea or water daily

It is also advisable to have the iron level (ferritin) and vitamin D concentration (25-OH-vitamin D3) in the blood measured. For parents of children with ADHD, we have compiled 9 helpful tips in this article that can have a positive effect on the symptoms of the condition.

Concentration exercises for children

In addition to general measures, there are specific exercises to improve concentration. A classic example is the traditional game Memory. If you play it regularly with your child, their memory will improve.

Coloring mandalas helps children relax. Experience shows that they can concentrate much better afterward. You can find numerous concentration exercises for children on reputable websites.⁹

It is important not to put pressure on your child if their thoughts wander during the exercise. Celebrate small successes and praise your child for them. You will see: Over time, your child will get better and better, and enjoy the games.

To improve concentration, we recommend the following four exercises:

1. Counting words

In this exercise, you read your child a story. Their task is to listen carefully and recognize and count a previously agreed-upon word. Examples include “and,” “are,” “or,” etc.

The difficulty can be increased as much as desired by specifying two or more words for your child to count. Since the children concentrate exclusively on particular words, the content of the story is irrelevant.

As a variation of the exercise, you can cut out a newspaper article for your little one to read. Here, too, the aim is to count specified words. If the child initially has difficulty, they may mark the words they find with a pen.

2. Spelling

So-called Spelling Bees (spelling competitions) are very popular at many American schools. The winners from individual schools compete against one another in elimination rounds until the best regional spellers compete for the championship in the grand final in Washington.

Why not hold your own spelling bee at home? Give your
Give your child a simple word to spell from beginning to end. If the child gets everything right, clap your hands and shout, “Hurray!”

With each new round, the difficulty of the words increases slightly. Alternatively, you can have the words spelled backward.

3. Endless sentence

A fun concentration exercise for the whole family is the endless sentence. The aim is to develop a creative story from an opening word. Someone begins with any word, the next person repeats it and adds a word.

The game continues in this way until one of the players repeats the sentence incorrectly. Then you simply start over.

Example:

1. Child: When
2. Child: When I
Mother: When I wake up in the morning
Father: When I wake up in the morning,
1. Child: When I wake up in the morning, I go
etc.

4. Cross-body exercise

If your child does a cross-body exercise every day, the two halves of the brain work together better. As a result, creativity and concentration increase. For this exercise, the child stands upright and raises the right knee until the thigh is horizontal (parallel to the floor).

At the same time, touch your knee with your left elbow while swinging your right arm backward. Then it is time for the other knee. Perform the exercise alternately 5 to 10 times in a row.

Conclusion

A lack of concentration can develop quickly in children. In most cases, it can be remedied by changing their eating habits and lifestyle.

If an underlying condition such as ADHD is present, treatment should be handled by a child psychiatrist or pediatrician. Even in these cases, however, those affected can benefit from changing their diet and engaging in regular physical activity combined with periods of rest and relaxation.

In addition, concentration exercises for children promote memory retention and help focus thoughts. American health experts recommend, among other things, magnesium, niacin, folic acid, vitamin B12, vitamin C, vitamin D3, and omega-3 fatty acids to improve concentration.¹²

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