Class teaching can be tough for kids who struggle with concentration, so try to make as much time for individual instruction as possible. When you’re interacting with a particular child alone, you can better monitor her progress and devote your attention to ensuring her skills are developing at the right pace. Individual attention isn’t always possible for every child, but is easier to achieve in some areas; for example, you might allocate a few minutes per child each day to practice reading.
The more organized a child is, the better she tends to be able to keep up with lessons. If the child’s working area is disorganized, she’ll be more likely to get distracted by finding materials and pens, for example. Ensure that every child in the class has an organized working space; you might allocate some time during the day so that each child can get organized before class begins. If children have a desk, keep certain objects such as graph paper and folders inside so that kids always know where these resources are.
The difficulty when teaching kids with attention difficulties is that while most of the class will pick up the necessary skills, you can’t be sure that children with concentration problems won’t get distracted and miss the lessons they’re meant to learn. You can reduce this risk by delivering lessons in as direct a manner as possible. Teach with direct instruction as opposed to embedded instructional techniques. For instance, if you’re teaching phonetics, ask each child to say the required phonetic sound as she points to a picture of the letter in question.
Your voice alone may not be enough to keep the attention of some students, but you can help get your lesson across by asking them to engage physically in the lesson. For example, teacher Sarah Major, reporting on the Home Educators Resource Directory website, found that if children with concentration difficulties used their fingers and hands as part of the learning process, they were better able to follow the lesson for longer periods of time. So for example, you might ask a child to count on her fingers as part of a numeracy lesson, rather than just having her say numbers aloud.
Sometimes it helps if the child recognizes that some parts of the day require more concentration and is aware of how long each school lesson lasts. To ensure this, try creating charts that visually represent the school day. Break down the day’s activities into segments so that the child has an easy reference point. This allows kids to anticipate when they’ll need to focus.