At what age do we acquire the ability to maintain attention?

Many parents worry about their children's attention span even at an early age. At the least they see that they are not constant listening to dad when he tells them a story, playing a toy or By doing homework, many parents put themselves in the worst situation, fearing that their child may have ADHD or something like that.

It could be that yes, the child had some concentration problem, however in most cases the problem is that their parents do not know at what age we acquire the ability to maintain attention, seeing with the eyes of adults the development of their children, who are still children and like everyone else, their attention is rather reduced.

Fortunately, this will change as the child grows, becoming able to concentrate for a longer time, both in tasks that amuse him such as those in which he has to pay voluntary attention, such as homework or class. Let's see.

• Related article: "The 15 types of care and what are their characteristics"

At what age do we acquire the ability to maintain attention?

Attention is an executive function that is perfected and developed as we grow. This is because as we mature, so does our brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, the brain region where executive functions are located. For this reason, the degree of concentration of a small child and that of an adult are very different: we cannot expect from an immature brain the same functions as one already fully developed.

When speaking of care, regardless of age, we can speak of two types: involuntary and voluntary. The involuntary is the one that we show when we are doing an activity that we like, that arouses an interest that is not forced at all, while the Voluntary is one in which we have to do our part, focus on a task that may be more or less unpleasant and in which a certain effort is required cognitive.

Attention in childhood works in the same way, only involuntary attention prevails. That is, children concentrate better and longer on those tasks that are fun or attractive, such as games, watching television or being read a story. They may show voluntary attention, that is, force their concentration, but it is rather anecdotal. It is difficult for them to make that cognitive effort to pay attention in those activities that seem monotonous, boring and heavy.

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How is care progressing?

It has been seen that between the ages of 0 and 3, babies concentrate on tasks that attract and amuse them, although in reality any other activity can attract their attention. It should be said that, equally, lose interest pretty quickly in all the things they doBoth those they like and those they don't. Thus, at the minimum that a minimally distracting stimulus is presented to them, they will leave what they are doing and move on to another. They cannot control it, it is in their nature, there is nothing to worry about.

An experimental case in which this was addressed is in the 1985 study by Bashinski, who took 4-month-old babies and divided them into two groups of equal size. The experiment consisted of putting them on their parents' laps and teaching them visual stimuli, specifically a chess board. Group 1 was shown a 4x4 board; while at 2 a 12x12, with many more squares.

The babies in group 2, with the more complex board, were more fixed than those in 1, now, we would not be talking about sustained attention. The babies simply fixed themselves for a longer time on a more complex and striking stimulus, in this case being the 12x12 chessboard. It is not a voluntary or conscious attention, only that, as this second stimulus is more striking, it surprises them more.

Between 2 and 4 years of age, voluntary care strengthens And this is where we could begin to talk about infants being able to maintain attention. They can pay attention for a longer sustained time, even on those things they don't like. It is a cognitively demanding activity that requires investing a lot of energy and having a minimally developed neurological structure, specifically the prefrontal cortex. At these ages the care, like the children themselves, is still in diapers.

As we grow, attention becomes more stable. This is especially noticeable from 3-4 years, since boys and girls can play the same game for about 30 minutes and, if they like it a lot, they can reach 50. In older people, between 5 and 6 years old, the game can last up to almost an hour and a half. It should also be noted that we are talking about pleasant activities, since those that They are not as strong as being in class, the concentration lasts less, although it also increases with the age.

According to several studies and what has been observed by child psychologists, psychopedagogues, educators children and other professionals who work in childhood, we can see that concentration, this it is, the ability to maintain sustained attention, increases as it grows. Next we will see the expected concentration time for each age during childhood:

• 4 months to 1 year: 3 to 5 minutes
• 2 years: 4 to 10 minutes
• 3 years: 6 to 15 minutes
• 4 years: 8 to 20 minutes
• 5 years: 10 to 25 minutes
• 6 years: 12 to 30 minutes
• 7 years: 14 to 35 minutes
• 8 years: 16 to 40 minutes
• 9 years: 18 to 45 minutes
• 10 years: 20 to 50 minutes

It should be noted that these values ​​are not closed, but a simple orientation. Attention is a human function that presents individual differences, both in adults and children, with which, there may be children who concentrate more and others who concentrate less than expected for their ages. While they are not indicative of a learning disorder or giftedness or anything like that, these values ​​can serve as a reference to decide to go to a professional and see if our child has a trouble.

• You may be interested in: "The 6 stages of childhood (physical and mental development)"

Applications of this knowledge

All of this should be of help to many of those parents who, being unable to detach themselves from worry characteristic of their role as parents, they are very aware of their children and sometimes, at the slightest, exaggerate the things. If they see that their children cannot last for more than ten minutes reading, they begin to think that there could be a problem and if, in addition, they see them playing something that Apparently they like it but they don't get tired at all, these parents get their hair on end: “but if you like it, how come you can't continue Playing? what's the problem?"

In fact, one of the problems that many parents believe their children have as soon as they enter a psychologist's office is ADHD. They do not know what the diagnostic criteria are, nor how to evaluate it, they simply have the belief that their children have ADHD for the simple fact that they see that they are distracted doing what they are doing, without realizing that they are kids. How can they not get confused? Your brain is not yet ready to focus on a stimulus for long.

We must understand that the nature of children is very different from that of adults and that they cannot be studied from our adult perspective, much less being their parents. For example, with 3 years we cannot expect that a child will spend as much time concentrated as an adult does. If we see that he is a fidgety child, we should not think that he is hyperactive, clueless and inattentive without more, simply that he is that, a child, it is in his nature to be like that.

But the reality is that many parents, especially "helicopter" types, force their children to stay focused more than is neurologically possible. An adult, who can be concentrated for 50 minutes at a time, thinks that a child will also do it, but this is not the case. Before the age of 10, it is practically impossible to find a child who can spend as much time as his or her concentration. parents, and the normal thing is to acquire the ability to maintain adult attention at the age of 12 or already entered the adolescence.

But Although some 10-year-olds are already capable of concentrating for 50 consecutive minutes, it must be said that this is not entirely common.. Attention, like any other human faculty, has individual differences, and children of that age have periods of concentration that range from 20 to 50 minutes. This is very important to take into account in class, since 3rd and 4th grade children will need to change activities every 20 minutes if they want to take advantage of the session. Homework lasting longer than that time will cause many students to lose track of class.

In previous courses, naturally, the activities should last less time or, at least, be more attractive, since as the attention voluntary is not the strong point of young children teachers can take refuge in the involuntary and entertain them while teaching them the contents. Children who do not know what is being explained end up getting frustrated, seeing the classes as a real roll and you run the risk that, for fun, they start clowning around.

Repercussions of knowing all this

Understanding all this, it is possible to understand why it is so important to know at what age we acquire the ability to maintain attention and for how long we are able to be concentrated. Thus, parents do not run the risk of making the mistake of establishing home diagnoses that all they are going to do is mislabel your child. A child who thinks they have attention problems can make them come true, dragging on their academic performance. This is self-fulfilling prophecy.

As fathers and mothers, We must understand that sooner or later the child will be able to concentrate for a longer time, and that we cannot force this process. There are children who endure more, others less, but they will progressively improve. If not, if they have a significantly lower attention span than expected for their age, then there is reason to be concerned and see a professional. Now if there are no alarms or anything to indicate that there is a problem, we need not worry.

In addition, we must understand that time does not pass in the same way when one is small. Although it is not quite like that, in the child's mind 20 minutes can be perceived as if it were two hours for an adult. Their experience of time is longer and slower, with which they have to be focused on something that they do not like they can experience it as a real heaviness and it is normal that there is a moment when they deconcentrate. It is not an intelligence problem, it is that they get bored and every effort has a limit.

Know what your maximum concentration time is It will help us to assign tasks that can be done within the capacity associated with their age, with which, if you finish them successfully, we will increase your self-esteem by seeing that you can do them. In addition, we can guide their learning in a way that avoids frustration, boredom and fatigue, three aspects that can harm learning

Bibliographic references:

• Betts, J., Mckay, J., Maruff, P. and Anderson, V. (2006) The Development of Sustained Attention in Children: The Effect of Age and Task Load, Child Neuropsychology, 12: 3, 205-221, DOI: 10.1080 / 09297040500488522.
• Bashinski, H. S., Werner, J. S., & Rudy, J. W. (1985). Determinants of infant visual fixation: Evidence for a two-process theory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 39 (3), 580–598. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0965(85)90058-X