To grow up, children dedicate themselves with commitment and attention to the activities they need at that time of development. How to help them refine their concentration capacity?
We could define the concentration as the ability to persist persistently attention to a given element or activity. Now, it is common opinion that such a ability is everything except a dowry of the little ones. It is not uncommon to feel parents and teachers complaining that their child would not be able to focus more than a few minutes on any activity.
As demonstrated already over a century ago by Maria Montessori, however, this is one of the most unfounded beliefs about childhood. Small children, he writes, not only do they already show the ability to focus on external interests and stimuli in a few weeks (for example, on the slight movements of an object hanging near their bed), but they need to concentrate in order to grow: «The first premise for the development of the child is concentration. The child who concentrates is immensely happy ».
A “totalizing” activity
Maria Montessori had the opportunity to reach these conclusions thanks to the observation activities you have carried out in children’s homes. On one of these occasions, told in the book Self -educationMontessori observes the work of A 3 -year -old girl. The little girl is working with solid joints and her little hands are busy extracting and reinserting cylinders of different sizes in the corresponding holes. His activity seems to be a perpetual, endless motion. Nor the background noise produced by the other children, nor the songs of the teacher manage to distract it from work.
Suddenly, after repeating the same sequence of actions for forty -four times, the girl stops. To hit Montessori is not only the perseverance she demonstrated, but above all the fact that The little girl does not appear at all fatigued, but radiant, full of joy and satisfaction. Evidently, that activity had allowed her to finalize her energies appropriately, obtaining an opportunity for growth.
Flow and concentration
The situation described by Montessori has something of mystical and meditative, and recalls what in psychology has been called “flow theory“. According to its author, the psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihály, When a person enters the “flow” (Flow) lives an optimal emotional state that induces it to drop completely in the activity carried out. The individual becomes fully focused on the goal, shows a clear intrinsic motivation for the task and manifests great positivity and gratification in his development.
You can be so absorbed by your actions that external distractions (and, in the case of children, even physiological needs!) Are not worthy of attention. But how can the child reach this flow state? It all begins, Maria Montessori tells us, from the interest. Interest is the learning engine: if left free to follow the dictates of his “inner teacher”, the child is already able to be very young to orient himself towards the most responding activities for his growth needs.
Here he is then that, at 6 months, we dedicate ourselves for long minutes to transfer the objects from one hand to another and, to 15, we try to transport heavy objects by exercising the simultaneous coordination of the upper and lower limbs. In focusing for a long time in these works, infantile attention, says Montessori, polarizes and the repetition of the action appears. In its meditative state, the child lasts the activity until the inner need is satisfied.
Absorbing all of himself in his employment, The baby learns to work continuously, develops persistence and self -discipline: Since the activity is freely chosen and completed, the child has the opportunity to exercise the control of himself and his actions.
Some practical advice
But if the concentration is so important so that the mind is built and the personality grows, What can we do, concretely, to encourage the development of this ability in the little ones?
Just like any other skills, Maria Montessori tells us, Concentration can also and should be grown and perfected. To help our children on this path we should pay attention to:
• Do not interrupt them unnecessarily. We respect every reasonable activity of our children, was also simply open and close a drawer or wash a doll. The work of their muscles at the service of the mind is much more important than the activity itself. Breaking their concentration means ending an experience of inner enrichment. Interrupt their activity, however trivial it may seem, risks not only to affect their concentration ability, but also blocks an opportunity for psychic nourishment. So allowing him the time necessary so that they can end what they are busy and we warn them in time when we know that this will not be possible.
• Respect their activities. Very often it happens that adults complain of being continuously interrupted by the little ones. How many times, however, do we really pay attention to not being us to stop them? Their “work” is as important as ours is: As they act, therefore, we avoid intervening with continuous advice or praise. At the beginning, perhaps it will seem difficult to remain silent to observe, but over time the benefit that this has on childhood activity will appear evident.
• Limit stimuli. The mind of the small child needs concreteness: in order to develop he needs to devote himself to constructive activities and to give the opportunity are the objects present in the environment. However, adults fall frequently in the error of believing that the greater the offer, the better the results in terms of learning and opportunities for growth will be. Actually, In the first years of life, children need not quantity, but of quality. Order and essentiality are fundamental needs: if there is too much, the childhood mind cannot really dwell on anything, attention passes frenetic from one stimulus to another and the concentration struggles terribly to settle. We prepare and leave only a limited number of proposals availablethink based on the observation of the interests of the moment.
• Isolate qualities. Not only a few objects, therefore, but also well selected. If we want to help the little ones to focus attention, Let’s put toys of a thousand sounds, lights and colors aside. Let’s make sure that the qualities are few, possibly unique, in order to be clearer and more appreciable. If we decide, for example, to offer our child some “smells of smells” full of different types of spices, we make sure to make them all of the same size and with the same fabric. In this way it will be easier for the child to focus attention on the meaning you intend to exercise, the sense of smell.
In conclusion, When the child focuses his mind develops and his personality is built: “Knowing how to recognize the precious moments of concentration to be able to use them in teaching”, as Maria Montessori writes, it is the real key to achieving education as a life help.
