Eating on the run, IM and TV, plus homework. Kids today are growing up in a land of distraction—a noisy, info-cluttered, hyper-mediated world where juggling is the norm. And everywhere kids see adults paying half-focus to the world. How can parents raise focused kids in this attention-deficient world?

Speak A Language Of Attention

Attention isn’t just one thing. It’s a set of three skills: focus, awareness, and executive attention, i.e. planning and decision-making. And it’s teachable, scientists are discovering. Talk to kids about attention. Neuroscientists Amishi Jha tells her five-year-old that focus is like a flashlight of the mind. And practice. Listen for the trumpet in a song. Play “Spot the…” on a car trip. Walk through the garden—using all your senses

Focus On One Another

A first social skill for toddlers is joint attention—a meeting of minds that comes from focusing on something together. But today we’re so used to splitting our focus that it’s hard to truly attend to any one thing—person. Continuous partial attention undermines our relationships. When we give each other half-focus at dinner or in conversation, we are effectively saying, “you aren’t worth my time.”

MAM: Moms Against Multitasking

Multitasking is a national pastime—and kids are no exception. Sixty percent of kids age eight to 18 multitask at least some of the time they’re doing homework. But it’s not as easy as it looks! Toggling between tasks slows us down because the brain needs time to switch between new and old tasks, and ramp up for the new job. Warning: multitasking may also inhibit deeper, flexible learning. That means kids might do well on homework, yet learn the material less well. Teach kids to single-task to get the job done right.

White Space

Quelling distractions is both a matter of harnessing our attentional skills and creating a climate for focus. And today, kids are exposed to nearly six hours a day of non-print media. Two-thirds under six live in homes that keep the TV on half or more of the time—an environment linked to attention difficulties. Take a page from pioneering companies who are creating “white space”—places or times for uninterrupted, unwired thought.

Eat Mindfully

We snack, we gulp, we eat power bars on the run. Forty percent of our food budgets are spent eating out, up from a quarter in 1990. But this mobile eating undermines our ability to taste, sense and share our food. We’ve fallen into a national habit of mindless eating, says Cornell psychology professor Brian Wansink. Take the time to stop and eat, and notice the smell, taste, and feel of your food. You’ll be dialing down on stress, and boosting focus!

Be A Role Model For Focus

If we want to nurture our children's focus, we have to cultivate our own attentional skills—and pass it on. Be an attentional role model. Give the gift of your attention. Carve out time for focused thinking and relating—and speak up against multitasking, interruptions, and hyper-hurrying. Rediscover what it’s like to have a long conversation, to sit still, to go beyond what’s first-up on Google. The word “attention” comes from the Latin verb meaning to “stretch toward.” It’s not always easy to nurture your attentional skills, but it’s worthwhile.

Adapted from Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age 

©2008 Maggie Jackson

Maggie Jackson is an award-winning author and journalist who writes the popular "Balancing Ads" column in the Boston Globe. Her work also has appeared on National Public Radio and in the New York Times, among other national publications. Her acclaimed first book, What's Happening To Home? Balancing Work, Life, And Refuge In The Information Age, examined the loss of home as a refuge. Her new book, Distracted: The Erosion Of Attention And The Coming Dark Age, is currently available from Prometheus Books. For more information, please visit: www.maggie-jackson.com.