(303) 979-9077
(303) 979-9077
[email protected]How long can your child concentrate on math?
Concentrating in math for a long time takes stamina. Mental stamina refers to a person’s attention span. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines stamina as “the ability or strength to keep doing something for a long time.” Math students taking advanced math classes need mental stamina. Calculus students often take an hour just to work out one problem. But that’s nothing compared to the 365 years it took to solve Fermat’s Last Thereom!
Students with mental stamina, or a long attention span, will have an advantage during the ACT and SAT tests for college placement. The math section on the ACT takes one hour and the math section on the SAT takes one hour and twenty minutes. Even math unit tests or a math final will require intense concentration for 30-60 minutes.
Students who have not built up their mental stamina will have more unproductive time. That means they might finish less problems and/or make more mistakes. Students with the ability to concentrate for the full 30-80 minutes will optimize the time allotted.
Check Your Child’s Math Stamina
Try timing your child while they do math homework. Remember you are timing how long they concentrate, not how long it takes them to do a problem or finish their homework. If they get up or start doing anything other than math, stop the timer. Their current attention span in math is their baseline, or their starting place. You might be surprised at how few minutes your child can actually focus on math. It doesn’t necessarily mean they have ADHD. Children in our society get bombarded by stimuli. This overstimulation and the tendency to multi-task means that most children have not learned to focus for long periods of time.
They need to build their stamina.
Some conditions make it even more for difficult children (and adults) to concentrate. These include:
Feeling stressed
Sleep deprivation
Hunger
Lack of exercise
Some health conditions
ADD and ADHD
Increase the Amount of Time Your Child Can Concentrate
People improve mental stamina the same way they improve athletic stamina - focused practice and working a little longer every day. Focused practice means eliminating distractions like cell phones, YouTube, fidget spinners, and social interaction. Getting enough sleep, food, exercise will improve concentration. Learning techniques to de-stress will also help.
For however long your child can focus on math, have them practice meeting or beating that time daily for one week. The next week add 10% of the time as the goal, and the next week another 10%, and so on. No one can concentrate indefinitely. The next step for them will be to learn to take a quick mental break and then focus again.
How Mathnasium of Littleton Helps
Many kids have built up anxiety and stress about math. This stress and anxiety reduce their ability to focus. We create a pleasant atmosphere for math to help kids focus.
We also give children the a few minutes to work on a problem independently before we jump in to help. We call this “productive struggle” or “teach and move-on.” This opportunity to work independently in short bursts does wonders for children’s confidence and stamina.
Want to know more about our unique program? Give us a call today! 303-979-9077
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Articles referenced to write this article include:
//www.stylecraze.com/articles/ways-to-improve-your-stamina-for-studying/#gref
https://brandongaille.com/average-attention-span-statistics-and-trends/
//www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/05/24/teaching-students-to-de-stress-over-testing.html?r=1976559603
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