By offering a variety of experiences/ objects/ activities and environments we are able to support the children in  developing attention skills. This may supporting a child in attending to preferred and non preferred activities, new activities/ people/ places, concentrating on one activity for an increased length of time, showing like and dislike, developing communication and interaction skills and many more. There are lots of fun activities that you can do at home together to work on attention skills.

As mentioned in the communication and understanding section; intensive interaction, musical interaction, Sensology, TACPAC and Dance Massage are all useful resources to support
developing attention skills. You could also engage your child in sensory stories, shared activities exploring liked toys/sensory media/ songs, sound toys and books, drama games, rhymes and rhythmic patterns.

Observe your child’s responses during these activities, how are they responding to the materials, songs, interactions?, e.g. do they visually track/attend to an item, smile, turn away, reach for more, show a preference, sustain attention for an increased length of time (this could be 10 seconds or 10 minutes). These are all brilliant examples of attention skills.

Example drama games:

Paddling at the Seaside  -

You need: a medium/ large sheet

Adult to wave the material up and down as they sing the song, making the material move faster and higher by the end of the song.

Adult sings/says:

Paddling at the seaside, splish, splash, splish, splash— Repeat x 2

Make small waves 

The waves are getting bigger, splish, splash, splish, splash— Repeat x 2

Make bigger waves

The waves are getting bigger, it’s a tidal wave —
Make large waves and let go.

Bouncy Ball 

You need: bouncy ball (any size)

Adult sings:

Bouncy ball, bouncy ball, who’s it coming to?’

‘Is it coming to (e.g. Mummy)? NO!’

‘Is it coming to (Child’s name)? YES!’

Bounce/ roll the ball to the child for them to explore.

(You could also use different textured/ colours/ size balls and see if your child shows a response to a particular one).

There are Bubbles Over You 

You need: bubbles

Adult sings:

There are bubbles over you,

there are bubbles over me,

there are bubbles over everyone,

there are bubbles over….

‘Child’s name’ or other family member.