Does Teaching toddlers to pay attention help academic success

The secret to raising an academic child is not to coach toddlers in maths or play them classical music, but to teach them to pay attention, research by child development experts suggests.

Toddlers who are better at concentrating, taking directions and persisting with a game even after hitting difficulties have a 50 per cent greater chance of getting a degree when older, a two-decade long experiment found.

The study (Relations between preschool attention span-persistence ..)  tracked 430 kids from pre-school to 21-years-old, monitoring academic and social development, behavioural skills and behaviour at home and in the classroom.

Parents were asked to watch how long the children would play with one particular toy while at home, while teachers were instructed to give the class a task and then monitor which toddlers gave up and which ones kept persevering until they had completed it.

Results of the study by Oregon State University were published in the online journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

The children most likely to go through further education were those who, at an early age, persisted in tasks and paid attention in pre-school sessions, said researchers.

Researchers said these are qualities that both parents and teachers can easily teach youngsters.

Many ambitious parents try to introduce maths or classical music or other academic subjects to their children to give them a headstart in life but they may be better teaching social skills like paying attention, not giving up and how to follow directions, said child development expert Megan McClelland.

She said: "There is a big push now to teach children early academic skills at the pre-school level.

"Our study shows that the biggest predictor of college completion wasn't maths or reading skills, but whether or not they were able to pay attention and finish tasks at age four."

The pre-school research included seeing how long children would play with a single toy or how easily they would give up when they reached difficulties in a task.

Read the full article here

Inattention: Try Chore Cards

Dyslexia - Blue Coloured Filters

The effects of blue on dyslexia
Coloured filters, either worn as spectacles or used as overlays, have been successfully employed in the treatment of dyslexia for many years but there is no agreement about how they work.

Bright white light increases the activation of the parts of the brain involved in directing attention, such as the posterior parietal cortex.

Abnormal function in these attention-modulating parts of the brain has been implicated in the pathogenesis of dyslexia.

It is therefore likely that blue light selected optimally to recruit ipRGCs will have the greatest effect on improving alertness and concentration and may therefore be the best for remediating the impaired attentional responses seen in dyslexia.

The DRT has carried out a randomised control trial that showed that in suitable dyslexic children wearing blue filters for 3 months improved their reading age by an amazing 9 months.

The effects of blue light on sleep
Blue light therapy has been shown to help people with sleeping problems, to improve alertness during night shift work and to help overcome jet lag.

It probably works on the suprachiasmatic nucleus to alter the timing of diurnal rhythms. We found that children whose reading benefitted from wearing blue filters during the day often reported also that their sleeping patterns had improved, and we showed that this was probably due to an effect on the SCN; at night secretion of the sleep hormone, melatonin, which is also under the control of the SCN, can be inhibited by just 15 minutes of blue light ie blue light can reset the SCN rhythms to improve sleeping.

The effects of blue light on migraine
Likewise we found that in these dyslexics, who often complain of migraine type headaches, the blue filters often improved their headaches.


Migraine was previously thought to be due to swelling of the arteries in the membranes surrounding the brain, the meninges, but we now believe that the hypothalamus and specifically the SCN is responsible.

Coloured filters, worn as spectacles, have been found to be highly effective in reducing the frequency of migraine symptoms. Their efficacy probably does not result from their effects on conscious visual perception via the retinogeniculocortical pathway, but rather by affecting the hypothalamus via the retinohypothalamic pathway.

So blue filters are the most efficacious in reducing migraine.

Light and Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a depressive syndrome experienced by around 5% of the population, the symptoms of which recur in winter and autumn.

A number of experimental findings combined with the circannual pattern of symptom expression implicate disordered diurnal rhythms controlled by the SCN in the pathogenesis of SAD.

SAD symptoms are likely to be the result of an abnormal phase-delay in the circadian rhythm. Hence exposure to blue light, particularly in the morning, often improves SAD greatly.

Fluorescent Lighting
Exposure to natural daylight at work and school is often minimal and fluorescent electric lighting is usual.

Unfortunately most fluorescent lights radiate very little short wavelength blue light.

Full spectrum fluorescent lights, the spectral output of which is similar to that of natural daylight, or blue light should therefore be superior for the promotion of human health and cognitive function because they stimulate the retinal hypothalamic system more effectively.

Dyslexia Research Trust - Vision & Coloured Filters

Vision Impaired Josh soldiers on with wooden toys

TOY soldiers lovingly made by a devoted dad are helping a little boy with sight problems.

Josh New had struggled to read and write as he found it difficult to focus on the words on a page.

The six-year-old, of Whitley Bay, had struggled to keep up with his classmates at Appletree Gardens First School in Monkseaton until he was diagnosed with binocular instability.

The youngster’s parents were so concerned that their son was lacking in concentration and complained of “words flying off the page” that Josh was taken to Keyes Opticians in Gosforth, Newcastle, where it was discovered he had the disorder.

To help his son improve his eye muscle co-ordination, his dad Sean spent time making a row of wooden soldier pegs – all of different colours, faces and heights – that Josh focuses on for at least five minutes a day.

That, combined with regular eye exercises supplied by optician Andrew Keyes, has enabled Josh’s vision to improve dramatically. He is now enjoying his reading and his writing is much better.

Sean, 40, said: “It is important that Josh focuses on something each day and because he is only young I decided to make the wooden peg soldiers for him to look at as I thought it would be fun.

“The reaction I received from Josh was great. He does his exercises and makes sure he focuses on the soldiers. Josh has coped well with his condition and is making great progress.”
Josh with his mam Joanne and dad Sean

Binocular instability is often linked to dyslexia and Josh, who has three brothers – twins Alfie and Toby, seven-months, and Jamie, 17 – will undergo tests to see if he has the condition.

The youngster is known to also have visual stress.

His mam Joanne, 37, who works with children with special needs, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to see a huge change in Josh. His reading has come on in leaps and bounds.

Josh soldiering on thanks to wooden toys - Chronicle News - News - ChronicleLive

ADHD: Retuning the Concentration Off-Switch

Brain scans of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have shown for the first time why people affected by the condition sometimes have difficulty in concentrating.

The study, by experts at The University of Nottingham, may explain why parents often say that their child can maintain concentration when they are doing something that interests them, but struggles with boring tasks.

Using a ‘Whack-a-Mole’ style game, researchers from the Motivation, Inhibition and Development in ADHD Study (MIDAS) group found evidence that children with ADHD require either much greater incentives — or their usual stimulant medication — to focus on a task.

The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, found that when the incentive was low, the children with ADHD failed to “switch off” brain regions involved in mind-wandering. When the incentive was high, however, or they were taking their medication, their brain activity was indistinguishable from a typically-developing non-ADHD child.

Professor Chris Hollis, in the School of Community Health Sciences, led the study. He said: “The results are exciting because for the first time we are beginning to understand how in children with ADHD incentives and stimulant medication work in a similar way to alter patterns of brain activity and enable them to concentrate and focus better. It also explains why in children with ADHD their performance is often so variable and inconsistent, depending as it does on their interest in a particular task.”

ADHD is the most common mental health disorder in childhood, affecting around one in 50 children in the UK. Children with ADHD are excessively restless, impulsive and distractible, and experience difficulties at home and in school. Although no cure exists for the condition, symptoms can be reduced by medication and/or behavioural therapy. The drug methylphenidate (more often known by the brand name Ritalin) is commonly used to treat the condition.

Previous studies have shown that children with ADHD have difficulty in ‘switching-off’ the default mode network (DMN) in their brains. This network is usually active when we are doing nothing, giving rise to spontaneous thoughts or ‘daydreams’, but is suppressed when we are focused on the task before us. In children with ADHD, however, it is thought that the DMN may be insufficiently suppressed on ‘boring’ tasks that require focused attention.

To read more check out the Science Blog article 

Improve Your Memory - No Guarantees but it may help

If you’re looking for a way to increase the capacity of your memory or pass a test, you don’t need to memorise 23,000 words but the technique used to memorise large amounts of data can be used to memorise anything.

Below is the simpler version of a memory improvement system, developed to help pupils pass history, psychology, and other information-heavy tests.

• First, use a pencil (or word processor, it’s faster) to type in complete sentences, any fact you think might appear on the test.
• Use short sentences because they’re easier to remember.
• Take your printed notes into a quiet room, shut the door, and eliminate all distractions.
• Look at the first sentence in your notes and read it out loud. Then, close your eyes and say the sentence without looking at it.
• Repeat the step above, this time with the first 2 sentences.
• Next, try it with 3 sentences. Then 4. Repeat until you have memorised every sentence in your notes.

After a study session, take a quick nap. New memories are very vulnerable, but studies have shown that sleep helps your new memories stick. After your nap, repeat the memory technique once more for maximum retention.

The person who provided this system became so good at the technique that they could complete all studying for any 'information heavy' mid-term or final exam, in less than 6 hours.

Whatever you do, do not ignore all your classes until the last minute, but it’s good to know there is a way to save yourself if you do.

Does it Really Work?
This memory technique isn’t the newest, the prettiest, or the most interesting technique on the market but it should worked for most people, even people who claim to have the “worst memory in the world.”