Many children struggle to stay focused, follow directions or handle changes in routine. These challenges can significantly impact their learning, interactions with others and overall participation in daily life. Occupational therapy (OT) helps children build the foundational skills they need to improve their attention and stay engaged in daily life activities.
At More to Say Pediatric Development & Therapy, sessions are play-based and tailored to each child’s needs and interests. Our therapists use evidence-based strategies to help kids build attention skills that carry over into home routines, school tasks and peer interactions.
How Pediatric Occupational Therapy Builds Focus and Attention
Therapy sessions to facilitate improvements in focus and attention typically focus on one or more of these areas, depending on your child’s needs:
- Self-regulation: Refers to a child’s ability to recognize and respond to their emotions and sensory needs. Building self-regulation helps children manage their responses to emotional situations and sensory needs to help stay attentive during everyday routines.
- Executive functioning: Encompasses the cognitive skills that help children plan, organize, start tasks and follow through. Strengthening these areas helps kids navigate more confidently through multi-step activities like getting dressed or completing schoolwork.
- Sensory integration: When sensory input is hard to manage or interpret, children may become overwhelmed or distracted. Occupational therapy helps children obtain regulating sensory inputs and integrate their sensory systems to improve responses and experiences in dynamic environments, facilitating engagement in daily activities.
What Pediatric Therapy Sessions Look Like
Therapists at More to Say follow a child’s lead and build skill development in play and engaging activities. Skill areas targeted are individualized to a child’s specific goals, preferences and developmental needs. Activities are play-based and motivating for children to participate in. These could include:
- Creating obstacle courses or movement games that encourage sequencing, planning, organizing, turn-taking, shifting attention and managing impulses
- Using arts and crafts to facilitate planning, organizing, and sequencing
- Solving puzzles, playing matching games and sequencing tasks to promote planning and sustained focus
- Engaging in pretend play schemes to support memory, imagination and flexible thinking in social settings
- Exploring sensory activities that help children regulate and sustain attention in different environments
- Introducing picture schedules, timers and checklists to reinforce task sequencing, reduce distractions and improve organization and focus
As children build these skills, they begin to feel more confident navigating daily activities and routines, improving engagement in self-care tasks, school, and play.
Activities to Reinforce Children’s Focus Skills at Home
Your child’s occupational therapist will provide home programming for activities you can try at home to build skills that help children stay focused between sessions. These will reinforce progress between sessions but aren’t meant as a replacement for therapy. Some general strategies are:
- Create a quiet workspace with minimal distractions where your child can read, do puzzles or complete short tasks.
- Use visual timers to show how long a task will last and checklists to break tasks into simple, easy-to-follow steps.
- Encourage games that build focus, like matching games, puzzles or “Simon Says.”
- Let your child help with routines like setting the table or organizing toys, which builds sequencing skills and sustained attention.
- Practice turn-taking games to help with impulse control and joint attention.
These can be adapted to your child’s development and interests. Your therapist will also suggest specific activities based on your child’s custom therapy plan and to make therapy goals easier to carry over into their daily life.
When to Consider Occupational Therapy for Focus and Attention
If your child often seems distracted, struggles to complete tasks or becomes overwhelmed in noisy or stimulating environments, an occupational therapy evaluation may be a helpful next step. You might notice:
- Trouble following multi-step directions
- Frequent frustration performing or avoidance of focused tasks
- Difficulty staying seated or completing classroom work
- Trouble transitioning between activities
Get Answers with a Pediatric Occupational Therapy Evaluation
An evaluation at More to Say is a personalized journey, centered on understanding your child’s unique strengths and areas of support. It helps you get clear answers about why your child may be having difficulties focusing and what can help. Our therapists will share what they learn and collaborate with you to create a plan that truly fits your child.
Starting therapy early gives your child more time to build important skills that can improve attention to task. Children’s brains are also most adaptable and ready for learning the younger they are. Early therapy gives you tools to support their progress at home, before small challenges grow into bigger frustrations. At More to Say Pediatric Development & Therapy, we believe in open communication with families. Our therapists continuously collaborate with families to learn about what is working, adjust goals as needed, and to make sure therapy keeps meeting each child’s evolving needs.
Schedule an Evaluation or Free Occupational Therapy Phone Screening for Your Child
Concerned about your child’s focus or attention? A free phone screening at More to Say can help you take the next step with confidence.
At More to Say Pediatric Development & Therapy, we take a holistic, play-based approach to helping children build the attention and regulation skills they need to succeed. If you’re not sure whether your child could benefit from therapy, a free phone screening is the best place to start.
Contact our Branford or Oxford, CT, location to ask questions, schedule a free phone screening or schedule an evaluation.
