Dear all, how focused is your child? At school, when doing homework? Do they sit down and get on with it, or are they easily distracted and fidgety? Most of us know how exhausting these discussions are for both children and parents when it’s time for the usual: “Why can’t you just concentrate for once?”#8220; Claudia is a Montessori teacher, an expert in early childhood development and a single mum to four sons – so she knows what she’s talking about. She has put together some very simple exercises for us that can help if your child struggles to concentrate.
Focused instead of fidgety: What really helps when your child can’t sit still
“But how is she ever going to get the hang of maths if she simply won’t listen to the explanations?” Maja’s mum has heard this sentence for the third time in two weeks. The maths teacher is on the phone. Again. Maja has been causing a massive disruption in class. She was sliding around on her chair, making clicking noises and humming to herself during the quiet work period. When she couldn’t get the sums right, her pen flew across the classroom. Then she swept her notebook off the table and started crying angrily.
As Maja’s mother listens to the teacher, she looks over at the kitchen table. Maja is sitting there now. Three maths problems lie in front of her. Pen in hand, a dreamy gaze out of the window, her leg fidgets restlessly under the table. They had actually planned to go to the swimming pool after finishing her homework. That’s not going to happen today.
Concentration is not a matter of willpower
Maja feels punished: trouble at school in the morning, trouble at home at lunchtime, and no swimming pool. Maja’s mother is unhappy too. Her cheerful, inquisitive daughter, who used to jump out of bed in the morning full of energy and eager to discover the world, seems to be disappearing a little more with each passing day. Instead, arguments over homework, bad moods and calls from teachers have crept into everyday family life. Maja has hardly any enthusiasm for school left. Her mother groans at the very thought of the school years ahead.
When I first meet Maja, she has already been through a lot: remedial lessons, maths tuition, weekly occupational therapy including concentration training. Now learning therapy is to be added to the mix. She tries to imagine a cheese dome with lots of holes, under which she can concentrate better. Sometimes it works, often it doesn’t. Maja talks about the noise in the classroom, which makes her fidgety. And about how all the copying gives her a headache. Concentrating with a headache? Even harder. That makes sense to me too.
First things first: the fact that Maja can’t concentrate well isn’t her fault. It’s down to something that Maja herself, her mum and even the teachers haven’t picked up on: residual early childhood reflexes.
Little fitness trainers who haven’t quite finished their job
Imagine that when you’re born, you’re given little ‘fitness trainers’. These trainers help you in the first few months of life to develop from a helpless baby into an upright, walking human being. In technical terms, we call them early childhood reflexes.
They help your baby achieve important developmental milestones: rolling over, holding up their head, getting into a crawling position, sitting, standing and eventually walking. Early childhood reflexes develop as early as during pregnancy and are hugely important for early motor and neurological development. Every new movement helps the brain to form further connections and mature.
By around their first birthday, these reflexes should have done their main job. They do not disappear, but recede into the background. The fitness trainers recognise: job done. They hang up their towels and retreat to the clubhouse. In technical terms, we say: the reflex is integrated. The child can now consciously control movements: stay seated, hold a pen, follow a line with their eyes, listen, plan, react.
If that doesn’t work, the trainers keep getting involved. Every head movement triggers stretching or bending. Leaning against the back of the chair rotates the hips. It is then not the child who decides what the body does. To become the master of her own body, Maja needs support: reflex integration.
Three exercises for at home to improve concentration
These three exercises are among my all-time favourites. They work immediately, are fun and ensure that concentration improves straight away. Only one thing is important: just do them. Ideally before homework or as a short movement break between different tasks.
Hook up: the instant reset
If the Moro reflex is still active, the child spends the whole day on high alert. Hook-ups connect both halves of the brain, activate the parasympathetic nervous system and help shift from an agitated or stressed state into a focused, calm mode. The exercise takes one to two minutes and fits in anywhere: before homework, before a test, to wind down after an argument, or before going to sleep.
Here’s how:
- Stand upright with your arms and legs loosely extended.
- Cross your legs.
- Now cross your arms as well, so that the arm is on top where the leg is in front – the arm and leg on the same side of the body are in front.
- Clasp your hands together, turn them inwards and gently pull them towards your chest.
- If you like, close your eyes.
- Take a deep breath in through your nose (4 seconds), breathe out slowly through your mouth (7 seconds) and support the exhalation with a gentle “ffff”. Repeat 11 times.
- Release the pose and repeat the exercise on the other side of your body, with the other arm and leg at the front.
It sounds more complicated than it is. After the third time, your child will have got the hang of it. Maja does Hook up before starting her homework, and her mum joins in. Both benefit from it.
Lizard Crawl: catching up on crawling
This exercise is reminiscent of movement patterns from infancy, long before crawling began. It brings the head, torso, arms and legs into a coordinated interplay, thereby working on both the STNR and the ATNR at the same time. In other words, the reflexes that cost Maja so much energy when sitting still and writing.
Here’s how it works:
- Your child lies flat on their tummy on a rug or blanket.
- Their head turns to the right, with their right cheek resting on the floor.
- On the right side, the arm and leg are stretched out straight.
- On the left side, the arm and leg are bent. The left arm is bent at the elbow, the left hand lies next to the head. The left knee is pulled up to the side, at roughly a right angle to the hip.
- Then the change: head turns to the left, left cheek resting on the floor. Left side stretches out, right side bends in.
- Repeat 6 times for 7 seconds each.
Lizard Crawl combines head movement with the rest of the body in a clear, calm pattern. This is exactly what isn’t quite working for Maja yet. It’s particularly helpful in the mornings when she finds it hard to get going. Maja prefers to do the exercise straight after getting up, still in her pyjamas, on the carpet in front of her bed. Maja prefers to do this exercise straight after getting up, still in her pyjamas, on the carpet in front of her bed.
Snow angel on the living room carpet
The Spinal Galant likes this exercise. It works precisely where Maja gets so restless during maths lessons: in the area of the spine and hips. The floor provides gentle stimulation to the back with every movement, and the reflex gets the chance to gradually let go.
Here’s how it works:
- Your child lies on their back on a carpet or a blanket.
- Legs are together, arms lie close to the body.
- Now your child opens their arms and legs at the same time. The arms glide upwards across the floor towards the ears, the legs spread apart. As far as is comfortable.
- Then back to the starting position at the same time.
- Seven slow repetitions.
Important: Arms and legs stay on the floor. It’s a gliding motion, not a lifting one. And speed isn’t the aim here. Fast is sport. Slow is reflex work.
And here’s another little tip from the learning coach
In reflex integration, we like to work with music. Not just any music, but calm, steady music in the so-called alpha wave range, often accompanied by binaural beats. Many children find that this helps them concentrate more quickly and stay focused on a task for longer. You can find some playlists on Spotify or our Awesome Training Music on our homepage.
I gave Maja an extra concentration hack that has really helped her on several occasions: the three-finger anchor.
Here’s how it works: When Maja is doing her homework at home, the concentration music plays in the background. As soon as she sits down at the table, she gently touches the tips of her thumb, index finger and middle finger of her non-writing hand together. Her brain learns: when the music is playing, I can learn really well. And: when the three fingertips touch, I am in this optimal learning state.
When Maja is then sitting in maths class and activates the “three-finger anchor”, her brain enters the relaxed, optimal learning state even without music. This allows her to recall the knowledge practised at home more effectively at school and also enables her to concentrate more purposefully on maths.
About the author: Claudia Hannemann is a reflex integration trainer, mother of four boys, and founder of two nurseries and a primary school. She has led anti-bullying courses for many years and now trains educational professionals in reflex integration at the Awesome Academy, which she founded. In the freely accessible Reflexopedia, professionals and parents can find in-depth knowledge about early childhood reflexes and their effects on behaviour, learning and development.
