That seems to be one of the hardest things to ask of our trainees. They tend to exhibit short span of concentration. Is it because people who are intellectually challenged have a lower concentration threshold and easily get restless? What causes them to lose concentration? Is it because they are not interested in the activities (boring/monotonous) that they are engaging in? Is it because they don't understand instruction (or we don’t understand them) and are not sure what is required of them in the activities? It can also be external factors such as hot/stuffy weather, non conducive environment, too noisy, too many movement/people?
How do we improve their concentration? Does doing jigsaw puzzle, beading, cross-stitch help or these tasks just make them more patient? Can one improve on concentration? Maybe by doing meditation, practicing taiji will help our trainees improve their concentration but how do we teach them? How do we get them understand, concentrate, learn and pick up meditation/taiji? That seem too challenging, we shall just focus on the tasks done during class. Maybe we can use apparatus to help them focus on their tasks... apparatus to narrow their views, to engage them in activities and don't let their eyes wander around. Maybe we can prepare our training aids to make the boring activities look more interesting? Say for example, if this trainee likes bright color and we are teaching him counting, we can use colourful cubes. Or if this trainee likes flower and we are teaching her time concept, we can improvise a clock with lots of flower on it. We can also improve on the external factors to help them concentrate better. For example, if the classroom is too hot or stuffy, get out of it and go to an open area with better airflow. Or if there are too many movements in the classroom, ask your trainee to do the task, back facing the crowd. What about playing some light, soothing music to enhance their concentration level?
Maybe we can communicate better using visual to help and give clear instructions to them so that they are not confused. Communication is a big topic and we will talk about it next time.
Meanwhile, ponder though the points discussed and share your insights =)
-choon seng
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2 comments:
Great insightful stuff, bro! :)
Sometimes we're so used to doing things repetitively week in & out that we overlook small but very important details & practicality of the activities/tasks that we do with our trainees.
Will surely benefit our beloved trainees as well as volunteers if we look & work upon what you've raised up :)
- Andy
My tuition teacher recently asked if I have good concentration. I guess not only the trannes have short attention span, at times I also cannot concentraye well. She gave me an idea, she said place a rubber band on one's hand and when you see that person 'wandering off' just pull the rubber band, not to the pain extent. But just to bring him/her 'back'. She tried that on one of her other student. She said it works, maybe we can try that on our trainnes.
Si Min
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