My Child Is Smart but Can't Focus: How Can I Help?

As a parent, you want to see your child thrive. Not just in school, but in all the things they care about. You know they’re capable of great things, and you want their strengths to shine through in their work. But sometimes, that potential doesn’t show up in their grades, and it’s hard to know why. 

The truth is, being bright or creative doesn’t always translate into consistent academic performance. Some kids can grasp big ideas, remember fascinating facts, or think in innovative ways, but still struggle with executive function skills, such as focus, follow-through, or organization.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The good news is, there are ways to support your child’s growth in these areas—and we’re here to help you do just that, together. In this blog post, we're going to take a look specifically at focus and how we can work with our children to improve their ability to focus on tasks. 

If you want to help improve your child’s focus, we’re here to help you guide them toward success.

How to help your child improve their focus

Focus — or attention, as you may hear our Executive Function coaches refer to it — is an essential Executive Function skill. Developing it now can benefit children for years to come. Focus means applying concentration on completing a specific task, absorbing information, or actively listening to a person speak. Focus is a skill that’s used in every aspect of your child’s life, from school to chores at home. However, in many cases, you may not recognize that your child has trouble focusing until it’s reflected in their schoolwork. A lack of focus doesn’t mean a lack of intelligence. Not only can anyone struggle to focus sometimes, but it’s especially a challenge for those with ADHD. If your child is smart but they’re having trouble focusing, there are ways that you can help them develop the skill. 

Let's take a look at some practical strategies you can try at home with your child to practice the skill of focusing. These strategies are great for adults, too!

• Timed practice at home — Practice is a tried-and-true strategy for developing every type of skill, including focus. It can be helpful to put aside time for your child to learn how to concentrate on a task by practicing it with a timer. Couching this practice as a game or activity is more likely to be interesting to your child. We like the tool "5-Minute Goals", where you set a timer for 5 minutes (or another amount of time) and see if your child can focus on the task for the duration. The amount of time you choose should be agreed upon by you and your child. You're more likely to get buy-in for this timed practice if they're part of that decision-making process! "5-Minute Goals" is great for task initiation, too, and might make it easier to get started on studying for a specific class or reading a book. As your child practices this focus activity, the allotted time can be gradually extended. Bonus tip! Try this activity alongside your kiddo! Modeling focus is a great strategy for us parents.
• Learn mindfulness practices together — Speaking of modeling for our children, mindfulness practice is a fantastic tool to model. It’s truly never too early to learn how to be present and aware of your thoughts and feelings, so even if you're new to mindfulness practices, such as intentional breathing or belly breathing, it's worth the effort to learn! Science have proven the multitude of benefits of a mindfulness practice, including helping your child clear their mind, which helps sharpen their focus on a task or situation. It can also help them learn self-control and reduce distractions in environments where they need to focus, such as during a lesson in class.
• Help them avoid procrastination — We’re all guilty of delaying our responsibilities from time to time (some of us more often than others!), but putting them off can make it even harder to focus when the time comes to actually do them. Procrastination is often the result of low interest in a task or uncomfortable emotions about the task, which can both make it difficult to concentrate. Procrastination can also lead to your child feeling rushed due to deadlines, preventing them from focusing on the quality of the work just to get it done. Encourage them to start tasks as soon as possible, even if it doesn’t all get done at one time. If your child is experiencing uncomfortable emotions about a task, try addressing those before getting started.
• Break it down — One of the most effective strategies for increasing focus and reducing overwhelm is by “chunking,” or breaking one larger task down into smaller steps. Work with your child to simplify directions in a school assignment (such as an essay) or home responsibility (such as cleaning their room) and organize them as a list of small, manageable steps. Your child is likely to focus more efficiently when they don’t try to multitask or remember too much information or steps at one time.

Which Executive Function skill is your student's biggest blindspot?

The importance of focus for your child’s future

Focus is often seen as one of the keys to your child’s educational success. But the importance of focus goes beyond today and their schoolwork or home responsibilities. Helping your child improve their focus can provide them with lifelong benefits that will strengthen their productivity, relationships, and stress management.

Here’s how helping your child to improve their focus now will benefit their overall quality of life:

• Increasing efficiency — By improving their focus, your child will learn how to use their time and energy efficiently. High efficiency will improve the overall quality of their work, both now and in their future endeavors, whether that be in the workforce, helping their community, or following their creative passions. 
• Developing quality relationships — Having healthy relationships with friends, family members, and peers can play a large role in a child’s overall well-being. Focus is required in relationships because you have to be able to truly listen and understand the people around you, especially when you’re trying to work through a conflict together. Providing undivided attention shows that you truly value what they have to say.
• Managing challenging situations — It’s important that your child learns how to manage the mental, physical, and emotional distress that can come from overwhelming schedules, unexpected life changes, and everything in between. By developing focus as a skill, they’ll be better equipped to work through stressful situations as they appear by concentrating on a solution, not the anxiety that stems from the problem.

Beyond BookSmart can help your child increase their focus and recognize their potential

Being smart doesn’t always equal being focused in children. As a parent, you can help boost their focus with some of the strategies we’ve discussed, such as chunking and practicing mindfulness. If they need a bit more assistance, we’re here to help.

At Beyond BookSmart, we offer Executive Function coaching services to help students develop and improve the skills they need to create an effective and workable study routine, such as focus. Executive Function skills are life management skills that we all need in order to be effective in planning, initiating, and achieving goals at home, in school, and in the workplace.

It’s also possible that you find it difficult to focus as an adult, and that’s OK. You can work alongside your child as a team to improve the skill and learn effective strategies together. Our WorkSmart division can help adults develop Executive Function skills, such as focus, organization, and time management.

Executive Function skills are coachable, trainable, and can be applied for success. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an inquiry call.