“There’s no greater enemy to effective thinking than a divided interest.“
– John Dewey

When the weather is not blazing hot and I don’t have an evening school event, my wife and I like to go for walks and catch up on the day’s happenings.  Truth be told, it’s one of my favorite times of the day. 

Over the past year, she has instituted a new rule on our excursions.  When my phone buzzes with a text and I go to look at it, she halts mid-step and makes me stop walking until I’m done responding and put it back in my pocket.  She reminds me that research shows that the vast majority of humans are not particularly adept at multitasking, contrary to what we may think, and we need to pay attention to one thing at a time.  

As is usually the case, she’s right, and she has the studies to back it up.  In an era where we’re continually bombarded with digital interruptions, our attention spans are shrinking; this is even more true with children and adolescents.  

Studies continue to confirm this. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Oregon Health & Science University in the U.S. found that children who spend a significant amount of time on social media tend to experience a gradual decline in their ability to concentrate. They performed a study of 8,342 9- and 10-year olds in the U.S. over four years. The research reported the amount of time children were on social media, watching TV/videos, and playing video games while parents evaluated the children’s level of attention and hyperactivity/impulsivity.  

The study pointed out that “Children who spent a significant amount of time on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter or Messenger, gradually developed inattention symptoms; there was no such association, however, for watching television or playing video games.” 

Torkel Klingberg, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet explains, “”Our study suggests that it is specifically social media that affects children’s ability to concentrate…Social media entails constant distractions in the form of messages and notifications, and the mere thought of whether a message has arrived can act as a mental distraction. This affects the ability to stay focused and could explain the association.”

So, with so many potential distractions, how do we know what a typical child’s attention span should be?  According to a blog by Turtero co-founder Joey Moshinski called “How to Improve Your Child’s Attention Span,” the widely used clinical rule of thumb is roughly two to five minutes of focused attention per year of age, with the upper end reached when the task is interesting and the lower end when it isn’t.” 

For guidance, please consider the table below from The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). 

Attention is like physical strength: It can increase with practice and shrink when underutilized.  

And just like a consistent routine at the gym produces results, having good habits can lead to progress.  Here are some recommended rules; it’s important to remember that short and steady, rather than periodic marathon sessions, wins the race.  

For parents of Little Schoolers, please bear in mind that the longer a child stays off screens, the better.  Research has shown that too much screen time too early can lead to weaker sustained attention and greater distractibility, especially with fast-paced content and less caregiver involvement. For older children and teens, social media and constant notifications, pushes, and updates decrease attention span over time. 

Guidelines:

1. Pick one fixed time of day for the hardest task. The brain’s prefrontal cortex is at its sharpest in the late morning for elementary kids and the late afternoon for teens. Run math, reading, or whatever’s hardest in that slot — not after dinner, not on the way out the door.

2.. A real timer beats a phone every time — the phone itself is a distraction. 

3. Make the break a real break. Movement, water, fresh air. Not YouTube, not Roblox, not TikTok. A 5-minute screen break trains the brain to expect dopamine on every break, which makes the next focused session harder, not easier.

4. Clear the desk. One book, one pencil case, one workbook. Phones in another room. Notifications off on the laptop if they’re using one. The Princeton Neuroscience Institute’s visual-attention work shows that visible clutter directly competes for cognitive bandwidth.

5. Cap recreational screen time. The AAP’s media-use framework recommends consistent limits, especially around homework and bedtime. Most families that see attention gains have moved fast-cut content (short-form video, fast-cut games) to weekends only.

6. End with a 2-minute reflection. “What worked, what didn’t, what’s the plan for tomorrow.” 

Some experts predict that implementing basic rules-no short-form video on school nights, no screens in the bedroom after 8:00 PM, and homework time being screen free unless the assignment calls for it-can lead to longer attention spans in a couple of weeks. 

It’s also important to keep in mind that an attention problem may be more of an interest issue.  If a child can focus on their Legos but not on their math tables, paying attention may not be the area of concern. However, if a child cannot sustain attention for any task, is significantly below what’s expected at a certain age level, and their sleep, peer relationships, or schoolwork suffer, it may be time to consult your pediatrician.  

The entrepreneur Peter Cashmore once said,“We’re living at a time when attention is the new currency: With hundreds of TV channels, billions of Web sites, podcasts, radio shows, music downloads and social networking, our attention is more fragmented than ever before.” Let’s make sure our children learn how to save their attention and spend it wisely.