Excitement, distraction, boredom, and working through scattered thoughts—these experiences are not specific to children. These are human experiences! But, for young children, these feelings can often overwhelm their ability to focus. Without a doubt, we all have students who struggle to focus, both inside and outside of their music lessons. Over the years, I have explored six techniques that help harness the focus of young students (aged around 4–7-years-old). I hope you can find some of these ideas and activities useful!
-
“Point with Your Eyes!”: Teaching Eye Movement
A few years ago, I started to notice that my students struggled to move their eyes along the page. In my non-expert, non-scientific opinion, eye focus seems to be difficult for my young beginner students, and I think that this may be potentially due to increased screen time for children. As mammals, human beings’ eyes are caught by movement. With screens, our eyes don’t have to move themselves—our eyes are moved, effectively, by the pictures on the screen. When watching a screen, our eyes follow movement, they don’t initiate movement. For this reason, I think that children often struggle to initiate the movement of their own eyes, especially when a still, black and white piece of paper is placed in front of them at the piano! I often find myself pointing along with all of my young students, actively telling them, “Now look at this note… Now look at your hand – Now look back up to the… next note! Now where is that? Now look here,” and so on. I have become an “Eye Guide.” I attempt as early as possible to shift the “Eye Guide” role to them. I tell them that I am no longer going to point, but they are going to “point with their eyes.” Strangely, it works! And many students, I have noticed, will sometimes begin to physically point with their other hand (if it’s free), which is a huge success for little ones, who are now using their own finger as a guide for their eyes.
-
Interactive Brightening: Work with Colour
Children’s eyes (and adults’!) are drawn to bright colours. In many ways, colour is a sign of life and excitement, and it can even suggest movement. Whether or not the method books that I use feature colour on their pages, I incorporate colour into my lessons as much as possible. I often encourage students to engage with their lesson books by having them put colour on them, actively brightening the pages. In my teaching supplies, I always keep coloured pens and crayons, and I regularly ask students to choose one or two colours per lesson. With the chosen colours, they will circle specific notes or markings on the page, or they may try to draw symbols. My students look forward to the moment when they get to choose the weekly colours, and these activities draw my students’ eyes directly to the page; in a sense, my students “zoom in” on the page. Furthermore, there are effective colouring music resources, such as Color By Note books by Sharon Kaplan, as well as different online resources (listed at the end of the article), some of which could be printed in black and white to allow the student to colour the illustrations in themselves. Lastly, I keep a stack of basic colouring sheets on musical topics, for those moments when I need a five-minute focusing activity for young children. A note: I don’t see the use of colouring sheets as neglecting my responsibility as a teacher. I specifically remember certain colouring sheets which I completed as a child, and I enjoyed making them come to life with colour. Creating a lasting imprint of a symbol or instrument is a great thing, and colouring can help a child to calm down and to narrow his or her focus in the lesson.
-
Shifting Gears: Step Away from the Instrument
Given the room, stepping away from the instrument is not always ideal. Some studios don’t have desks, and some teachers go into students’ homes where a piano might be jammed into a tight-fitting space. However, one amazing thing about children is that they often don’t see “space” the way adults do. Would you believe that I was homeschooled all my life until high school, and, by choice, the place that I did most of my work was on the floor? An open space on the floor, a step, or a staircase are workspaces for children. In lessons, make sure to take time to leave the piano bench, to step away from the chair, or to put the instrument down. Sit on the floor, sit at a desk; find multiple locations, if possible. Leaving the instrument can help shift childrens’ focus onto different activities, such as flashcards with note naming, colouring activities (as mentioned above), practicing rhythms with egg shakers, or merely marching to a beat. Changing location and body position can help children shift their focus, and it keeps lessons from becoming mundane and predictable.
-
Wear a Watch: To Shift, or Not to Shift
I always wear a watch in lessons, even if there is a clock already in the room. The short distance from the wrist to the eye is a huge benefit, especially when teaching young ones whom you may struggle to look away from! When a student is starting to lose focus, I always check my watch. How long have we been doing this one activity? Is it time to get up and move? Is it time to shift gears? In essence, this question is one of my own expectations with this student. Have I set up too high of an expectation for their focus? For anyone’s focus? Keeping an eye on my watch, sometimes I will allow my students to remain in their lack of focus for one full minute. As teachers, we should not always distract our students from boredom or lack of focus. Boredom is a huge underlying force in creative people. Lack of focus is often just a struggle within oneself to navigate boredom towards a creative solution. When I wear a watch, I can give students a minute here and there to try to focus themselves, and I can also adjust my expectations for lengths of activities or playing time.
-
Click Refresh: Attention Timeline
Children (and adults!) often focus incredibly well right when they approach a new activity; i.e., when the activity feels “fresh.” For this reason, I will sometimes enter lessons with a specific timeline in mind, for example five minutes per activity. Occasionally, I will use a kitchen timer in the lesson to make my students aware of the timeline, or the “refresh circuit.” Setting a timer helps keep us honest, and it helps my students start to be able to feel the passing of time (a key component of focus). In this case, as an example, we start with five minutes at the piano, reviewing last week’s assignment; we leave for five minutes to work on rhythms; we return to the piano for an improv game and to try a new song; we leave the piano again to learn a new symbol and to practice drawing it; we sing a song at the piano; and for the last five minutes, we put on a performance for our puppets, including piano, singing, and bowing before and after! The lesson is fast-paced, active, vibrant, and engaging, and I am often surprised at how much information my students will take in due to “refreshing” their focus every few minutes with a new activity.
-
Focus Finders: Capture Attention with Physical Objects
I consider a “focus finder” to be a small, colorful, physical object, that can be held and used by the student during activity transitions. These “focus finders” are useful tools when shifting gears. The main tools that I use are finger puppets, or small stuffed animals. Packages of finger puppets and other focus finders can be found either through online shopping with Amazon, eBay, etc., or through teaching resource centers, such as KidSource Inc. (see the list of resources at the end of this article). For my teaching, each finger puppet has a role and a name. For example, I have Freddie, the Finger Number Frog; Rachel, the Rhythm Rabbit; Percy, the Piano Panda; and Paige, the Pointing Pig, to name a few. These puppets add a small focal point, with colour and a friendly face, to musical concepts and activities. When it’s time to shift gears, to, say, work on rhythm, Rachel the Rabbit comes out of the puppet bag. Students already know where the lesson is going, and they get excited about the new activity. Furthermore, when a student’s focus is drifting, a finger puppet will often catch their eye, bringing them back to the material. Other focus finders could include the crayons and coloured pens that I mentioned earlier; maracas or egg shakers for rhythm activities; game pieces; or other types of characters (little toys or erasers). Every month or so, I will introduce a new puppet or a new “focus finder” from a reserve, to change things up. To many of my students, these puppets are each a “real” being; they are their music friends. Even to me, the puppets are becoming real beings, with personalities and with their own stories! Or, maybe I just have been inside too long…! 😊
Written by Bronwyn Schuman, Founder of Music Theory Playground™ (Originally written for ARMTA in 2021)