Increasing Task Completion in School Aged Children

Increasing Task Completion in School Aged Children

Parents' concerns regarding their children's task completion are something I hear about all the time in my practice.  This concern is common for many parents, especially those who have children with attention and learning difficulties.  Difficulties with task completion are commonplace and children, parents, and teachers all benefit when plans are in place to support children to increase their task completion.

There are many things that can impact task completion including:
1)  Difficulties staying focused and a low arousal rate for children
2)  Distractions occurring in the classroom
3)  Difficulties for children understanding what is expected during certain times in class regarding task completion
4)  Frustrations for children having difficulty learning certain concepts
5)  Children becoming overwhelmed by the size of an assignment

It can be important to first assess what might be getting in the way of successful task completion since based on the type of struggle a child is having a different intervention strategy would likely be needed.  For example; children with difficulties related to attention difficulties typically benefit from systems that help them learn what is expected, assist them with managing organizational details, and stay on task, while children who might be having more difficulties due to low frustration tolerance or anxiety may benefit from different strategies.

Common strategies that can be helpful for children with attention difficulties include:
1. Provide as engaging assignments as possible that often are hands on and multi-sensory in nature.
2.  Provide many prompts to help children regain focus if their attention drifts.
3.  Limit distractions when possible in such areas as seating children with attention difficulties next to positive peers who are most likely to be on task and creating quiet study environments.
4.  Have auditory and visual cues that clearly define what is expected at times since children with attention difficulties often miss cues like seeing that their peers are working quietly and they should be too.
5.  Create incentive plans for kids so that they can be rewarded for completing work and demonstrating on-task behavior.  Please click here for a form that I often use for children that allows for teachers to target task completion and various behaviors such as talking at appropriate times, staying in one's seat, etc.  This type of form can be monitored by teachers and rewarded at home.  The attached form can also be altered to be specific for your child given their school schedule and targeted behaviors.  I know a lot of parents have concerns about providing rewards for children for doing behaviors that they "should just do anyway."  What I find is that the reason that these types of programs work is that they flood dopamine into the reward centers of the brain, thus increasing attention and task completion.  This is crucial since children with true attention difficulties regularly do not process dopamine in the frontal lobe of the brain as efficiently as children who do not struggle with attention difficulties.

Common strategies that can be helpful for children with anxiety and low frustration tolerance include:
1. Teaching strategies for better emotion regulation including learning how to take deep breaths, use imagery, count to ten, think a happy thought, etc. to calm down.
2.  Provide positive counter thoughts for children if they tend to say or think negative or self-doubting statements.  Creating new positive thoughts such as, "I am bright and I work hard.  I will be able to figure this out.  I just need to go one problem at a time.  I can ask for help if I need it." can be incredibly helpful for children who struggle with negative thinking.  I often write these types of statements down for the children I work with on notecards when appropriate and it is common for their teachers to help them by reminding them to read their notecards when they appear anxious or frustrated.
3.  Cover up several of the work problems with another piece of paper so that children are less likely to get overwhelmed and can just focus on one problem at a time.
4.  Provide rewards for utilizing coping skills and completing steps along the way.

The great news is there are many ways in which children, parents, teachers, and other service providers can work together to support children who have difficulties with task completion.  Establishing high levels of communication between school and home and teamwork can greatly improve children's work completion, but also their self-esteem regarding themselves as good students.