Kindergartens’ Short Attention Span in School: A Case Study

Abstract

Attention-span is the interval of concentration on a single activity or idea. The lowerthe age of the child, the shorter his/her attention span is. Studies on kindergartenlevel attention span are sparse. This qualitative study aimed to find out factorsaffecting short attention span among kindergarten pupils in school. Using a casestudy design, two observed pupils identified with short attention span, one teacherfrom each of the two selected private schools with at least three years of experience,and two mothers were purposively sampled and interviewed. The researchersobserved kindergartens’ classroom behavior, recorded the data, documentednecessary information for data analysis, and interviewed the participants. Data weretranscribed and analyzed through the Seidel’s Qualitative Data Analysis Model(1998). Findings showed the factors affecting the attention span of kindergartenpupils are: lack of interest to the activity, poor health, and over exposure toelectronic gadgets. These factors make the pupils’ attention span shorter than theaverage which eventually results to the difficulty in maintaining the child’sattention to a given task and minimal class participation that leads to compromisedlearning. Enjoyable activities like singing and dancing and utilization ofreinforcements and motivations help both teachers and parents to address theaforementioned challenges. Future researchers can give full attention on how toimprove the child’s attention span and investigate more if having short attentionspan is normal to young children in this generation.