If your child could focus 10 more minutes than others, it would lead to improvements in learning outcomes, increased confidence, enhanced self-control, and better learning attitudes. If your child desires to improve their attention span and concentration, many mental health professionals, neurologists, psychologists, and education experts recommend to practice Taekwondo because it significantly improves attention span and concentration in young children.

     Most children have a short attention span. In other words, they struggle to focus on one task for an extended period. According to research on attention span, a child's attention span is approximately 'age x 1 minute.' However, younger children not only find it challenging to sustain attention but also lack the ability to selectively allocate attention to information relevant to achieving their goals.

     Miller and Weiss (1981) demonstrated that children under 10 years old struggle to selectively focus on critical elements for task completion. In their study, children aged 7 to 13 were able to see various animal figures and utensils behind curtains as each curtain was lifted. The task for the children was to remember the location of the animals (relevant information) and ignore the utensils (distractors, irrelevant information). Results showed that while 13-year-olds performed best in remembering the animals' locations, 7-year-olds performed the worst. However, when it came to remembering the location of the utensils (incidental learning test), the performance of 13-year-olds was the lowest, opposite to expectations. In fact, 7 and 10-year-old children remembered the location of irrelevant utensils as well as the location of animals required by the task. This is because younger children have difficulty filtering out irrelevant information and focusing on task-relevant information.

     Therefore, systematic learning of Taekwondo can provide many benefits, not only physically but also mentally, especially in improving children's attention span and focus.

    Taekwondo classes typically follow a structured format, providing children with opportunities to focus throughout consistent training stages. Additionally, Taekwondo involves repetitive practice of technical movements, which strengthens neural pathways in the brain. Repeated exposure to the same movements or information in Taekwondo reinforces relevant brain structures and connections, contributing to improved attention span and breadth. Such repetitive learning and mental focus required in training can enhance children's ability to concentrate on academic tasks in school.

 If you want your child to improve their attention span and concentration, find a nearby Taekwondo studio and give it a try today!