- A new study looked at how children ages 3 to 6 behaved during the week
- The children became more impulsive and distracted as the week progressed.
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By the time Friday rolls around, some parents may be ready to tear their hair out.
Now, experts have found that children actually become more impulsive and distracted as the week progresses.
As part of one study, 60 children between three and six years old used accelerometers to detect how much they moved while they were at school.
Using this data, combined with teacher reports, the researchers were able to determine when children were likely not paying attention and had less control over their behavior.
Experts have found that children actually become more impulsive and distractible as the week progresses.
The analysis revealed that children’s ability to regulate their behavior decreased over the week, indicating that self-regulation is a resource that can be depleted through repeated use in everyday settings such as school.
They also found that children with better self-regulation showed greater consistency in applying it across days.
Andrew Koepp, lead author of the study from the University of Pennsylvania, said: “When a child has difficulty maintaining attention or sitting still, it disrupts their learning and can disrupt the classroom.”
“Research has consistently shown that difficulties controlling attention and behavior predict more difficulties later in life, such as lower educational attainment and more financial problems.”
The researchers said it might be helpful for teachers to understand that young children may be calmer and more prepared to learn earlier in the school week.
They wrote in Child Development magazine: “Why does a child have a hard time sitting down to read a story one day, but not the next?”
‘Why do they impulsively launch into one activity but not another?
“Controlling one’s behavior requires effort, so we hypothesized that children’s self-regulation might become fatigued during the school week.
“We found that children’s daily progress increased during the school week, indicating that they displayed more uncontrolled behavior as the week progressed.”
They added: ‘To participate in a lesson, children must first be able to calm their bodies, maintain attention and resist the urge to do something else.
“The idea that there can be an ideal time to learn is powerful for educational practice.”