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Mini Parkour® and Concentration

By physiotherapist Hannah Harboe

In recent years, more focus has been put on screen use by children and adolescents and the related negative influence on the ability to concentrate. Studies show that there is a relationship between the amount of time children and adolescents spend on screens and the ability to maintain concentration.

The ability to maintain concentration is defined as: 
•  The ability to self-regulate.
•  The ability to avoid distraction.
•  The ability to maintain focus on a task.

Research shows that we all - but particularly children and adolescents - can train and improve our ability to concentrate. 
The fact that we can do so is due to our brain being plastic, and young brains are more plastic than older ones. ‘Plastic’ in this context means that the brain can create new connections, thereby obtaining new knowledge. 
The signs of poor concentration that I observe in children in my clinic include them giving up and finding it hard to repeat new motor skills. They are easily distracted, find it hard to see the point and to maintain the activity. 

Signs of concentration problems in small children
• Get up in the middle of a conversation or activity.
• Need help to maintain a series of routine tasks, such as getting dressed.
• Constantly change strategy, even though their original strategy was effective.
• Will not repeat an activity, but go away or begin to fool around.

Signs of concentration problems in schoolchildren
• Slovenliness, without being aware of it.
• Cannot see the point in an activity.
• Find it hard to maintain focus on the task and begin to suddenly talk about something else.
• Do not listen to instructions fully.
• Do not correct themselves when making an obvious mistake.
• Flitting eye movement, weak eye contact and cannot remember what has been said.

Mini Parkour®
The many elements of Mini Parkour can be assembled in numerous ways, which challenges children of multiple functional levels and ages. When children take part in building a Mini Parkour course and set their own rules for the activity, we support their perception of joint decision-making and autonomy. The perception of autonomy boosts motivation, concentration and focus on the activity. Autonomy is important to the formation of independence. If a child cannot sense through their actions or behaviour when enough is enough, it is because we have given them autonomy and responsibility too early for an area they find complex. This is where adults need to support the child by rethinking areas for autonomy to ensure a feeling of success. Regardless of age, we all need to experience control and autonomy in our lives.

CASE

Robert is 11. His parents and teachers have recently been very worried over his development. From being an active boy, full of energy and with considerable need to play and be outdoors, he has become extremely dependent on his mobile phone. He zaps around, becomes easily irritated and finds it hard to complete his tasks. This applies to daily activities such as homework, packing his bag in the mornings, remaining seated at the table during mealtimes and taking the initiative to meet his friends to play.

He used to love reading. He now fails to concentrate on a printed text and would rather watch a video or go on the social media. His screen time at therapy start is up around 7-8 hours per day.
His high screen time is the source of many conflicts in the family and the time he spends with his parents has become an unrelenting struggle to change his ways. The first three times Robert came to the clinic, we focused on achievement and pleasure from the interplay. We got his pulse up and a smile on his face.
Together with his parents, we analyse our way to areas in which Robert’s autonomy and ability to join in making decisions grow, and to which areas are too complex for him to be able to handle them himself. We talk about how his parents have given him responsibility for screen use and that it is far too difficult for him to know when enough is enough. Robert says himself that he can never get enough of looking at a screen.
Because he feels secure in relation to me, we talk about how he has found it increasingly hard to concentrate at home and at school. We agree to start being detectives, looking for the way to better concentration.
Robert understands the principle of having to practice if one wants to learn. To learn to concentrate, you need to concentrate.
We use Mini Parkour in therapy to measure Robert’s concentration. Robert helps me to find obstacles for a Mini Parkour course. We time how long he can maintain his concentration on the course we construct.
At home, Robert practices concentration by reading books and performing motor skill training programmes. Both elements are intensified gradually in number and time. Initially, he goes from reading and training for 5 minutes at a time to spending 20 minutes on such tasks after 3 weeks. The next step is for the whole family to agree a framework for decreasing screen time.
Robert has been coming to me for one year now. His concentration is measurably improved. He is generally happier and once again is more physically active. Screen time is controlled by his parents and is now less than 2 hours per day, mostly spent on gaming with friends. Although his screen time is controlled by the adults, Robert has gained more autonomy in areas he can control:

He decides the clothes he wants to wear, what goes into his lunch box and who he wants to play with. In the beginning, it was me who planned and instructed activities during therapy, but my role now is only to clarify the framework, while Robert has the ideas and says what he wants to do with Mini Parkour. Robert loves building new and more challenging courses and completing them. He maintains focus and understands well that it’s all about concentration when he can describe an objective and practice until he reaches it.