How do you help a child learn to pay attention to small details?

Question

She is ten and very intelligent. She is great with generalized subjects like comprehension and history but the detailed things like carrying numbers and spelling boggle her!

Any suggestions or exercises we can do?

Answer 1

You really cannot, that is a skill that will come in time.

Remember people, including children pay attention to details when it is important to them, and since each person will find some details worth paying attention too, and others not, paying attention to details will become very subjective.

Give it time, and simply keep practicing, it will get better, but it may take a while.

Answer 2

get scrabble...and play with her on the spelling words for the week... math is something that will come to her give her problems to do as you drive places such as 6 plus 14 ...give her a penny or nickel for each one she gets right and as she gets better with those give her ones that are harder and will require paper...as she gets better increase the amount of money she gets for each correct one..there are also computer games you can get for kids for spelling and math that are grade appropriate..my kids loved these..they train and play at the same time

Answer 3

I found that breaking down the work into smaller pieces helps. Instead of a "spelling list" just a couple of words at a time, each day. My mom invented the word-an-hour calendar, where we would put a new word on the desk calendar every hour, and every 10 minutes we would make up a sentence (or joke) about the new word. Jokes about words are all over the internet.

for math, using a different method of teaching (montessori)helps, but it does confuse the teachers, so you have to use caution.

Answer 4

Practice, Practice and Practice..

Practice makes them perfect. I would also ask her to do some puzzles. My son use to be same, making silly mistakes and has improved a lot since I make him practice math problems over and over.

Answer 5

Are you sure it's a "details" problem?  Comprehension and history can involve lots of details.  It could simply be that she's not as strong at math/spelling.  

Funny how we can sometimes look at the symptoms and come up with our own interpretations of them -- I was always much better at math than history because I felt like history was too much of remembering details, whereas math is simply procedural, more like a "skill" with very little remembering of random details.  So, I would never have described the problem you have as one of "details."  Maybe one of concentration, perhaps. As others have said interest can have a lot to do with paying attention, which in turn affects performance.

So, I would look very closely at what she can and can't do, and what you feel is a problem (because some things just come later developmentally) right now, and seek out alternative education programs/strategies in those specific areas.

If you really want to check her ability with "details" you could try one of those "what's different between these two pictures" puzzles.  (You know, where the squirrel is wearing a hat in one picture, but not in the other.)

Good luck!

Answer 6

Global learners can find details to be difficult. I am a global visual-spatial learner and details are a big struggle for me unless it comes in a passion area. Then I am hyper-detailed.

Here are some of the things that I have found helpful:

Since I am visual, I try to make the details visual to give myself a bit more help. For me, concept mapping has been a big help. It is visual and I can place the details within the larger context of ideas (global learners are great at the big picture). Details that are hard to remember are color coded to make them stand out for study time. If you want to try concept mapping software, I highly recommend Cmap. It is free and better than the expensice ones out on the market. It was created by a consortium of universities for scientists originally. Now it has been offered to the public for free. If you find that you have reason to post your concept maps on the internet, you can even set up your Cmap on a free university server. Every time you hit the save function, a refreshed html version is created. Anyone can link to the web address for it and see it. You can also create collaborative Cmaps as well. The webiste to learn more and download the software is http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/index.php. If you would like to see some of our family concept maps, you can click  the icons at the bottom of the nodes at my son's 7th grade portfolio at the link below in the source's section. Note: sometimes the link gets split at the question mark. If that happens, just copy/paste both halves into your browser address bar.

If your daughter is global with a verbal instead of visual bent, you may want to look up learning style resources for verbal learners. By learning the details in her primary learning style, the details will stick better.

Answer 7

Does she like games?

Someone else mentioned scrabble.

For math, when my son was younger, MathBlaster did a lot to help him learn math and have fun doing it!

Hangman, some kind of spelling bingo, a wheel of fortune type of game for spelling...

Answer 8

She's ten. Let her be ten. If you're homeschooling her, you have the option to lay off and let her be who she is. The fine tuning will come as she matures. Work with her strengths instead of concentrating on her weaknesses. That doesn't mean she doesn't have to learn how to carry and spell, but so what if she doesn't learn it til she's twelve. If she's bright and comprehends well, work on her developing a deeper understanding of literature and history. As she reads and writes she'll pick up spelling naturally without it being an ordeal. Play Monopoly and have her be the banker and she'll pick up the math. Play Yahtzee and cribbage and backgammon and strategy games. Play concentration. Have her figure out how much produce is going to cost when you're at the store. And above all, make it fun, not drudgery. Lists of spelling words and columns of numbers would turn my brain to spit and I can do it, so imagine what it does to a bright, curious child who isn't sure of it.

Answer 9

Well for carrying it might help to make sure she really understands.  Get some base ten blocks or Lego's and show her how ten units are put together into one ten and then moved to tens column.  (Actually you can do this with tooth picks or Popsicle sticks and rubber bands also).

For spelling... I don't know!  I still rely on spell-check more than I should!