Attention please!

If you work with small children you’ll know that they have extremely short attention spans. In fact, research suggests that on average they can only sustain concentration for one minute per year of their age, up to a maximum of 20 minutes. Attention span is known to vary with gender (girls can generally concentrate for longer than boys), and type of activity (something they are good at, or interested in, will hold their attention for longer), but in general this means that you can only expect a group of three year olds to listen for around three minutes.

Fortunately, it’s possible for children to concentrate for longer periods of time by ‘re-focusing’. So you can tell a story in your toddler group that lasts longer than three minutes as long as you find a way to recapture their attention at regular intervals. There are various methods for doing this. Here’s a couple for you to try:

Visual Aids

The simplest way to re-focus your audience’s attention while you talk is to use visual aids e.g. pictures, props or puppets.

Most children’s books have pictures but these may be too small to use effectively with a group. ‘Big books’ are designed for group reading and your local library may well stock a selection or be able to obtain some for you to borrow. The most popular children’s bible stories have been produced in large format by Lion Hudson in their ‘My very first BIG bible stories’ series.

If you want really big pictures (and you have the facilities) then you could project them onto a screen as you tell the story. Remember that the illustrations in a book will be subject to copyright but you could make up your own powerpoint slides or use resources such as ‘Teddy’s Adventures’ which are available to download free from the Playtime website.

In comparison to computers and projectors the low-tech Flannelgraph seems quite retro. Despite this, however, it still appeals to young children who love to help by adding the ‘fuzzy felt’ pieces to the picture as the story unfolds. Bible Flannelgraph sets are available to buy online, or you could produce a homemade version by laminating and cutting out character pictures and putting pieces of sticky Velcro on the back to hold them onto the felt board.

Finally, you could use a whiteboard or flipchart and draw your own pictures either beforehand or whilst you tell the story. You don’t need to be particularly arty as stick men are perfectly adequate but, if you are going to do it ‘live’, do practice first to ensure that it runs smoothly.

Storysacks are bags of props that you use as you tell the story. You can buy them ready-made but gathering together items for these could be a nice little project in which the whole church could get involved.

Puppets are an instant attention-grabber - so much so, that they do run the danger of stealing the show! One suggestion is to use a puppet to introduce the story but put it out of sight while you talk and only bring it out again if you need to ‘re-focus’ their attention. Puppets can be people or animals and range in size from small finger puppets to life-sized ventriloquist dummies. There is a wide variety available commercially, or you could make your own from something like an old sock. They can tell the story by whispering it to you line by line, or be a character in the story. Whatever you choose, however, make sure that it’s friendly…and well behaved!

With a ‘Dog in a Bag’ puppet you can put your props in the bag for Rover, Patch or Scruff to bring out at the appropriate time. These puppets are only currently available from One Way UK but are a neat way to combine props and puppets as your visual aids.

Group Participation

Children are known to be active (kinesthetic) learners, so the best way to keep their attention is to get them physically involved. How you achieve this will depend to a large extent on the nature of the story that you are telling but, with practice, you will become adept at spotting the opportunities.

You may find that it’s possible to incorporate a simple repeated line (either spoken or sung) that they can join in with. Give them a clear cue so that they know when they are expected to participate and encourage the adults to take part too.

Actions, props or puppets that they can use when a specific word or character are mentioned will have them waiting on the edge of their seats. If every child is to be able to take part you will need to keep the props and puppets simple so that they are cheap and/or easy to make. Making them as a group craft activity beforehand will reinforce their learning and give them something to take home so that they can retell the story to their parents.

Tapping, clapping, stamping or using musical instruments can really bring a story to life. Don’t be afraid to make some noise but make sure that you also have a way of stopping it to enable the story to continue!

If the story has different scenes (and your group is small enough), you could move around the room or building. This can be particularly effective when telling the Christmas story and, of course, you can have the next set of visual aids waiting for you at each scene.

Let’s be realistic though. No matter how many techniques you are armed with, there will always be a limit to the length of time that you can keep a group of toddlers still for. Before you start, therefore, read through the story to see if you need to shorten it by skipping words, lines or even whole pages. In fact, if you need to, do not be afraid to do a complete re-write using short sentences and simple words. If you are doing this for a Bible story, think about the message that you want to communicate and make sure that it still comes across clearly. Do not worry about cutting out minor details as, hopefully, there will be opportunities to add these as the children grow up through the church.
 

Last Updated 24 January 2011