Sustained and focused attention

The following video is a good demonstration of the points made in Chapter 8 regarding the capacity of even young children to focus on a task in the presence of other distractions.

This episode is also a good demonstration of parallel play (see the section on play in Chapter 11). Although the child is sharing the same physical space as other children and using the same resource as another child, there is minimal interaction between the children.

Playing in the Sand Tray

A two to three year-old boy and girl share a tray of sand. They draw in the sand together. The boy uses a tiny shovel to pick up the sand and pour it out into the tray. He moves the sand back in the same way. He is distracted by what the other children around him are playing with but continues his activity.