動出集中力 Improve Concentration by sports

家長們，你的小朋友是否都有以下情況?做功課不專心，邊做邊看電視，容易被外來因素影響?其實小朋友經常坐不定，上課不專心，家長都不用太擔心是專注力不足，更不用特訓子女的集中能力。精神科醫生黎大森表示，小朋友慢慢長大，他們的專注力會逐漸提高，以5至6歲兒童為例，平均能集中做事約20分鐘，7至8歲兒童可增加至約25分鐘。1

而最有效提高集中力的方法就是運動。雖然大家都知道運動有益身心健康，但大部分家長都有一個迷思，就是認為有效果的的學習最重要的是要專心，而要專心就要去除干擾。覺得運動就等於玩耍，如果”玩耍”得汗流浹背氣喘呼呼就會影響學習。但其實運動時會產生三種激素:多巴胺、血清素與正腎上腺素。2 而這三種神經傳導物質都會幫助學生學習並提高集中力。多巴胺是正向的情緒物質，人在快樂情境下學習較有效果；血清素可以幫助記憶，正腎上腺素可以使孩子專注力增強。

再者, 家庭教育專家李偉文指出學校的體育課有很多，但大多都是「無活動狀態」：等待輪流揮棒，等待開球，等待足球跑到自己面前，在大部份時間大部份的孩子多半只是晾在那裏而已。然而真正能夠產生運動對健康或學習好處的條件必須心跳加快與流汗氣喘。3

因此，家長如果想提高孩子的專注力，其實不需要進行特殊的集中力訓練，適時地讓孩子愉快地玩耍吧。

1 黎大森(2016年1月22日)。朋友專注力隨成長改善 不需特別操練。蘋果日報。摘錄至http://bit.ly/2ijVn3Z

2 嬰兒與母親雜誌社（2015）。寶寶春季常見疾病。育兒生活3月號。298期

3 李偉文(2011),教養，無所不在。台灣:遠流出版事業股份有限公司

Parents, do your children have those conditions? Children cannot concentrate on doing homework, they do homework and watch TV at the same time, or they are easily disturbed by others. As a matter of fact, if children cannot sit for a long time or cannot concentrate on lessons, parents don’t worry that children lack concentration. And it’s unnecessary to train children’s concentration. Psychiatrist Lai Tai Sum, Tony said that children’s concentration could improve with their growth. Take the children aged 5-6 as an example, they can concentrate on doing things for about 20 minutes, and children aged 6-7 can concentrate up to 25 minutes.

One of the most effective ways to improve concentration is sports. We all know that sports is good for physical and mental health. Most parents think that the most important of fruitful learning is to concentrate and to eliminate interference. They think sports is playing. Parents think that children cannot concentrate on learning, when they sweat streaming down their back or they are out of breath by sports. When doing sports, there are three kinds of hormones secreting: dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. These three neurotransmitters can help children learn and improve concentration. Dopamine is a kind of positive emotional substance which can help children learn at a cheerful atmosphere so as to achieve a lot. Serotonin can improve memory and norepinephrine can improve children’s concentration.

What’s more, education expert for family Lee Wai Man points out there are many PE lessons at school, but most children are motionless: they are waiting for swinging or kicking off and waiting for the football rolling to their feet. Most children in PE lessons are standing there in most time. The real condition of being good for health and leaning by sports is rapid heartbeats, sweating and short of breath.

Therefore, if parents want to improve children’s concentration, they don’t need to train children’s concentration, just properly let them play with fun.