What Happpens When I Pay Attention to What the GrandGirl is Paying Attention to – and What She’s Not?

Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk says, “Attention is the #1 asset.” He views people’s attention as the most valuable resource in the modern world. With present-day attention spans shattered, it truly is a monumental achievement to hold someone’s interest for a decent amount of time.

With this concept in mind, I decided to pay attention to what exactly 15-month-old GrandGirl #1 focuses on. What I noticed most of all is that she’s capable of spending significant amounts of time with a single toy.

She’ll sit beside me and take every single piece of fake food from her basket (strawberries, potato chips, lettuce, hotdogs, etc.) and hand each one of them to me. Then she puts them all back into the basket.

She likes to take each of the dozen fake cupcakes out of the muffin tin, then separate the frosting from the base, and when that’s done, she puts them back together and replaces them in the tin.

She has fun pushing her shopping cart around the first floor, then handing out the fake cans of food inside of it. She also pushes a doll in a stroller all around the house.

What all this tells me is that her attention span has not been splintered.

Is this an accident? Or is this a real framing of our natural state, before all of the devices trample our brainwaves and truncate our thoughts?

I think what her behavior largely reflects is some very intentional parenting that has held electronics at bay and has created lots of space for independent play. And with this self- imposed mandate, it definitely requires much more parenting time and supervision.

Sidenote: If you don’t closely watch GrandGirl #1, before you know it, she will grab the maple syrup from the fridge and drip it all across the kitchen floor.

While GrandGirl #1 knows all about cell phones and remote controls which offer fun opportunities to press buttons and see what happens, she also likes her toy options which are plentiful and on a regular rotation to keep them interesting.

I think that attention span preservation, especially among very young children, might be the foremost challenge facing parents today. So much wiring of children’s brains is happening throughout childhood, and it’s especially pronounced at young ages.

In fact, “neuroplasticity in children is a gift,” says Dr. Michael Kilgard, a professor of neuroscience, as he explained on a recent Huberman Lab podcast (“How To Rewire Your Brain & Learn Faster” episode). Young brains are taking in every sight and sound and work to make sense of them. But if they are blunted by the endless pull of video and other electronic content, then growth may be sacrificed.

I think my daughter-in-law is working very hard to keep her girls’ neural pathways flowing by preventing exposure to things that are distracting and disruptive. I only wish I could maintain the same discipline in my own life! According to Dr. Kilgard, our brains are constantly responding to inputs and exposures, up until the day we die.

Long live the neurons and synapses!