I ask this on behalf of all the mums who may be unsure of the answer.
It's important to know this, to gauge if your child is at the right developmental stage for their age.
I’ve been on an internet hunt for you to see what’s out there and add my thoughts to this.
The chart below seems commonly used on the internet and shows children's age and their expected concentration time.
Source: Brain Balance 2025
Other findings were: 3-5 minutes for a 5 year old at Morris Psychological Group 2025 and 6-12 minutes for a 5 year old at Happiest Baby
I would suggest that this is better set at 1 minute for every year.
In addition to the chart, all the articles I found on this subject highlighted that there are other factors to take into consideration and I think this is where parents are better focusing.
While your attention will probably be drawn to the chart because it is easy to read and gives a quick clear answer, I am going to suggest that we should actually be looking more at the other factors, in particular interest levels.
Children are natural explorers so they will be drawn to seek out learning opportunities that they are interested in. Each child is different so it feels unfair to judge their concentration levels using the same task for all.
This matters because boys play differently to girls. After all, their brains and bodies need different things and little boys are often misjudged as not able to concentrate as well as girls which seems unfair.
Many boys are wired to move physically all the time, to play physical games that will help them grow into the successful hunter-gatherer that their caveman roots dictate.
While the primitive roots for girls are buried in emotional dexterity, quieter, calmer activities; that would have taken place in the cave, around the fire.
This leads me to ask; if you have a rambunctious boy who is only interested in running around and climbing does he have a concentration issue?
It’s really important to note that you can also have rambunctious girls and quiet sensitive boys.
I’ve seen so many young kids fully immersed in focused concentration well above these expected levels when they are at Forest School. Activities such as - whittling a piece of wood or watching the fire. Is this because they are interested in it? And they have been free to choose to engage in this?
The same high levels of concentration can be seen in a child in the mud kitchen for example. My point is that are children far better off being assessed using an activity that they have chosen and are therefore interested in?
The research suggests that an environment that promotes concentration in children is:
Forest school offers children this type of environment, which is why it’s a great place for children to improve concentration levels and also for parents to see that children can concentrate for long periods of time given the right environment.
In summary, although there is a nice neat chart that tells you how long your child should be able to concentrate for, it is important not to overlook the other factors that may be affecting concentration levels. The key ones for me are: are interest and gender. This will prevent misjudgment of your child’s concentration levels.
I hope this is helpful.
