Child can’t concentrate? Check to see if they are making these common mistakes.

Asked by Anonymous on our Parent Webinar series.

Coming out of our memory webinar last term, we received a bunch of questions from parents complaining that their children just couldn’t sit still and concentrate or focus for long periods. One of the most common causes for lack of concentration, is that many teenagers lack the 3 cornerstone habits that enable better concentration.  

Understanding your teenagers brain – why concentration is difficult

Before we look at what parents can do, it helps to understand what is actually happening inside the teenage brain. Your teenagers brain is going through 2 different processes at the moment, both of which impact their ability to concentrate:

• Firstly, your child’s limbic system, or the part of the brain which regulates emotion is developing. Increased dopamine levels make students more vulnerable to boredom and more emotionally driven than they were as pre-teens.

  
  

• At the same time, your teenager’s prefrontal cortex is still in development. This part of the brain is responsible for planning, impulse control and decision making and it doesn’t reach full development until your child reaches approximately 25.

  
  

All of this means that as a teenager, your child has a lack of developmental balance that makes concentration more difficult. This isn’t to say that they cannot concentrate. As we’ll see, there are a range of strategies and skills that your child can use to tip the balance back in their favour. However, as we will see, the majority of teenagers tend to make 3 mistakes that push out this biological constraint.  

1. Lack of sleep: No study hack will make up for a lack of sleep and unfortunately, we have a chronic generational sleep problem. In the US, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) found that 77% of high school students suffered from insufficient sleep, defined as 8 hours or less. Similarly, the Victorian Government has found that most teenagers in the State get between 6.5 and 7.5 hours of sleep a night, compared to the recommend 8-10 hours a night.  

Ensuring sufficient sleep is critical for 2 reasons:  

• Sleep is critical for re-setting the prefrontal cortex and with it the ability to concentrate. 

• Sleep impacts the limbic system and the amygdala so that your child becomes much more reactive to emotions.

  
  

The effect then is that developmental imbalance we discussed above is heightened. More emotions, less control from the pre-frontal cortex means less concentration.  

If your child isn’t getting 8-10 hours of sleep a night, then sleep is the first place to start thinking about making changes. Simple tips for increasing sleep include: 

• No phones in the bedroom. The number one reason that students don’t get enough sleep is phone-time. No phones in the bedroom removes a critical distraction to sleep.

  
  

• Finish study 90 minutes before sleeping. This will allow cortisol (stress hormone) levels too drop and melatonin levels to rise, which signal that it  is time to sleep.

  
  

• No caffeinated drinks. Students often consume energy drinks or coffee to get focused, but it can take 10-12 hours for the caffeine to leave the body, leaving your child wired and unable to sleep. 

Sleep is so important that we have dealt with it here in this article: Is your child getting enough sleep

2. Lack of physical activity: We all know that exercise is important to health, but we tend to underestimate it’s impact on our ability to think clearly and concentrate. A notable study published in Scientific Reports found that overall physical fitness explained 26% of the variance in attentional test performance among adolescents aged 15–18, with endurance, strength, coordination, and flexibility all positively linked to attention. 

As with sleep, exercise has a direct impact on the limbic system and the pre-frontal cortex. Even small amounts of moderately intensive exercise, ie, a walk or a jog, have 2 direct impacts on the limbic system and pre-frontal cortex: 

• Exercise releases dopamine, serotonin and reduces cortisol levels leading to calmer emotions. 

• Exercise resets the pre-frontal cortex. 

  
  

As you child gets closer to Year 12 it is common for students to drop sports or other forms of exercise such as dance or martial arts, in order to free up time for study. Whilst this may free up an extra few hours for study, the quality of the study diminishes rapidly.

You can help your child by:

• Encouraging them to maintain their involvement in sports through high school and even Year 12. Helping your child to use a skill like the study planner outlined here https://www.elevateparents.au/post/study-timetable-crash-course-helping-your-child-to-stay-organised-and-meet-deadlines , ensures that they have time for exercise AND study.

  
  

• If your child isn’t involved in sport  to encourage them to make time 3-5 days a week for 30-minutes of moderate intensity exercise. Why not use the time to go for a walk with them and check in to see how they’re doing!  

Finally, the great thing about exercise is that it also improves sleep quality, in effect giving your teenager double bag for their buck. 

3. Lack of mindfulness

   
   

One of the big challenges of school is that your child will tend to have a number of sources of stress: from what’s happening socially at school, to study, to what’s happening at home. All of these worries and concerns drive up your child’s cortisol levels and increase the emotions which hijack the prefrontal cortex.

That’s why mindfulness and practices like meditation have become critical parts of the curriculums at schools and workplaces across the country. Helping your child to develop mindfulness practices like meditation will have 2 impacts:

• Firstly, meditation activates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, evoking a sense of calm and reduces activity in the amygdala — the emotion centre of the brain.

  
  

• Secondly, studies have shown that meditation has a significant impact on activates the prefrontal cortex, increasing your teenagers capacity to concentrate. 

The power of meditation is in the fact that it does all the great things that both sleep and exercise do but your child doesn’t have to move to achieve this state. It’s the lazy person’s exercise!

Your child doesn’t need to buy candles, Gwyneth Paltrow’s yoga mat, or have a Buddhist monk chant in their ear to meditate. Instead, here’s a simple 2-minute guide to meditation.

1. Sit still (0:00–0:10) 

Sit in a chair or on the floor. Rest your hands on your lap. You’re not trying to “feel zen”. You’re just giving your brain a break.

2. Take one slow breath in and out (0:10–0:20) 

Breathe in through your nose for 3–4 seconds.

Breathe out through your mouth for 4–5 seconds.

Think of it like telling your nervous system: “We’re safe.” 

3. Focus on your breathing (0:20–1:00) 

Notice the feeling of the air going in and out. Your mind will wander — that’s normal.

When you notice it, bring your attention back to your breath.

No judgement. No stress. Just return.

4. Count 10 breaths (1:00–1:40) 

Count “one” on the inhale, “one” on the exhale. 

Next breath: “two.” Go up to 10. 

If you lose count, smile at the fact that your brain loves distractions, then start again.

5. Finish with one deep breath (1:40–2:00) 

Take one slow breath in… And a long breath out. Open your eyes if they were closed. 

You’re done. 

You can also encourage your child to try a guided meditation app such as Head Space or 1 Giant Mind are all great apps with free meditations to get your child started. Your child could try meditating every second or third night for 10 minutes before going to bed. Even better, why not make this a group activity and encourage them to do it with you. Try it for a week with your child and see how much of a difference it makes.

The good news: small changes, big results

Your teenager's struggle to concentrate is not a character flaw — it is the predictable result of a brain still under construction. The good news is that sleep, exercise, and mindfulness work directly on that biology. Better sleep resets the prefrontal cortex. Exercise releases the neurochemicals that make focus possible. Mindfulness quietens the amygdala and reduces the emotional noise that hijacks attention. Crucially, all three reinforce each other — creating an upward spiral when they work together.

You don't need to overhaul everything at once. Pick one habit, start small, and watch what happens.