Explaining Play Attention to your child or client Part 2: Realistic expectations

Some parents make the mistake of equating Play Attention to off-the-shelf video games that are played for entertainment purposes.  This is usually a mistake.  Yes, Play Attention will be more fun than work when your child first starts, (we call this the “Honeymoon Period”), but that’s only because it’s new.  That novelty will wear off, and Play Attention will become what it’s designed to be, which is a cognitive skill building program.  

Once the newness wears off, Play Attention is far more akin homework or classwork, and we want your child to expect that to be the case, and in more ways than one.  No child gets to “choose” whether or not they do their homework.  Treat Play Attention the same way.  We want to establish from day one without any ambiguity that this training is going to happen.  

Granted, once they’ve been training long enough to actually develop skill sets, things start to get easier, as they were in the Honeymoon Period.  But we don’t want them to be surprised that it’s not all fun and games.  The more your child knows exactly what to expect, the more smoothly things will go.

The conversation may go something like this:

Parent: “The Play Attention is going to let you play games on the computer using your attention!  So when you’re focusing well, the characters on the screen move where you want them to.  If you get distracted or start daydreaming, they go the wrong way until you start focusing again.  But you’re doing all of this with your mind.  Isn’t that neat?”

Child: “Like Rey in Star Wars!”

Parent: “Yes, very much like that.  But I want us to have an understanding about how this is going to go.  It won’t be like Minecraft where you play for fun.  Parts of this will be fun, but it’s going to be a lot more like doing stuff from school. That means sometimes it’s going to be hard.  But just like your school work, we have to do it.”

Now, that being said, we can balance that reality by letting them know they’ll be able to earn privileges and rewards by doing Play Attention.  And that they only have to accumulate an hour per week to see good strong progress.  Also let them know that this won’t be forever.  Most students graduate from the program in about the same amount of time as a single school year, and then they have the benefits for the rest of their lives.

The conversation may go something like this:

Child: “But I don’t want to do more school work!”

Parent: “Well, this is like school work in that it can be hard sometimes, but it’s not the same as what you do in class.  It’s different.  It’s on the computer, and you’re moving things with your mind, remember?  And not only that, you get good stuff for playing your best.”

Child: “What kind of stuff?”

Parent: “You and I can talk about it to see what you want to work for, but maybe things like getting to stay up late on Friday night?  Or not having to make your bed Sunday morning?  Or extra Minecraft time?  Or maybe a trip to that pizza place you like?  Or how about pokemon cards?”

Child: “Play Attention gives me that stuff?”

Parent: “No, you give you that stuff by trying your best.  And remember, you only have to do it an hour a week total.  We’ll break that up into smaller portions, so you don’t have to do it all at once.  But hey!  We spend more time than that doing homework now.  And guess what?  The more you do Play Attention, the faster you’ll be able to do your homework and the easier it will be!  How’s that sound?”

Child: “Good, but… how long do I have to do it?”

Parent: “That also depends on how hard you try, but usually about the same as a school year.  And once you’re done, you’re done forever!”

By setting realistic expectations from day 1, you ensure that there are no surprises, which helps facilitate a successful training experience.