• Pause and create suspense by looking around before asking questions.
• Randomly pick reciters so the children cannot time their attention.
• Signal that someone is going to have to answer a question about what is being said.
• Use the child’s name in a question or in the material being covered.
• Ask a simple question (not even related to the topic at hand) to a child whose attention is beginning to wander.
• Develop a private running joke between you and the child that can be invoked to re-involve you with the child.
• Stand close to an inattentive child and touch him or her on the shoulder as you are teaching.
• Walk around the classroom as the lesson is progressing and tap the place in the child’s book that is currently being read or discussed.
• Decrease the length of assignments or lessons.
• Alternate physical and mental activities.
• Increase the novelty of lessons by using films, tapes, flash cards, or small group work or by having a child call on others.
• Incorporate the children’s interests into a lesson plan.
• Structure in some guided daydreaming time.
• Give simple, concrete instructions, once.
• Investigate the use of simple mechanical devices that indicate attention versus inattention.
• Teach children self monitoring strategies.
• Use a soft voice to give direction.
• Employ peers or older students or volunteer parents as tutors.
