From: David Scott
Submit: Post Message
Date: 01 Nov 1996
Time: 04:43:27
I don't believe that children have an attention span that is any different from adults. The difference is in where children choose to focus their attention. Adults can see that the task they are doing, though it may be boring, has the potential for rewards in the future (such as money of praise from your boss). Children have less ability to think abstractly, so something that is immediatly gratifying will tend to hold attention longer.
An example: I used to work in a video game store. Little kids of all ages would play a game they liked literally until I turned the machine off and made them leave. Sometimes they would completely ignore all other stimuli around them for hours.
Dave
"Silly! You can't go swimming in someone's lower intestines!"