The Rapid Reward Brain- Why Youth With Screen Time Overload Are Having Challenges Focusing On Their Learning & What To Do About It!

By Catherine Patterson-Sterling, PhD, RCC

Many schools around the nation have banned cell phones during learning time so as to help young minds be focused more on their learning, but the real work begins as youth are confronted with restless minds that do not want to face the mountain of work waiting for them on the road to success.

Essentially, they begin digitally tweaking from withdrawal and ….focus- NOT Elvis- has left the building!

When I asked one Middle School Teacher how start-up (Back to School) was going, he said: “I turned around in Math class to find students rolling around on the floor!” This was a desperate attempt to do anything, but learn!

The new reality and by-product of the digital age means that for youth- tasks without rapid rewards feel flat or boring!

Imagine a developing mind that has saved the world on a mission by blasting aliens into oblivion, one who just gained a motherload of followers with a new photo post, or they uploaded a live stream making copious amounts of digital gifts/monetization for dancing in a banana suit or by making silly faces and they have to….

Well open their books, use their pencils, and write something meaningful!

This does not produce a rapid reward and the overstimulated brain wants a ping, a drop-down option, an explosion, a flash of light, or some type of sign they are levelling up!!

So for a moment they lock in…. and the reward is- the demand for more concentrated effort! The one page was not enough! They need to write another one!

With constant stimulation from screen time, human minds need more stimulation or they emotionally flat-line. Essentially, with excess screen time, the human mind engages in neural rewiring and is shaped by overstimulation to seek… of course… MORE EXCITEMENT and STIUMULATION!!!

Attention is fleeting and without stimulation, nothing holds our focus because we are waiting for the reward!

As Educators, we become sparring partners with the shadows of excessive screen time that overflow into classrooms and we can help learners to gain focus with a series of strategies called “Focus Lab.”

Our Learners are caught in a cycle whereby tasks without rapid reward feel flat or boring as shown below:

The challenge is to help learners to not get stuck in the focus gap or to gap out, but instead to hold steady with mental endurance so that they can go through the stages of attention and focus for sustained productivity as shown below:

Students can engage in endurance exercises to increase their attention spans. With Focus Lab, students start to build attention endurance with What Changed? Mandala exercises to hold steady with a list of changes between one image and another as per below:

Another example:

The images are sorted into a slide show as learners create a list of differences.

Explore this 10 part attention endurance building exercise series with Focus Lab at: https://www.softskillstrainingcenter.com/focuslab    

Other available resources for supporting youth to learn focus includes:

Available at https://www.softskillstrainingcenter.com 

About The Writer:

Catherine Patterson-Sterling, PhD, RCC is an educator of 25+ years with diverse experience in all levels of elementary, high school, and post secondary education as a teacher, counsellor, and clinical supervisor. With extensive experience in research and counselling, she understands the impact as well as sources of disengagement as well as chronic absenteeism on learners at all levels. She is also the creator of the new innovative programs "Screen Time School", "Success Not Stress School" (a new positive mental health program) "Future Planning School", and “Twenty” sponsored by Soft Skills Training Center and Patterson-Sterling Consulting and Counselling Services.