Home » family travel » Temperament and Travel: Advice for Travel with the Very Focused Child
The Temperament and Travel series moves on today to take a look at the final major temperament trait, Attention Span, and how it can influence family travel dynamics. Do either of these characteristics sound like your young traveler?
Attention Span: Focused vs. Distractible
Very Distractible – Is your child easily distracted from the activity at hand, jumping up from story time to investigate a toy across the room? Is it easy to move from an outburst to a new activity by simply suggesting it?
Very Focused – Does she focus well on one activity or toy at a time, regardless of changes around her? Is it a challenge to change activities when she’s engaged in a drawing or playing with a certain toy?
Today, we’ll take a look at how you can best travel with the Very Focused child.
Advice for Travel with the Very Focused Child
One of the great perks of travel with a Very Focused child is that long car rides or flights are not too much trouble as long as she has an activity to work at or travel toy she enjoys (art and creative projects are ideal). But not every aspect of travel is going to be so easy with this child! Here’s how to best be prepared.
SAFETY & CHILDPROOFING:
Where the Very Distractible child may wander into harm’s way in pursuit of a distraction while out and about, the Very Focused child may fixate on some particular hazard in hotel room, particularly during the toddler years. Whatever it might be–an air-conditioning wall unit, an outlet or accessible power strip, or the hair dryer with the curly cord–it can be difficult to distract the Very Focused child from without rearranging the furniture or leaving the room.
Taking in too many differing sights and activities in a day can be frustrating for this child, when just as she becomes fully engaged with one place or one toy, she has to let go and turn her attention to something new.
Where it can be helpful with some other children to give plenty of notice when, in ten minutes…and in five minutes…and in two minutes…you’ll all be switching gears, it may not do much to “break the trance” of a very focused child. It may be more helpful to simply join her at her level when it’s time, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, and making eye contact when you first explain what needs to happen next.
PACKING:
It may also be helpful to bring along a special travel toy, activity book, or puzzle that she can return to throughout your trip as a reprieve from the many changes around her during your trip.
SILVER LINING:
To your advantage, she may be entertained at length by the same fountain in the park, exhibit at the aquarium, or bucket of toys at the beach, giving you a chance to relax and enjoy the moment as well.
GOOGLE READER ENDS TOMORROW. Since I know many of you have been following this blog via Google, that makes me nervous. After all, I can say I work for myself all I want, but believe me, I know it’s you readers I really work for. 😉 If you’ve been a follower via Google Reader, or…
I’ve often wondered if there’s a term to describe the window of time a traveling family spends between its arrival at a destination and when it is allowed to check in to its accommodations. I haven’t figured it out yet, but when you arrive in Kauai with your three children early in the morning after a 5-hour flight…
As discussed in the post “Will your car seat be allowed on the airplane?”, whenever boarding an airplane you should be ready and able to point to the FAA approval on your car seat (side or bottom label) or in your car seat’s manual in some cases. (Pssst! Remember there’s ALL kinds of help and advice…
Here we are (I’m the one behind the camera) at Inspiration Point on our first trip as a family to Yosemite National Park. Yes, that’s a soul patch on Tim, and no we didn’t actually hike with our infants’ heads dangling like wet spaghetti. We try to make a pilgrimage to Yosemite each year, be…
Planning to use your airline miles to buy bigger seats (you know, the ones at the front of the plane that come with warm cookies) when you take that extra long flight with baby on your lap? There might be more than just frowning business travelers to make you think twice about going first class with baby. (click here to continue reading)
Having spent hours upon hours searching the internet trying to discern which places might be most comfortable to stay with my own small children, I have often felt the aching need for a comprehensive resource that gives a Mom’s-eye perspective of hotels, resorts, condos and other vacation properties around the world. I’m delighted to report…