Father: My baby is very busy. It is very hard to keep his attention for book reading. He has already broken my computer and key board. We worry about he will draw everywhere and hit his eye if we will let him scrib now.
Dr. Shi: From today's screen for learning activity of your son. You did wonderful jobs. One thing bring my attention is the time of your baby's attention for book reading, which drops from 6-10 minutes at 10 month old to 2-3 minutes at 12 month old now even you do read more books to him. I can see how busy he is at the exam room now. I worry about he will get too busy in next several years and can't sit still with other kids when he starts preschool.

There are several things you can do to enhance his attention:

Dr. Shi: Here is the physical exam form. How often does your kid use albuterol?
Mother: He hasn’t used albuterol at all for last four months. We cut his smoking exposure which worked very well.
Dr. Shi: Is he still cruel to animals, and too busy to listen to books?
Mother: He has changed a lot for last 4 months. He is not cruel to animals and has good attention span. He takes books to me and asks me to read daily.
Dr. Shi: I get to learn how do you train your son at this young age.
Mother: I just follow your instruction and do my best.

• Set limitation, no bargain.
• If he has temper tantrum without specific reasons, leave him alone.
• If he jumps around and bangs his head around with temper tantrum, I let him sit next to me for time-out.
• Read books when he wakes up in the morning and before bedtime in the evening. He usually has more attention during those periods.
• His father visits us twice a week and also helps to teach him and to read to him. He finished two year custody and got job recently.

Dr. Shi: I can’t believe my eyes. He just sits there drawing with his sister. I also can’t image how much you do for your three young kids, 3month old, 2yrs, and 5 yrs. Thanks you and his father for your effort to teach the kids. There are several things you can do to enhance his learning ability:
1. Read different books: Please ask father to walk six blocks to go to library twice per month, and check out 10 -20 books each time. Read different books daily.
2. Coloring and drawing: Please let him draw daily. You can see how much he loves drawing and he draws much better than he was 4 months ago.
3. Limit the time of TV watch to 1-2 hour per day .
4. Pen Grip: He doesn't hold pen well. Eighteen months to three years old is the key period to train kids for pen grip.
Mother: We will.

Mother: My son is 2 month old. He has less attention, more easily distracted, and more active than his 5 years old sisters. I worry about he will have attention problems when he grows up.
Dr. Shi: How many minutes do you baby boy listens to book reading?
Mother: About 30 minutes. I usually read 3 books to him and his sisters together daily. He stays awake with us sometime, and feels asleep other time.
Dr. Shi: How much time does your baby watching TV, or exposuring to TV daily.
Mother: None
Dr. Shi: Any your family members have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive syndrome).
Mother: None.
Dr. Shi: I don't worry his attention and activity at all at this time.

• Infants usually have less attention than older siblings.
• Gender (Y chromosome) usually makes boys different from girls.
• The 2 nd child is usually more active to attract parents’ attention.
• Individual person is different from one to another.

Your baby can stay awake and quiet for 30 minutes for book reading at such young age. He has good attention!!!