Increasing a child’s attention span with gloop

July 8, 2021 Karen 21 comments

When I was working as a registered child minder I looked after one little boy, who was coming up to the age of 3, He had a very small attention span and would quickly get bored with activities ( which I know is not unusual for a child of that age).

One day I decided to make some gloop; which is similar to slime and I saw a marked improvement in his attention spam.

Gloop is very easy to make and cheap:

All you need is:

1 cup of cold water

2 cups of cornflour

Few drops of food colouring ( if desired)

Mix the cornflour and water together stirring until the flour is dissolved, then add the food colouring.

I made the mixture in my grill pan base as this was large enough for a couple of children to play together, but any shallow container would be suitable.

The great thing about gloop is that it looks very runny, but on contact it takes on a a thicker consistency, which allows children to experiment using a variety of tools or just their hands and fingers ,if preferred.

My child sat for a good 45 minutes making shapes in the gloop using the handle of a wooden spoon, he laughed as the shapes appeared to melt and disappear.

Gloop is great for developing fine and gross motor skills, problem solving and in this case increasing a child’s attention span.

As always questions and comments are welcome.

Until next time

Karen

x

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21 Comments on “Increasing a child’s attention span with gloop

  1. I can imagine how much fun a child would get playing with gloop and it’s so easy to make. A brilliant blog X

  2. We’ve made oobleck (gloop) a couple of times and it’s always great fun to play with. I can see how it would be good for helping increase a child’s attention span. #mischiefandmemories

  3. Our 3 year old daughter has quite a short attention span but she’ll play with things like kinetic sand and playdough for the longest. Also we’ve found Duplo works quite well.

    Katrina x
    #MischiefandMemories

  4. Mine loves slime and basically anything gloopy. It’s so much fun to get stuck in with messy play, I can see how this would have helped to keep the little one entertained for longer. Thank you for joining us for #mischiefandmemories

  5. Definitely one to try! I’ve seen a few things with cornflour but always get a bit nervous about getting the consistency right! Thanks for linking up with MischiefAndMemories.

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