Why Your Child Can't Concentrate: Focus, Distraction and ADHD with Professor Sam Wass
From How Not to Screw Up Your Kids by Dr Maryhan
June 10, 2026 · 43 min
About this episode
This episode explores the reasons behind children's concentration issues, featuring insights from Professor Sam Wass on neuroscience and practical strategies for parents.
If you’ve ever wondered why your child can spend 40 minutes talking about Minecraft but can’t concentrate for four minutes on homework, this episode explains everything. I’m joined again by Professor Sam Wass, and if you heard his previous episodes, you’ll know why parents loved them. In today’s conversation, Sam breaks down what concentration actually is from a neuroscience perspective, why young children are wired to be easily distracted, and why some children struggle far more than others in noisy classrooms, during revision, or when faced with a blank page. We dig into the two types of concentration every child needs, why the frontal cortex develops painfully slowly, how screens hijack attention, and why understanding something is the single biggest predictor of whether a child can focus on it. If you’re battling procrastination, homework refusal, or a child who “just can’t sit still,” this episode will give you the clarity you’ve been missing If you want to understand your child’s brain - and finally stop blaming them (or yourself) for something that’s biological, predictable, and fixable - you need to listen to this. Highlights from this episode: 02:40 - Concentrating…
People in this episode
Host: Dr Maryhan
Guest: Professor Sam Wass
Topics covered
- concentration
- ADHD
- distraction
- neuroscience
- parenting
- education
Keywords
- concentration
- distraction
- ADHD
- neuroscience
- parenting
- homework
- screen time
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