How Best to Deal With an Attention-Seeking Child?

1. 88

   Shil1978posted 12 years ago

   How Best to Deal With an Attention-Seeking Child?
   
   Do they outgrow the attention-seeking? Should you take steps to have them overcome this behavior, and if so, what kind of steps can you take as a parent to help your child overcome the tendency to seek attention constantly? How much attention is too much attention?

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2. 68

   the girlsposted 12 years ago

   Give the child your attention. As a parent, you will know if you have already given enough attention and the child will feel that.

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3. 60

   Brittany Danielposted 12 years ago

   Some attention is good, while other kinds of attention are bad. If it's attention she craves, reward her with it when she isn't seeking it, as well as when she is exhibiting desired behaviors. However, if she feels she's not getting enough attention from the sources she seeks it from, she may try for attention away from home, and this opens the door to that negative attention that you can't control.

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4. 61

   fpherj48posted 12 years ago

   I would like to suggest that the "age" of the child is an extremely vital issue here in terms of offering an appropriate response. 
   Because this information is not provided here, professionlly speakng, there is only one absolutely definite & factual comment that can be made.
   With a specific focus on children age 12 and under, THERE IS NO SUCH CREATURE AS A CHILD WHO DOES NOT SEEK ATTENTION.   
   Here too......You've not explained the "attention-seeking" behavior.
   I will say "the girl" has given some excellent general advice without knowing details.  I would agree with her, but if anyone says much more than this, they're making unfounded and dangerous assumptions....  Good luck.

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5. 88

   Shil1978posted 12 years ago

   @fpherj48, regret not including the specifics. The age:  specifically for a 5-year-old.  In general, in the 4 to 12 year-old range. The attention-seeking behavior:  To give you an idea, asking about things she knows full well, yet asks so that I am around her almost all the time. For example, she'd ask me to find her her books (which are right next to her), her crayons (which are lying right next to her again), so on.....Makes me feel that she wants my attention. Of course, I do give her a lot of attention as it is, so that's not the problem I think, but she just seems to want much more attention and I was just trying to find reasons why and what I should do!!

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6. 77

   flacoinohioposted 12 years ago

   Without having alot of information I am guessing the attention seeking behavior may be negative?  Children who seek attention clearly need attention, since I and others reading have limited knowedge of the person in question.  Are the child's behaviors a skill deficiency or a behavior?  More information is needed.

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7. 62

   Lisa HWposted 12 years ago

   Without knowing the age of the child, the behavior, and how often it happens it's not possible for anyone on here to offer a solid answer to the questions you ask.  One thing parents do need to keep in mind, though, is that very often, what a parent interprets as "attention seeking" is really "legitimate attention needing" in a child.
   
   Personally, I think a parent who thinks his/her child is "an attention seeker",  and has the questions asked here, should set aside any preconceived ideas that the child is "just an attention seeker for the sake of it", check into some child-development books/sites, and talk with lots of other people who have experience with children and see what they seem to think. 
   
   I'd think one of two things would happen if a parent did the above:  1) Either that parent may come to understand the child's behavior a little better, or 2) that parent would come away feeling as if s/he may have been right to be concerned about the behavior.  I'm not saying that "everyone" else will have all the right answers.  I am, however, saying that talking to enough people and reading enough in child-development resources can give a parent a better reading on whether the child's behavior is pretty standard or not for his age. 
   
   I'm not making any assumptions here.  I just know that a whole lot of people think children "just want attention" (for the heck of it), when a whole lot of the time (maybe most) there's a lot more to what a child needs/wants than that. 
   
   A place to start might be to write a Hub about the behavior.  Another place to start might be the HubPages forums under "family/parenting".

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8. 74

   fitmomposted 12 years ago

   My daughter has been doing these same exact things! She just started doing it recently. I had a baby and I'm trying to remember if she did it before the baby was born. Of course, even if she did it before the baby was born, she knew changes were coming. I would say that usually children start seeing attention when there have been changes in their routine.
   
   If I'm working on something, sometimes my daughter starts doing these same behaviors you mentioned. Sometimes she does it when it seems like she just wants to say something and can't think of something to talk about. I think some of it is learning how to be conversational.
   
   These are the conclusions I've reached with my daughter.

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