Written by Olivia Wynne. Edited by Tobias Constien.

Have you ever noticed your mind drifting off when you are supposed to be doing something else? This is called mind-wandering and is often referred to as ‘daydreaming’. When we experience mind-wandering, our thoughts become disengaged from what we are doing and we may think about things from the past or imagine future events.

Mind-wandering is a form of inattention, but it is different from being distracted by something in our environment; it is caused by self-generated thought rather than external stimuli (Seli et al., 2018). Mind-wandering occurs frequently every day for both adults and children (Cherry et al., 2022; Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010; Moffett & Morrison 2020). Research suggests that interconnected parts of the brain called the ‘default network’ are active during mind-wandering. This network is activated when we ‘disconnect’ from the world around us (Buckner, 2013; Ciaramelli & Treves, 2019).

Although mind-wandering is generally a very normal process, higher rates of mind-wandering can have an impact on learning in educational settings. Research with school children has linked higher rates of mind-wandering to poorer executive functions and reading comprehension (Moffett & Morrison 2020). Nevertheless, research has also pointed out benefits of mind-wandering for learning such as aiding the development of problem-solving skills, future planning, and creativity (Baird et al., 2011; Mooneyham & Schooler, 2013; Pachai et al., 2016). However, most research to date on mind-wandering in the context of learning has focused on adults, and there is very limited research on mind-wandering with children in learning environments. There are currently no studies exploring mind-wandering in children under the age of six years old in educational settings (Frick et al., 2020; Hasan et al., 2024; Keulers & Jonkman, 2019).

It is likely that mind-wandering can have both positive and negative outcomes in the context of learning for children, so researchers at the UCD Babylab were interested to explore the impact of mind-wandering on learning in young children. In our study, parents and teachers of young children in their first two years of formal education across the island of Ireland took part in focus groups. Parents and teachers both play a crucial role in children’s development and learning (Davis-Kean et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2020; Usmanovna, 2021), and talking to them can give insight into how young children experience mind-wandering, and how these key caregivers respond to it. The main aim of the focus groups was to discuss how parents and teachers view and manage children’s mind-wandering during school tasks. The focus groups with parents revealed that they believe that mind-wandering is expected in young children, and they currently take a ‘trial-and-error’ approach to managing their children’s mind-wandering. Although this approach is working for now, some parents are worried that their strategies may not be effective in the future when homework takes longer and is more difficult. Parents reported benefits of mind-wandering, such as increased imagination, curiosity, and problem-solving skills.

These findings highlight that parents need more support to help cultivate their children’s attention skills, while not completely discouraging them from mind-wandering so that they can still experience the positive aspects. Focus groups with teachers showed that although teachers recognise mind-wandering in their classrooms, they are unfamiliar with the terminology linked to different attentional processes and they tend to manage mind-wandering in the same way that they handle inattention that is caused by distraction. Our results show that further research on mind- wandering in young children in early education could help inform teachers and parents in the best way to support children to harness the benefits of mind-wandering while limiting its negative effects.