I have a great kid on one of my teams. She is 8 years old. Her parents are attentive, they are former outstanding athletes and their daughter just has the right moves as an athlete. She is fairly tall and thin, when she is not thinking to hard she jumps through the roof for rebounds (especially during bump) She dribbles well and shoots well. So now for the problem. We struggle keeping her attention. When it comes down to game time, she seems like she is lost at times and other times, she is rebounding and getting it. I think our main problem is keeping her focused at practice so she totally understands and doesn't get lost in the game. She is young and is the oldest child in her family. She lost her grandmother last year and its been hard on her. Any suggestions on how to keep her attention and how to make her understand. She is one of my favorite kids, she is sweet and just an overall good kid, I want to do the right thing by her and bring her along. All of my coaches believe that one day she is going to be a baller, any suggestions....

My initial thoughts are to keep it fun, motivate by celebrating success after instruction/practice, and find out what makes her tick. Every kids is different. Also, it might be just an age thing. Every kid develops different. So be patient. Here are several ideas for motivating and getting a players attention.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/mental/motivate-players.html

You can also try something that Coach Sar taught me. When ever you are talking have the kids put the ball between their feet (so they don't dribble, etc) and their eyes are always on you. Make that a rule. I know when I work with kids I always lay down the law on the very first day and continue to enforce...

1. All eyes on coach when he/she is talking and listen.

2. Always work hard and give best effort.

3. Be relentless. Show perseverance and don't worry about messing up. Mistakes are ok as long as you give your best effort and keep trying.

I make sure they know those are the most important things. Then when the time is right I add other core values liked teamwork/helping others, honesty, integrity, etc.

My frist thought is that she is 8 years old ... typically, they don't have a very long attention span. Like Jeff said, patience is a virtue when working with young kids.

Keep all your drills short and try to make everything you do competitive and FUN - FUN being the key word here.

The more fun kids have the harder they try and they will put more into what you are trying to teach. What you are trying to accomplish here is to teach some fundamentals and get them ready to play at the next level. I doubt at this age that she has any aspiratons about playing big time ball - I could be wrong. All they want to do is have fun right niow.

The difference between boys and girls are..... Girls have to be happy to play well - Boys have to play well to be happy.

Good luck, be patient and have fun with them.