My Kindergartner cannot focus
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Anonymous
| My child is having trouble focusing in class. Now, I know for the average 5-yr old, they aren't the most focused. And I'm not expecting her to be stationary at all times (in fact, that would go against her school's philosophy). But I'm a little trouble as to what I can do. This is her third year in school, and she had no issues with focus in class before (for the most part). She's a very bright child, who loves to learn. She's pretty advanced for her age level, particularly in reading. She has mentioned to me a few times she is bored, which I'm not sure if she actual knows what that mean. When I spoke to her teacher to get some feedback, the teacher mentioned that the child rather talks to her peers then work on assignments, and never talks about the topic on hand when she is chosen in class. She also said she uses certain tactics to get out of certain assignments (i.e. says shes tired, or bored). I was a little perturb because the first parent-teacher conference went well, with no mention of any of this. And the teacher never made it a point to bring this to my attention when this started happening, only after I asked for feedback I was informed. We have trouble with her focusing on things at home, but chalked it up as a rambunctious 5 year old who needs reminders to focus. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it the norm for kids go from having no issues in school to having lack of focus (perhaps because the curriculum is a little more academic now)? Do you think I should look more into her so-called boredom? When I was younger, I had the same problem in 1st grade (speaking to peers and being bored). They attempted to send me a grade up, but socially I wasn't ready. I really have no interest in moving her grade (unless they deem that she is truly well advance). But I sense her lack of focus is partially because she is ultimately bored in what they are working on. Thoughts? |
Anonymous
|
My only thought - have you had her eyes examined? Maybe she is having trouble seeing the assignments?
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Anonymous
| At home does she promptly obey your requests? |
Anonymous
I never thought about her vision. She seems pretty find doing stuff everywhere in her life.
Alot of the time, she does not promptly obey my requests. Sometimes it takes a bit of repeating or literally bringing her in front of me and telling her with direct eye contact. |
Anonymous
| Karate, OP. it might sound silly, but we have similar issues with our kindergartener, mainly the lack of focus and repeating requests. Karate has helped with the focus. |
Anonymous
That is definitely worth a try. I will look into that. Thanks! |
Anonymous
| Does she "rule the roost" at home? Interrupt conversations, etc? It may be a control issue. As a teacher, here is a piece of advice: Do not EVER used the "bored" word as an excuse. |
Anonymous
If your implying my child is controlling at home, she is most definitely not. For the most part, she is a well behaved child. She just gets distracted pretty easily when getting her to focus on something at home. And not just when I am requesting her to do something. She might ask for a snack, and if I send her to retrieve it and she notices a book on the table she likes, she will stop to read it, and forget about the snack. I'm not using boredom as an excuse. I was inquiring with the teacher only because my daughter repeatedly used the word in describing her day. I just wasn't sure if my child knew the right context for that word. A child can be legitimately bored in class if they are covering topics which she already knows and has no interest in (as I said before I had that issue as a child). But I don't want to jump to any conclusions about my child's ability. She very well could care less about learning the topics. Or she might not care for the teacher. She had minimal issues with focus in preschool and prek at the same school, so I'm a bit concerned. My child enjoys learning in other capacities (visiting museums, watching educational shows, reading on her own). And it doesn't help that the teacher didn't make it a point to let me know about her issues until I inquired. If she is truly avoiding doing her work in class and spending more time socializing, don't you think I should have been informed ? |
Anonymous
| Was the teacher very concerned? Is your child's academic progress going okay? |
Anonymous
| I see Ritalin in your future. |
Anonymous
Unfortunately, this convo was through email (I don't get to the school much, my husband does dropoff and pickup. I intend on visiting the school within the next week. The way in which the email came off was as if she was implying my child is a bit of troublemaker. Overall, I am happy with her academic progress. She is advance in her reading , her math skills are on level for her grade, and her handwriting has improved. But I'm not sure she has learned anything really new this year yet. The worksheets that have been sent home seem a bit basic, but it's only Nov and I know they haven't gotten into the depth of K, being that the first few months are spent on having your child adjust to K and learning where they are at skill wise. I told the teacher to please give updates, and I spoke to my child as well. I told myself I would give it another 2 weeks to see if anything improves. If not, I'm going to reach out to the principal or learning resources within the school. As for the person who mentioned Ritalin, I don't want to quickly assume my child has ADHD. I don't know much about the disorder and don't want to give the school anymore trouble then need be to figure out my child. I just learned about this over the weekend, and just wanted people opinions on what helps with getting a child to focus, or should I be concerned that it's more to it (i.e. learning disability, boredom, doesn't like teacher, etc.) My daughter has always been pretty advanced (her PreSchool teacher wanted to recommend she jump straight to K but I opposed it). But she's always been easily distracted at home. This is the first time it's really been an issue at school, and I have no idea what to do. |
Anonymous
Sounds like a good plan to wait a couple weeks and revisit it. You may want to schedule a meeting with the teacher to get more detail. Its a good sign she is doing well academically. |
Anonymous
| There are activities you can do at home to "increase focus." Physical things like bouncing a ball on a racket 100 times while counting or mental things like board games. The standard concentration games like Simon Says and Freeze dance may be too young for her but those work as well. |
Anonymous
| I taught K--most K kids will lose "focus" from time to time. That's the norm. Did you initiate the email "conversation" or the teacher? Maybe this was one bad day for your daughter-or not. |
Anonymous
| Remember, the teacher is focused on all the kids--you are focused on one. |