Short attention span in preschool only

[Rainrad2002]

Hello everyone,

My son has always had an abnormally long attention span and has scored in the "higher" rating on the Brigance preschool assessment.  He is quite bright and is also relatively well behaved at home and at the day care where he goes a couple of afternoons a week.  The problem is that he does not pay attention in preschool, and has to be put in the "thinking chair" on a regular basis.  He picks on the other kids, poking them etc or just does his own thing when he is supposed to be paying attention.  He has also been assessed by a local psychologist who confirmed that he is quite advanced cognitively and his attention span is more than adequate, he suggested that my son was probably bored and this is causing him to misbehave.  His teachers are struggling to deal with him and I am not sure what to do at this point.  Any help would be much appreciated!  : )

Cheers,
Lorraine

[Sandman2]

You have pretty much hit the nail on the head.  Gotta realize he is only 4!!  He will get better as he matures.  Ya, I think he is bored.  Hopefully, he gets a teacher next year that is better equipped to handle him.  Instead of putting him in a "thinking chair" (cute term by the way), they need to give him something more in the line of independent research that will keep him occupied.  The social interaction with the kids is probably much more important than any learning he might get.  Send him to school with a good book (he is reading by now?) or game and tell him to use that when he gets bored.  By the way, if he is not reading, start teaching him.  Might also see if there is any chance of bouncing him up a grade level.

[Rainrad2002]

He is 4 years old, I have talked with his teachers many times and they have copies of his assessments so they are aware of where he is academically etc.  The psychologist mentioned in his assessment that James needed to be given more challenging work to do to keep his interest, as being bored generally leads to this type of behavior.  He does deal better with adults than children his own age, but he has never had problems before and loves playing with his friends at day care where he goes a couple of afternoons a week.  I am thinking that being in such a large class may be allowing him to push the boundaries and get away with it, the teachers are obviously not used to dealing with kids like him.  He had one of the teachers convinced that he was a bit slow, she said before he was assessed that he was "cognitively below average".  The psychologist told me that he is basically "pulling the wool over their eyes" to get out of doing things he doesn't feel like doing or finds boring. They know this now but his bad behavior in class and the teachers inability to curb this is a real concern for us.

I think part of the problem is that we are currently living in Australia, and they are not known in this country for acknowledging and dealing well with advanced  or "gifted and talented" kids.  We live in a small town with few choices as far as private schools which might be a better fit for him, and none of them offer preschool.  We will be here for another year or two, and will be able to get him into a more appropriate school after moving out of the country.

He did attend what they call "3 year kindy" last year, which was a small class of about 8 children with 1 head teacher and 1 assistant teacher, and there was also usually someone else around to help.  He had none of these issues in that class and was always well behaved.  Being in a much larger class is bringing out a side of James that we have never seen before.  Kids need to come with instruction manuals!!  : )

[Sandman2]

How old is he?

[jdtm]

Perhaps he is bored and he just needs additional stimulation.  However, often children who are cognitively advanced are socially challenged.  Children do not develop in cognition, social, language, physical, artistic, etc at the same rate.  So, a child who is speaking in sentences at two years of age may not be able to climb the ladder to a slide (and vice versa).  This is not to say that the child who speaks earlier is "smarter" or the child who climbs earlier is "athletic"; it's just the way the child is growing.

I'm wondering at your words -- His teachers are struggling to deal with him  -- might indicate social issues.  Have you discussed this possiblity with the school?  Anyway, just one opinion .....