inattentive first grader

[bay0518]

I have been receiving great advice from this forum so her I come again to ask for your advice. My son is first grader. He had social/emotion control issue when he entered K. At first grade, I asked his teacher and I got postive feedback. He does not throw tantrum anymore and relatively easy to clam down now. However, another issue was brought up today. It seems that he has had issue with focusing/ staying focus on his assignmnet except for math and situation not improving at all by this time. The home teacher mentioned he is ok with math assignment and is able to stay focus until completion without multiple reminders. However, for all other subjects, he has difficulty to stay focus to complete the task. He does not listen to the direction so that end up not knowing what he needs to do most of time. Even PE teacher complains about that as well. He does not listen to PE teacher but will listen to his home teacher.
His teacher is just back from a month long sick leave this week and she said that she will stay close eye on him through next week. If things not improving, she will need to request a conference with us.
Is it the sign for ADD? I know he is very easy to be distracted by little things even when doing home at home. I have to sit behind him to remind him so he can stay concentrated to finish his work. What can I do to help him?

[Life360_Dave]

Hi and welcome. A turning point in my life was becoming a cubscout and boyscout. School can be an overwhelming thing at the age and mixing the mundane with nature can add balance and being around other boys doing boyish things can add to his confidence.
I really got to know myself at that age being alone and surrounded by nature.

[specialmom]

Hi there!  I'm glad you've found the forum helpful and I'm really happy to hear that your son is showing some progress.  That's fantastic.

I'm wondering when he is having issues of the inattentiveness?  Certain times of the day, during specific assignments, anything that shows a pattern?

I found that my own son had many of these same problems you mention.  For him, he has sensory issues.  This involves how a child interacts with their environment.  A nervous system can be a little overactive or underactive and then a child will have trouble staying focased as their peers do.  Now, all kids have different levels of maturity when it comes to ability to maintain attention and at 6, school is still a bit new to them.  So, perhaps your son is still adjusting.  But it is good to start thinking about what could be going on to solve the problem.

WE have had absolute success with focus at school and ability to maintain attention elsewhere with the concept of giving my son the input into his nervous system that he needs to regulate this.  We do something called 'heavy work' which is an occupational therapy term for things that basically seem like physical activity.  We do muscle work, provide deep pressure, etc. and it helps my son LATER to be calm and focused in school.  Some ideas of what heavy work looks like are swimming, climbing play structures or climbing walls, jumping on a trampoline (even just a mattress placed on the floor inside the home during colder months), laying on the floor face down and pushing pillows over him providing pressure, carrying a bag of books, chewing thick bubble gum.  There is a whole huge list of activities to try and I'm happy to share more ideas with you if you are interested.

another trick with kids to help keep them focused is a fidget.  something in the hands like a squeezy ball can be the ticket to kids being able to stay with the class in terms of focus.  

I'm happy to share more ideas with you if you are interested.  

Both my boys do cub scouts which is awesome however, we do physical activity/heavy work beforehand as it is often another situation in which kids sit and need to maintain focus (pack meetings verses den meetings).  

lots of luck and let me know if you'd like other ideas.  

[bay0518]

Thanks. Very helpful. I am interested in heavy work you mentioned above. I will do some experiment on this weekend. What will you recommend to do before going to school in the morning as it is kind of rush?
I also spoke to my son's social skills counselor, she said it won't hurt to get him tested. she will send me some recommendation. If I want, she can also speak to his teacher to understand more details.
I also asked my son, he mentioned the works he often find hard to complete is writing which they do before lunch. But the teacher said that his ELL/reading teacher also felt that he was hard to stay focus when he is with her. I asked him if he feels like he needs extra help on language art/writing. He said yes. I may also looking into get him some tutor for that subject so he can be more confident to handle it at school.

[Sandman2]

      You mentioned ELL.  Is he English his second language?  Because many times kids of his age have pretty good conversational skills, but their reading and written skills can be much less than what you would expect.  He is reacting just like a child would who is not understanding what is going on.  Math is easier because it does not involve words.  Writing is difficult for English speaking kids, and very difficult if you are trying to translate on the fly.
   I think he needs his ELL teacher to find out where he is with his reading skills.  And even his oral understanding of English.  Its very easy to tune out if you are having difficulty understanding what the person is saying.
  If I am correct in his problems with English.  What he is doing is fairly normal and not a sign of ADD.  An older child will keep trying, but a first grader will tend to give up sooner.  A tutor will help a lot.  But don't expect miracles over night.   And his teacher needs to know that this is going on (if I am correct), so she can adjust her teaching.  Also getting his peers to help him will reduce the load on him somewhat.  Hope this helps.

[bay0518]

He is bilingual child and he is the only child. now he is mainly speaks English at home. He starts to receive ELL from K and ELL teacher said she expects he will exit the program by end of the school year. Per test result, he has native speaker level for comprehension and oral speaking. Writing and reading are developing. However, I do agree with you. Even he speaks English very well and even starts reading/writing a little bit, I still feel something is missing. Even his social skill counselor said that he has some problem to understand  5 WH questions which is very important skills when understanding and doing conversation. The speed he learns reading is not as fast as his English speaking peers. He has to know the words before he can feel comfortable to read even he is fully understand phonics and also can pronounce words by sight. I don't if I impact him when I read with him as English is my second language. My first language is mandarin Chinese which is completely different language system from English and completely different way of learning. Maybe it is harder for him to adjust learning patern between these two languages naturally.
I mentioned evaluation to my husband and he is very against it as he does not want any meds for him. We will try to change life style first. All three of us are not allowed to watch tv and use smartphone in the house on weekdays. I will also try your heavy works as well.
I asked him to sit down and finish his incomplete works last night. I observed him and he is very ok with math sheet. Then I gave him a writing assignment. He was focus when he drew picture, but started to struggle when he started writing part. He called for help on word spelling and want to get away by one sentence. Finally I sat with him and he is able to come up additional two sentences with minimum help. The last thing we did last night was reading. First he read his just right book from class and it is very easy for him to read so he did not have issue at all. I gave him another book that he picked from school library. I usually read to him for this kind of books. we started to play alternate reader recently meaning I read one page and he reads another till we finish the whole book. Last night I wanted him to try reading this book by himself after just right book. He tried two to three pages and wanted to stop.

[Sandman2]

      Its been awhile since I got my certification in English as a Second Language, but all of what you have said he is doing seems pretty normal to me.  I think you should get the opinion of his ELL teacher as to how he is doing given his experience level.  And by the way, if his regular teacher was out sick for a month, his substitute teacher could be partially to blame for his attention problems as I doubt she took the time to (or even knew to take the time) to help him.
    You might also want to allow some tv.  Childrens channel only with the SAP turned on so that words in English come across the scream as the animals/puppets/cartoon characters talk.  It is a good learning tool as you can see and hear the words.

[bay0518]

Yes, TV is allowed on Friday night and the weekend. He is also allowed to read ebooks from library website on any day. He enjoys the ebooks a lot because he can just listen and watch the animation but no need to read it by himself. He is very lazy when it comes to long book. He does not want to read it by himself but will be happy to listen (very concentrated when listen to story).
I observed him for two days and found that he is usually very distracted when the works come to language related wiriting works even the works that he is capable to handle. In his chinese works, he can write one character and starts to talk and play by himself even without any toy on hand. Or get up to get drink and go to bathroom etc. Or sometimes he will start wondering around on desk. I think that's what he did in school. If no one remind him to pull him back (need several remiders), he will probably sit till time is up. I tried timer before. It works sometimes but sometimes it upset him when time is running too fast. The counting down timer also distracts him as well.

[bay0518]

Just want to update. Got email from his teacher today and stating that he is doing better in class but not in reading program he started to receive last month. Reading teacher is concerned about his learning progress of reading. He is currently on C level which is low at this time. I tried my best to help him at home. I read with him every day but seems not improving much on the reading skills. Maybe it's time to seek extra help as I don't know much about phonics. I learned words and grammer first, before I learned to read which is different from what he is learning now.

[Sandman2]

      Phonics are difficult if you have never been exposed to them.  They are even more difficult if its in your second language as you may miss what the teacher is saying.  ESL kids typically have a difficult time reading for about the first couple of years.  Its easier for them if they already know how to read.
Talk with his ELL teacher and see what she recommends for extra help.

[bay0518]

Thank you. Recently I discover some online reading programs which is working out very well for him. In addition, I temporarily stop his karate class so that he gets more time to stay home in the evening hours. I work with him for homework and reading program. My husband is now in charge of his bedtime story reading. I am not sure which part is working, but his teacher came back with super positive feedbacks. His confident level goes up after starting online reading program. His attention level also goes up when working with game like program. I think it is really helpful for him.

[Sandman2]

   glad to hear things are getting better.   Thanks for keeping in touch!