Concentration

[hets1508]

I am receiveing complained from my sons school that his concentration is very poor. he cant seat and listen to them for more than 10 minutes. same time he is making wrong choices eg. he follows to other children if they ask him to do something he does it. i need some help and tips to improve the situation.

[specialmom]

Yes, I agree with Sandman.  Our occupational therapist gave a guideline for what to expect out of 4 year olds in terms of working on an activity like school work(especially when it is not their favorite thing) of 10 minutes and to do it after some type of physical activity.

My son does everything better after activity.  In preschool, we had many issues.  He didn't want to sit for circle time and wandered the room.  He has sensory integration disorder which was much worse at school than at home.  One of the things that really helped was movement and physical things incorporated into the day.  Before sitting in circle time, she could have your son "help" her and carry some books across the room.  Or he and a few other students could play "push over" where they stand at the wall and try to "push it over" by pushing against it.  He could do a leap frog race or move some chairs for her.  And giving choices at that age can be helpful.  If a child feels out of their element, the simple act of giving them some choices can make them feel better.  They feel like they have some control and are less overwhelmed.  

What it sounds like the teachers are saying is that your son stands out from the crowd in certain areas.  I would try to volunteer in the classroom and observe him.  See what you think is going on.  But getting to the root of what is going on will help.  Perhaps he is just immature and will grow out of it.  If he doesn't, then you have to address the root.  Once we did that with out son, he started doing really well in school.  Good luck

[Sandman2]

  I guess it depends on when he turned 4, but 10 min. sit time sounds about right to me.  One reason kindergarten change things up a lot is because of that age don't sit still for to long.  
  I take it he is in some kind of a preschool?  He is way to young for kindergarten.  Not sure of the system in the United Kingdom.  You might ask the teacher how his age compares to others in the class.  This might just be an age issue.

[hets1508]

He is 4 year old.  so far they are not giving him any school work. but when i am doing some studying with him i did notice he knows the stuff but he more instrested in playing and worrring about his toys.

[specialmom]

Hi.  Agree with the others that more  information is  needed.  I think it is helpful to put a child close to the teacher for starters as you try to sort out what is going on.  If he has an underlying problem with any number of things, it would result in this kind of behavior.  Finding the root cause is the only way to properly solve a situation.  My son sometimes has trouble carrying out a tast---------  but he has some motor planning issues.  He also has auditory processing issues---------  this means that he can not block out the outside noise that most kids can.  The lawnmower outside sounds like it is in the room and the teacher and the lawnmower are the same volume.  He can't focus due to that.  So you need to look at the root cause to figure out where to go.  Have you observed in the classroom as well?

[benjimom]

Yes, how old is he?  That makes a diffierence too.  Anything going on at home.  Is he having difficulty with the schoolwork?

[Sandman2]

How old is your son?  What grade is he in?  Did he have these problems at the start of the year, or only recently?   Did he have these problems in other grades?  Do you notice the same problems at home?  Reasons for the questions are that there could be several things going on, and you want to deal with the cause.