DS nearly 7 concentration issues with school work

Counting_Pennies_2

I wonder if anyone with slightly older children who have been through this can advise me.

My DS is very nearly 7. He has had peaks and lows throughout his little career at school.

He started off really well with his phonics. Struggled a bit with his reading. Then surged ahead with reading, and fell behind with his writing. He has always been switched on with numbers.

But over the last year it has come to light that he finds it difficult to concentrate at getting work completed. He seems to know the answers, but takes an absolute age to write it all down.

I had him assessed (out of school because they wouldn't do anything, but call him lazy and lacking concentration) and was informed he didn't know how to blend his phonics so found it hard to write the words, so I enrolled him privately into an after school tuition (small groups of 4) for his writing which really helped him learn how to write and once a week he goes to this group to help him, I have seen a real surge in how he spells.

Now I have been told his maths is falling behind. It doesn't seem to be that he doesn't know the answers, it is getting it all down on paper. He has been dropped down a set and he is feeling terribly demorilised.

So the same tutor has agreed to help him with his maths and see what the problem is.

Sitting with him doing a couple of exercises today, I can kind of see where the problem is.

The maths question: Adam has 5 apples, Susie has 4 how many do they have in total (write in a sentence and also as digits) so he does the sum first, manages that fine and then spends ages writing it out. As he does he drifts off into rhymes about Adam and Susie, finds patterns with how the numbers look. After a while you are beating your head metaphorically against a wall because he still has not completed the question. He gets there in the end, then still has more to do.

This is where I think he has been having his problems with writing, and now that maths is getting into more sentence formation he is struggling again.

Anyone with any advice. I have tried asking him to concentrate and once he has done the writing we can look at the patterns that form on the page, but it doesn't seem to speed him up.

I can't bear the thought of him being left behind in class, as he has the knowledge, but seems to lack the focus.

thanks

DVardysShadow

I would say don't worry too much about it. It is probably better that his mind is being overstimulated by irrelevant aspects to the question than him just sitting there bored and uninterested. Obviously at some stage he will need to learn how to focus, but at the moment, I would suggest you go easy on it. It seems he has spurts on topics, so it is not unreasonable to hope that focus will come in time.

If you look at the problem you described, it is quite rich in the areas of thinking involved - a little narrative, extracting a math question from that, selecting a style for the answer [a number? or an sentence?] and actually writing it down. It is no wonder his head is shooting off in all kinds of directions - that is what is supposed to happen. Be patient and you will start to find his head shooting off in the right direction I think.

Counting_Pennies_2

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I would suggest you go easy on it. It seems he has spurts on topics, so it is not unreasonable to hope that focus will come in time.

Thank you so much for your reply.

The problem is the teacher started highlighting this as a problem a year ago, but just kept saying, is lazy not concentrating. He most definitely is not lazy, he willingly will jump at any activity and a very helpful little man, and always keen to be the one to get a merit for good behaviour.

Now that it is affecting his maths and his writing, I am getting worried it is getting worse not better.

Just not sure what to do to help.

nottslass_2

The school sounds useless !!!


I'm really sorry that I can't give you any expert advise,but my DS aged 8 finds concentrating difficult (amongst other stuff) and school have given him an egg timer and it seem to have made quite a bit off difference and he now manages "short sharp bursts" of concentrating - he has now learnt to focus intently for the 3 mins which is enough to get the question answered !!!

Have you ruled ther possibility there may be other issues such as inattentive Add ,dyslexia or other learning disability ?

Counting_Pennies_2

nottslass wrote: »

The school sounds useless !!!

Frustratingly this is one of the top rated Ofsted schools in the country, we moved specifically to get in the school. Just shows the ratings really mean nothing.

One of the other parents in the class went to see the head teacher, because her son was labelled the same way by the same teacher.

She was told the school were doing their statutory minimum that is required of them, and they are not required to do anything further.

When she spouted the every child matters slogan, she was eventually given help for her child by a parent volunteer who will sit with him in class while assembly is running. They have had such a major falling out over it, that I don't want it to come to that. I have already managed to get into tension with the teacher over it. I just want to find a way to ride it through to next year when there will be another teacher (he has had the same teacher two years in a row!)

PS - I love the egg timer idea, thanks for that will go and buy one.

DVardysShadow

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

The problem is the teacher started highlighting this as a problem a year ago, but just kept saying, is lazy not concentrating. He most definitely is not lazy, he willingly will jump at any activity and a very helpful little man, and always keen to be the one to get a merit for good behaviour.

Now that it is affecting his maths and his writing, I am getting worried it is getting worse not better.

Ease up on it. The teacher is identifying that work is not being done but coming to the wrong conclusion. I think you do need to discuss with the teacher, if nothing else to clarify terminology - but hopefully to come to a shared understanding of what the underlying reason is and to develop constructive strategies.

I remember having similar issues at that age - the lazy label was applied, but to little effect, because that was not the real issue.

I would say looking at the example you gave, your son is probably capable of understanding the difference between concrete and abstract [although not in those terms] but he is a bit overcome by the switches in thinking required to express the matter properly. Some kids will do the problem without worrying too much about the process or thinking about the details. But if he likes to understand everything and have it down correctly, he will probably struggle.

In Mathematical terms, although the problem is quite simple, doing it in a mathematically rigorous way is quite complex - it stands on the gateways to both algebra and predicate calculus [??? I hear]. As his number work has been good and it has been the reading and writing where he has problems, I suspect that [quite correctly], he feels that the verbal representation he is being asked to work with is not adequate for the problem. But of course, he is too young for algebra and will be unlikely to meet a teacher who can explain predicate calculus until he is in 6th form.

Perhaps you should have a little discussion with him about how he feels about the verbally expressed maths problems? It could open up a discussion of how some people work better with words and others with numbers - and perhaps a discussion on how to 'play the game', even if you think it is the wrong game.

gratefulforhelp_2

Speaking as a teacher(secondary), a parent(primary age) and a school governor(primary)...

write to the teacher, copying in the head, explaining that labelling your child as lazy is unhelpful and thoughtless. Explain that you are a concerned, involved parent looking for ways to help...and as such you expect some constructive suggestions - please!

How long does he do his work with you? I wouldn't be trying to do more than 10-15 min at a time, we often expect them to concentrate for too long, too early.

Have you covered all the obvious things, like his sleeping patterns, exercise and so on? Can he concentrate ok on hobbies or things that interest him?

Honestly, I wouldn't get too too stressed just yet, he is very little and his behaviour sounds like normal behaviour to me.

Counting_Pennies_2

gratefulforhelp wrote: »

Have you covered all the obvious things, like his sleeping patterns, exercise and so on? Can he concentrate ok on hobbies or things that interest him?

thank you, it is reassuring to have everyone's responses.

We did worry about the things you mentioned. He recently got into reading chapter books on his own, and would read for a little too long in bed at night, so now we let him read a chapter and then bring the book out of his room so he can get to sleep. For weekends I think I will let him have the book as I don't want to punish him for being so keen on reading.

Exercise is probably not as much as it should be, we live over half an hours walk away from school, and school and nursery are in opposite directions so I do tend to drive, but I have taken to walking a couple of days a week to school to at least get fresh air into him before he gets into a stuffy class.

He goes to Beavers and swimming as his hobbies and now it is two nights a week for the tuition.

Thanks again

patchwork_cat

Really only addressing one aspect of your post OP, but one thing I have noticed is that children sometimes 'forget' an old skill when they are learning a new one. In his english is he concentrating on creative writing and rhyming and he is having difficulty 'switching' off this skill and such when he is supposed to be writing a mathematical type sentence he is thinking more creatively.

patchwork_cat

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

He goes to Beavers and swimming as his hobbies and now it is two nights a week for the tuition.

Thanks again

Does he swim and go to Beavers once a week and 2 tutorials if so then that is a lot of activities for a nearly 7 year old.

Gingham_Ribbon

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

I wonder if anyone with slightly older children who have been through this can advise me.

My DS is very nearly 7. He has had peaks and lows throughout his little career at school.

He started off really well with his phonics. Struggled a bit with his reading. Then surged ahead with reading, and fell behind with his writing. He has always been switched on with numbers.

But over the last year it has come to light that he finds it difficult to concentrate at getting work completed. He seems to know the answers, but takes an absolute age to write it all down.

I had him assessed (out of school because they wouldn't do anything, but call him lazy and lacking concentration) and was informed he didn't know how to blend his phonics so found it hard to write the words, so I enrolled him privately into an after school tuition (small groups of 4) for his writing which really helped him learn how to write and once a week he goes to this group to help him, I have seen a real surge in how he spells.

Now I have been told his maths is falling behind. It doesn't seem to be that he doesn't know the answers, it is getting it all down on paper. He has been dropped down a set and he is feeling terribly demorilised.

So the same tutor has agreed to help him with his maths and see what the problem is.

Sitting with him doing a couple of exercises today, I can kind of see where the problem is.

The maths question: Adam has 5 apples, Susie has 4 how many do they have in total (write in a sentence and also as digits) so he does the sum first, manages that fine and then spends ages writing it out. As he does he drifts off into rhymes about Adam and Susie, finds patterns with how the numbers look. After a while you are beating your head metaphorically against a wall because he still has not completed the question. He gets there in the end, then still has more to do.

This is where I think he has been having his problems with writing, and now that maths is getting into more sentence formation he is struggling again.

Anyone with any advice. I have tried asking him to concentrate and once he has done the writing we can look at the patterns that form on the page, but it doesn't seem to speed him up.

I can't bear the thought of him being left behind in class, as he has the knowledge, but seems to lack the focus.

thanks

First of all, I think it's extremely unhelpful for a child to know that he's been 'dropped down a set' at that age. Do the groups have different names/colours? Has he just worked it out for himself?

A couple of things.

He sounds like he's comfortable doing his own learning (looking for patterns in numbers and rhyming names is definitely evidence of that.)

He sounds like he's able to do the work but just not write it down quickly enough.

And he sounds like he can read well but doesn't notice how words are spelt.

He sounds like he drifts off into his head when he's being asked to do something he finds difficult or boring.

These are all common traits in gifted children. This doesn't mean he's gifted, but it is something worth checking out if he seems to be a clever boy who's not doing as well at school as you'd expect.

Have a look at this questionnaire and see if it makes sense. There are strategies that will help if this is what's going on, and they'll be different to ones put in place for other children.

http://www.nagcbritain.org.uk/parents.php?id=213