Year 2 - DS not listening and needs to try harder

[Flymeoutofhere]

DS(6) teacher told me today at pick-up that can we have a word at home with DS in regards to his listening skills needing improvement and he needs to try harder particularly when some things are more difficult. She didn’t give any examples as there was other parents waiting to see her.

How do we address this at home, aside from the obvious saying he needs to listen and do as instructed, and to always try his very best even when things are tricky etc? He tells me he finds school hard sometimes so I wonder if he is just giving up trying. He also says school is boring and he doesn’t like it. His listening at home has gone downhill in the last couple of month too.

Last term he got an award for Best Listener so this has come out of the blue, and his previous teacher never mentioned any issues like the above.

In the past he has had difficulty settling in new situations (since nursery at 3) so I wonder if that could be a contributor (to the point that an Ed Psych assessed him), plus he has glue ear but his hearing has always been just inside the range of normal (last hearing test was April) but I will chase up a new test to rule that out.

Is he sat at the front in class and close to the teacher if they're on the floor? I have just this morning asked for my teenage son with asd to be sat at the front in his GCSE classes as it makes all the difference with his listening and concentration - and so also his understanding.

Will he sit and listen to a story? That's what I'd work on to try to improve his listening, I find though that my ds is always much better as listening to things he's actually interested in :-D What do you do when he doesn't listen at home? I would be quite firm and consistent with it and make sure he does listen. What is he struggling with? Could you ask his teacher and do some work on it at home, have a routine if you can where you listen to him read every day, even if it's just for five minutes, if he is finding maths difficult ask him a few maths questions and make it a game.

I wouldn't completely rule out ASD whatever the ed psyche said, it might not to be clear at this age (mine wasn't diagnosed till secondary age) but worth bearing in mind as he gets older.

PS my ds can't filter out distractions and also has hearing that comes and goes if he has a cold - sitting at the front of class really makes a difference for both of these!

Last term he got an award for Best Listener

This might have been the first step towards encouraging him to listen, but had not worked.

One way that I have seen, which works at home, is to ask him questions about what you have just said then reward good listening with lots of praise.