Behaviour

[pink2204]

Hi, this is my first shot at this so please bear with me. My 5 year old's class teacher has requested a meeting with us to discuss a plan for school and home to address his interrupting and poor listening in class. He is very able and still seems under-challenged even having gone from reception to yr 2. I'm not convinced that this is just a behaviour issue, but don't know how to approach this or what support is out there. Can anyone help?

I am sure that you are probably right about this being more than a behaviour issue and that your ds may ned more of a challenge but you wil get further with the school if that is not your opening statement. I woudl acknowledge that your ds needs to listen in class and ask what you can do to support the school. I would ask if the school thinks that your ds needs more stretching in class, perhaps give examples of things that really interest him. I know dd primary is starting a project for children to access extra curricular oppurtunites in languages, music and sport perhaps there may be soemthing similar available.

I guess it depends on what stance the school takes. They obviously recognise that he's able, seeing as he's ahead of others his age (did i get that bit right?) so hopefully this will be a meeting to sort out possible successful strategies that they can implement and you can support. You should maybe see it as a positive thing; an opportunity to help your ds and work in partnership with the school. (I'm erring on the side of optimism here so I hope the school are being supportive!). Ask specific questions of his teacher(s) so you can pinpoint what triggers his interrupting and whether he might be so used to thinking ahead he might have gotten into the habit of not thinking first, or allowing others to speak maybe? He might also be educationally on a par with older kids but emotionally he may still lack a few social skills that the others have acquired along the way. Maybe his teacher finds this hard as s/he is more used to Y2 and is finding it hard to get the right balance?
Good luck