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Y1 DD misbehaving at school G&T related?

1 reply

hillyhilly · 12/05/2011 21:33

Earlier this week DD's teacher asked for a word after school and told me that DD who is 6's behaviour has been appalling (not her words). It covers the whole spectrum, not sitting on the carpet, not listening, disrupting others, answering back and cheeky attitude to staff, verbally and physically nasty to her friends and not changing or amending any of this behaviour when spoken to by staff.
It doesn't come as a complete surprise because she is exhibiting a lot of this behaviour at home too but on previous occasions when her behaviour has been poor at home its been fine at school.
We've had a long chat and a few tears at home, we've talked about and listed what good looks like, and have done a behaviour chart, with a promise of an unspecified reward at the end if it's all ticks.
Its seems that she's got too big for her boots, to a lesser extent this happened late in her reception year (she's now Y1) and her teacher then said it was not uncommon towards the end of a school year that they get a bit restless but surely its too early for that. She is G&T listed as her reading is exceptional but I do not want to brandish that as an excuse as the school are good at recognising this, she is in a mixed Y1 & Y2 class and works often with Y2s. She is also VERY close friends with a little girl who also behaves this way - I cannot come up with a way to separate them as it is such a small school although this child does not often work in the same groups as my DD.
She has not improved much in the past few days, is it G&T related? She doesn't say that she's bored but I wonder if she's able to coast a bit. Has anyone else been through this at this time of year?

OP posts:
EyeOfNewtToeOfFrog · 12/05/2011 22:24

I'm sorry to hear your DD is having a hard time Sad

It's difficult to know what the behaviour is to do with, without understanding what things are like from her point of view. I think your best bet is to try and get your DD to express what goes on with the bad behaviour (I know, I know, it's sometimes hard to get them to talk!) Somebody suggested drawing pictures as a way of gaining insight but I haven't yet tested it out.

We've recently been through something very similar with (now) 7yo DD, who is also G&T in literacy. It turned out to be bullying - she just hadn't thought to tell anyone she was being bullied! It only came to light when DD started bullying another child (DD did not have a clue the two were connected!). Now both situations are resolved and DD is much happier. However, she is now being referred to a social communications clinic for an assessment of asperger's syndrome because of her behaviour.... so in our case the situation escalated considerably from what we first thought.

It sounds like you're doing many of the right things with the chat, sticker chart, etc. Keep going with lots of patience and consistency - you're right, being G&T is not an excuse for bad behaviour. Instead of a star chart we use a pot of marbles - for good behaviour she gets one, for very bad behaviour she gets one removed. And I find it's always more motivational to have a specific target for DD to work towards.

Shame about your DD's friend -it might of course be that the friend has quite a lot to do with it. Perhaps a communications book between school and home would help? My DD used to misbehave when she thought I wouldn't get to know about it - but a communications book put a swift stop to that.

Good luck anyhow, it's not easy having a G&T kid at times, eh? :)

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