My daughter keeping hugging her football coaches and now teachers when she should be learning

[Eevee12]

My daughter is 5 and keep hugging her football coach at football when she should be learning and watching and trying to sit on her lap. I have spoken to her about it may time but she still does it. The thing is she does rale in what happening when she is there as she answers the questiins they ask and if they want some of them to show them a skill. She is always having to move about and cant keep still too. (Which i know can be normal for the age but the hugging i really want to stop as she is missing out. But the problem is she has started doing it at school which isnt good and doing ot during a lesson. But she again she does take in what happens in lesson. She is really good with her reading and maths. But her attetion is rubbish. Any advuce would be amazing. ( she doesnt sit still at home for long and is always wanting to do handstands. Unless she is reading a book, playing with toys or watching tv

Make her a circles of proximity visual. You should find an example online.
Concentric circles different colours.
Middle solid colour is for immediate family or any very close friends usually green (parents, siblings) next colour is for extended family and friends etc. Next might be teachers, coaches etc. Outer circle usually red is complete strangers any unknown adults, young people etc.

You then set the boundaries for each area/ colour e.g. green ok to hug, kiss, sit on knees
red no touching at all
For the colour with teachers/ coaches etc you could agree high fives( for e.g.but NO hugging, sitting on knees)

You could make quite a large visual when introducing. Set the boundaries first and then sort photos or names of people into the areas. Do this with her.
Display so you can refer to it and maybe make a smaller one too. Once embedded when out and about you can use a quick reminder such as “ Red person” no touching etc.
If you find a visual it will be clear.

Sounds like she needs movement breaks or sensory input in school.

The coach and teachers need to tell her to stop. I’m surprised they even let her as I thought there was fairly strict rules about touching/hugs at school. Have a word with them.

Get her seen by Speech and Language at school. I know that sounds odd but they deal in communication skills and your daughter is communicating something here. I would suggest an OT assessment too but you would be private for that.

We had a poster of the circles on my son’s door for a while whilst in infants to refer back to. It really helped as I know he was confused that I hug and kiss my friends when I see them, but he couldn’t…but we got there. I also agree the teacher/coach should be discouraging. Offer lots of hugs from you and maybe a teddy would be a good idea? That he can hug when he wants that comfort??

Why is she doing it? Is she attention seeking? Sensory seeking ? Bored and it gives her an excuse to get up and walk around?

I work in a school that goes from age 2-18. If I think of the children like yours, the cuddly ones, the ones who always had to be on top of us or holding our hands, they all grew out of it by about age 8. Now I know it’s not ideal, and we could cut a lot more slack and be more relaxed (small private school), so you should probably do the circles suggestion pp offers, or a cuddly to hold, but I just wanted to reassure you. Some kids are more physically needy than others, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything is “wrong”.