Tips for helping an able but fidgety Y1 reader please!

[spiderlight]

DS is in Y1, turned 6 in March. In terms of ability, he is a very able and confident reader, going into a mostly Y2/Y3 literacy group for an hour and a half every day. The school has just introduced 'Success for All' and he has, in his class teacher's words, 'skyrocketed' through the levels to Wings 2, so I've got no concerns about his actual reading ability. But oh my giddy aunt, when we sit down to try and do his reading at home it is instant ants-in-pants time, fidgeting, sliding off the sofa, getting distracted midway through a sentence, silly voices, producing toy cars from his pocket to fiddle with....driving me nuts! Yesterday it took him over an hour to get through a page that I had deliberately selected for what should, based on his ability, have been a quick burst of reading that he could have blasted through in about five minutes if he'd actually sat down and read it!

DH and I are trying to be patient and positive, but we're both getting increasingly frustrated. His teacher goes to great pains to choose books pitched at his ability that she thinks he'll enjoy, and we take him to the library and find non-school books about things he's interested in (cars, cars, Top Gear, cars and cars...), but even with a book he's chosen himself and bounced out of the library all excited about, he still spends more time flopping round the sofa than he does actually reading! I'm not worried about ADHD, I don't think, because he can focus for ages on things he wants to do - playing with cars, drawing cars, watching Top Gear - just not on reading. We've had very occasional comments in his school/home reading diary about sessions when he's been like this at school, but it does seem to be mostly just at home. I've just ordered him a 'tangle' fiddle toy based on a recommendation on another thread, but what else can we try? I really don't want reading to become a battleground.

I find my DS doesn't want to read during the day and enjoys his 'reading time' in the evening evening for half an hour before bed. DD on the other hand would read all day so is just down to the interests and energy levels of the child. I wouldn't panic too much - he's obviously a very able reader and picking it all up.

You're definitely doing all the right things with going to the library and finding books he wants to enjoy.

What time of day are you doing it? Is he tired?

My DD can be a real fidget bum too, although she loves reading, sometimes she is just not in the right frame of mind.

Apologies if stating the obvious but are you in a quiet place with no telly/radio on, preferably with siblings occupied with something else? Sometimes we forget and then it's hard for DD to concentrate.

Can you explain/link to the tangle toy please, sounds great especially as trying to busy DD's hands so she stops sucking her fingers. :)

If he's very able and doing well can't you chill a bit? Ask him when he would like to read to you. Yes, you do need to hear him, but it shouldn't be a chore. We do it at bedtime with DS, also fab reader, Y1. If he ever messes about I just ask him if he wants to do it or not. He always does luckily, so I say do it properly or not at all. I wouldn't spend longer than 10-15 minutes however he behaves and maybe set up a reward system if he does it properly?

fuzzpig We've tried various times of day. He always wants to put it off until bedtime but is then too tired. We always have TV off to read and he's an only child so no siblings to distract him. I've tried doing it in different places around the house/garden/sitting on the stairs to get away from distraction from toys etc. but it doesn't make much difference. Reading outside seems to be marginally better than inside, although he did end up standing up on the garden table with his head under the umbrella (which was down!) yesterday. The tangle toy I saw reconnended on the other thread was this. I'll let you know if it helps.

freetrait You're right, I do need to chill a bit! I just find it so frustrating that he can do it so well if he puts his mind to it but he won't. DH and I are both academics and total bookworms, so it's a bit alien to us! We only aim for fifteen minutes, which is what the school expects, but at the moment we're having ten minutes of faffing for every five minutes of actual reading. Maybe I just need to back off entirely for a bit and see what happens.

Get a timer and stick to it. Maybe he's got into a kind of game with it, re lots of Mum and Dad's attention!

Perhaps you could set up a reward for how many pages he covers in the ten minutes. And some points for expression too or something. Boys love rewards/points . Not sure I listen to DS for more than about 10 minutes, that's plenty. Make a big fuss if he does it well, and just don't give any attention if he messes about (eg like a toddler, same principle!).

I would chill if he messes about but stick to the ten minutes and move on.

Sounds v normal for Y1 tbh

Time is the best antidote, I find!

Good to know it's normal! He's our only child so we've not really got anyone to compare him to, and DH and I were both very bookish children ourselves, so I guess we were expecting him to be the same. Points for how far he gets in ten minutes is a great idea, but I will try to chill out about it as well. I do try to ignode the messing about, but his latest thing to get a reaction is licking me, which I hate!

This could be ds (aged 6). He's very able and doing really well with his reading but is a complete fidget bum when we read in the evenings.

Just been looking at the toy you've added the link to, might have to purchase one of these

Although he did sit down the other night to look through the Top Gear magazine (mostly at the pictures) by himself and kept still for quite some time, hmm!

My daughter is like this with her homework (she would be year 2 if we're in the UK - we're abroad and she gets tons of homework, its supposed to take an hour but sometimes takes up to 5!) She is also very erratic at school - does shiningly brilliantly one week and absolutely abysmally the next, with no perceivable reason for the variety.

I pretty much know she hasn't got ADHD either, because like your son she can concentrate at probably a better level and for longer than you should expect a child of her age to if she wants to, but oh my goodness some episodes taken in isolation do look like ADHD! She will also just sit, and apparently have kind of powered down, sometimes, with homework in front of her. I've taken her to "be tested" (done very thoroughly here) and we are mid way through a 4 apt process, and her psychologist has said she is gifted! I am not sure she is though she has some very strong areas and some pretty weak ones, like most people. So far no problems are showing themselves in the 2 hour long interviews and tests she's done, she's even had an EEG - it is looking as if it is all down to personality, but the way she behaves isn't regarded as normal here and she gets "what is wrong with you?" scrawled across her work when she is having a bad day/ week!

The only things I've found that help are

1. making her run about outside for pretty much a full hour immediately before sitting down to homework.
2. breaking the tasks right down into very small chunks for her (so she'll have to do a neat copy of a 2 page story, I will read the sentences out to her 3 or 4 words at a time instead of giving her the text to copy, and give her a mini break every sentence or two! This one is very hard as I have 2 younger kids in the house!

Do reading immediately after outdoor exercise and only aim for 5 mins not 15, then maybe another 5 later if the first went well?

If you find a better answer do post it!

my daughter does this (5.5 in reception) and yet she likes reading, we found doing it in the morning before school for 5 minutes is far more successful.

Looksgoodingravy Mine sat and went through the AutoTrader magazine for ages on Saturday!! Are they twins?! ;)

MrTumblesBavarianFanbase I can't believe they'd write 'What is wrong with you?' - that's shocking!!

They're spookily similar aren't they Spiderlight

That's the German education system spider - it takes some getting used to (I was a teacher in the UK). Germanteachers don't beat around the bush or have time for modern notions like individualised learning or learning through play )my daughters teacher told me as much at our first meeting - she's actually a very nice woman and a good teacher and DD likes her, but there is a much wider cultural gulf between Germany and the UK than most people realise, and the education system is where I notice it most starkly. We are in Bavaria too, which is the most German part of Germany I think :o

Its why its down to me to find the best way to get DD through the system (which also selects by ability at the end of year 4 and syphon kids off into 3 different levels of school from year 5) even if despite being bright enough she isn't always the roundest peg... Not really school's job to adapt in any way to the quirks of individual children apparently...

sorry for stray brackets in odd places there!

Thanks for link spider :)

DD also y1 is exactly like this. She is an able reader but I don't know what wings are, she is on white/lime.

I found sitting her next to me but letting her read in her head then I ask her questions (totally random ones sometimes) about the text gets her through.

When we read at bedtime, I ask her to read me paragraphs, to hear her intonation and then we talk about how it should be read and sound from that. We have fun doing voices etc.

My trouble is poss reverse of yours - school books are old, dull and more non fiction. She want fluff and princesses or humour. Your son probably gets school books DD would love and not enough non fiction.

I'm not in any way saying your DC have ADHD but you should be aware that kids with ADHD can concentrate very well if they want to. Eg if it's around cars and top gear which they like very much.

You could try giving your child a high quality omega fish oil. But not a chewy sweety one that contains almost no onega.

Thanks CrystalSinger - that's useful knowledge to have. We're vegetarian so the omega thing is particularly interesting. I have some good veggie omega capsules here that I was piercing and stirring into yoghurt for him - will start doing that again. I did try with fish oil originally because I know it's a better source, but he wouldn't go near it.

He asked me last night if he could have some books on the Kindle to read, so I've downloaded a couple and will try that after school today. I've also ordered a set of 'Car-Mad Jack' books for him ad will try with those instead of the reading scheme ones for a bit. Anyone know of any other good car books for age 6? He does love non-fiction - he chose to read 'The Stigtionary' instead of Mr Majeika last night!

I believe this is the best vegetarian Omega Supplement - Echiomega

If you're vegetarian I think it's highly likely he's Omega deficient. Most kids are even if they're not vegetarian.....

If he likes reading Top Gear magazine, just let him read Top Gear magazine. It's all reading. My children show amazing ability when reading Top Trump cards that isn't replicated with books. In order to encourage them to enjoy more literary material, that's the stuff I read out loud to them.
In terms of school reading books, I found they were more interested in reading them online so we did Oxford Owl equivalents from their site and I didn't worry too much about the ones they'd got sent back with them (they're reception and y1 too, btw, pretty good readers).

spider, what is it with Y1 and licking?

dd does it too, and I remember dd1 doing it a few years ago!! Interesting (well, to me, but possibly not to everyone).

I have read with both my dds' classes for the past six years (dd1 currently in Y4) and have met so many little fidget bums - most, but not all, boys - and even wondered 'adhd??' in several cases. So far, all of them have grown older and less fidgety and are doing absolutely fine.

So honestly, I wouldn't panic. They are still so little - we tend to forget that these days. May not hurt to have other info and ideas at back of mind, but relaxing and enjoying also v important imo (apart from the licking, which is hard to enjoy )

Ds licks too he's in year 1. Glad to hear there's other lickers out there

I find with him reading is either best as someone else said, give it to him to read to himself and ask questions afterwards, or read in the car when we're waiting for his sisters to come out of activities so he doesn't have anything more interesting to do. Sometimes we read a bit each (he's on chapter books so they're quite long) can be alternate pages, chapters, half the book each, or what. If he's really tired occasionally I read it all, but do things like make him guess what happens next, or make up a different ending.

He probably would read Top Gear magazine, but he prefers either the Airfix one or one on military aircraft...

I shall order some of that Echium oil as soon as we finish our current batch (these) - thanks for the recommendation. I'm less worried now that I know lots of them are fidgets at this age though. I suspect he is partly doing it to get a reaction now as well - last night's tactic was to try to use his willy to point to the words as he read them Going to have a quick chat to his teacher to see how much he does it at school (the fidgeting, not the willy - I suspect we'd already have had a letter home if he was doing that!) but I see now that we also need to back off a bit and let him be six, licking and willies and all!

at the willy pointer

And glad you put the 'and' in that last sentence !