DD not paying attention in school

[hariboo]

DD7, year 3. Her teacher is concerned that she's not paying attention, it's getting worse and she's starting to make mistakes as a result. It's not a case of talking or being distracted by others, more that she is daydreaming and just not listening.

For context - she is one of the higher ability children in the class, finishing year 2 exceeding in all areas. I am in no doubt that if she were concentrating she would grasp things easily. Hearing and sight both fine.

Maths is a particular concern according to her teacher. She is very good at mental arithmetic, quickly able to add and subtract 3 digit numbers for example. However now that they are beginning to cover things like column subtraction, she is making mistakes with the method although she would be able to do the sum in her head.

He thinks that complacency could be the issue - she thinks she already knows how to do stuff so zones out. Nobody has raised this as an issue before but it's possible she has always been like it, but was able to get away with it in KS1 when the work was easier perhaps?

I'm wondering what I can do to help or suggest to the school. He is going to change her learning partner to see if that makes a difference and have her sit at the front when on the carpet. She has been doing so well up to now that I'm obviously keen for her not to fall behind.

Does she listen when you speaks to her? Think about any habits that you may unconsciously ignore at home- do you need to repeat her name, repeat instructions etc? Do you remind her to look at and listen to people talking?

Otherwise the usual suggestions- early bedtime, as little screen time as possible.

I've never really noticed her not paying attention at home. If I'm saying something she doesn't want to hear she is good at changing the subject but not not listening if that makes sense.

We could look at limiting screen time definitely. Her bedtime and sleep are fine though.

Name change fail sorry!

Is her hearing definitely fine? Has it been checked recently? This whole post could be describing me at 6/year 2, higher ability / daydreaming / coasting etc and it turned out I had glue ear and my “selective hearing”, inattention and daydreaming was down to glue ear. Worth a double check?

Have you considered that she may be having absence seizures?

I'm pretty sure her hearing is ok. At home DH and I can be talking in another room and she hears what we're saying.

I did consider absence seizures, particularly as she seems to have had "Alice in wonderland syndrome" in the past (objects becoming small in her vision) and I think this can be associated with epilepsy...however we haven't noticed her zoning out at home at all. Perhaps I should take her to the GP

Is she not paying attention - or is she doing what DD2 does which is look like she's totally oblivious to the world and in reality it's all going in?

I don't think it has been going in hence the mistakes she's been making. She's definitely more than capable of doing what they've been learning so for whatever reason she's not been concentrating

I nearly posted similar today about DD (year 2). Except her teacher seems more inclined to rubbish her abilities than support her.

I do think it can be very hard for an able child to follow a lesson presented at slow pace. 95% of what is said is repetition or stuff they already knew, so it's easy to tune out and miss the other 5%. Some teachers are better than others at keeping everyone engaged even if they already know the majority of the material.

I think from my own experience that it's really helpful if the teacher gives written instructions/example as well as talking at them, ideally let the able ones just go and get on with the worked example rather than listen to 20 minutes of what to them is waffle first. I don't think that approach is popular these days though.

Don't know the answer. Keep checking in with teacher and making sure DD knows that it's being noticed that she's not paying attention and appreciated when she is? If she can easily do the sum, why don't you suggest she writes down the answer at the side of the page, then checks the answer she gets using the written method against it. I talk to DC about a lot of maths being about showing how you solved the problem, not just solving it. Written methods can be a way of doing that. Does she understand how the written method relates to the way she does it in her head? If not, that's worth her spending time on so she really understands what's going on.