Enthusiastic child!!!!

[shellye]

I have a DD who is just 6 and in yr1.She has been at a private school since the age of 3. She seems very happy at home and at school. She is bright though not particularly academic. She is on reading level orange. This seems to be her favourite past time. She excels in nothing else apart from anything sporty and music. However every report from school has talked about her lack of concentration and disruptive nature. Her "enthusiasm" I think is starting to get a little annoying. She seems keen to learn, always asks the most questions but has problems taking turns and always wants to be first to do anything new!

When this was first picked up we were told it would settle down by year 1. It clearly has not and although not struggling in lessons, I feel this is getting in the way of her learning. The school have so far offered no words of wisdom. We are at a loss really. She is an only child but has been if anything over socialised because of this so by now should have a grasp on how to behave with her peers in a group setting. HELP. Sorry for long post.

If she were in a state school I'd suggest you ask if she could be included in the next round of social skills sessions which would be a brilliant opportunity for her to be taught explicitly the skills you've mentioned.

It's fantastic that she's so keen but if she's disrupting the learning of others the school need to find a way to support her. Oe tactic some teachers use is to give children a limited number of 'question cards', say 3. Everytime the child wants to say something in a session a question card has to be given over - it can help with teaching children to moderate their questions/comments as they have to be more selective over what to contribute.

The concentration issue may be helped by this too as it may force her to listen more carefully and to think about how her thoughts relate to the subject being discussed. It might also be worth having her hearing tested; children who can't hear what the teacher is saying will need to constantly check, ask and double-check what's been said.

If she always wants to be first at things the teacher should be able to manage that fairly easily by coming up with a simple system e.g. a list in alphabetical order, 'special person' of the day or some other way of monitoring who goes first or else an introductory sentence along the lines of, "I'm going to choose someone with an E in their name/who is sitting still/copying my actions accurately/who doesn't usually volunteer to go first... but anyone who asks won't be chosen I'm afraid".

SE13's got a point as the school should be working with her. If they've repeatedly had the same problem in class, they should have a plan as to how to help her to change. So I'd go and ask for a meeting with her teacher about it and ask how they're dealing with it.

Your dd's teacher should be dealing with this. I would think that at private school, with smaller class sizes, it is an easier task than when you have 30 in a class. Ds is similar. I work in conjunction with his teacher to reinforce listening and taking turns both at home and at school.

Thanks for the advice, have made appt. for Friday.