Focusing on School Work - 7 Year Old

Some kids need a bit more help with Focusing. Dont assume add and hyper though that is possible. Its more about focusing. Ask your child be sat in the front row where the teacher can keep an eye on her focusing. Sometimes kids focus better if they can keep their hands busy so maybe the teacher can let it pass if she sees your daughter playing with a pencil or some such. Also on another note you do not know whats going in that class. How is she with homework. Does she need a lot of promting to get it completed and have problem staying on task?

It sounds like your child may have difficulty with auditory processing. Make sure you ask for a FULL evaluation including testing by the speech pathologist in your district even if your child has no difficulty with speech and language. . When you read to her, ask her comprehension questions about the story. Along with reading to her and doing "math lessons", give her one, two and three step oral directions throughout each day and see how she does...increase the complexity as time goes on. For example," Please get me the dog's dish"; "Go upstairs and get your blue pants that are in your closet"; " Can you go into the bathroom and bring me the white towel, then go get your bathing suit in the laundry room".....See if she can process what you are asking of her and can follow through without repeating directions.
The classroom teacher can give her preferential seating, and also have a peer helper for her early on in first grade, if there is no classroom aide available, to make sure she understands what work she should be doing while the teacher is working with reading groups, etc. When her reading ability develops to the point that she can read, she can be given a written list of the seatwork.

Good luck.

My .02 would be to question the root cause of her auditory processing disorder or working memory challenge. Generally, when you take a child into the school system for a core evaluation they look at the distance senses of vision and hearing when trying to determine a course of action. Yet, the near sense of the tactile-kinesthetic system is not properly addressed. Since the tactile-kinesthetic sense has an enormously powerful role in learning to not address this system when addressing a learning disability is an injustice.

A vital part of the developmental of the tactile-kinesthetic system are the mobilities a child progresses through during the first 18 months of life. How a child crawls on their tummy (3-8 months), creeps on hands and knees (8-12 months) and walks stimulates the growth of the brain and inhibits primitive reflexes. If the child does not perform these skills with the necessary sophistication it can lead to behavioral and academic problems in the future. Unfortunately, too often, this developmental pieces is overlooked by the school system.

If you are interested in an article I had published last year just let me know. I also do virtual screenings on my facebook page. Good luck in whatever avenue you pursue.

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sounds like she may have a learning disability, where auditory learning is difficult for her. I would recommend getting her tested asap and then making sure your school provides all the appropriate resources. Good luck to you and your little girl!

The ability to understand, retain and follow a list of directions is developmental. As with everything else kids develop differently. It could be that your daughter is just a little behind the norm on this specific developmental step. or, you indicate she is a little behind in math and reading, so maybe she is to busy being worried to pay attention.

Talk to the teachers, maybe they can give you an idea of the daily schedule and you can write it out for your daughter. This way she can know what is coming up and what is expected of her. or maybe the teacher can write directions on the board. There is generally a pretty normal routine in most classrooms.

Perhaps she's not an audio learner. Google learning styles. I think that schools have no idea what to do with kids that learn other ways. I am about 45% audio and 55% visual. Most kids are more visual than me but not much, I am pretty normal. If she's not responding to audio instructions she may need them on a piece of paper or she may even need to write them down herself. I had a person I was supervising in a group home to take every memo and note to her desk and rewrite it in her notebook. I realized later that she was a writer. She could only remember it if SHE wrote it down. I like written instructions too, on some things, like cake mixes or recipes.

Your daughter may just need to have other ways of getting the information that being told. Also, just because the class seems to follow the teachers instructions doesn't mean they are clear and precise.