My son is almost 5 and just started Pre-K this fall. His grandma ran a home day care, so he was with her until last March when she found out she has cancer, and couldn't care for him any more. He went to a really great day care from March to August, where he had some adjustment issues, but nothing major was ever brought to my attention. His father and I just had a meeting with his teacher and principal, and we have all noticed that he is having a difficult time focusing on one task before moving on to something else. I was sitting at the table with him the other day working on worksheet where he was supposed to color the apples with letters red and the apples with numbers green. Before he even finished the first apple, he was distracted with reading the word letters at the top of the page. I redirected him back to what he was supposed to be doing, but as soon as he finished the one apple, he was back to critiquing how he had written his name. Obviously, intelligence isn't a concern, and he is a very caring, affectionate little guy. Any ideas what may be causing his inability to focus, or suggestions on how best to help him?
The problem is that his teacher is the one that came to us. In her 30 years of teaching pre-kindergarten, she has never had a student quite like my son. He gets along great with others, doesn't have a problem sitting still, and he does an ok job on tasks as long as he has direct adult supervison, but as soon as she goes on to help another kid, he is busy doing something else. She only has 13 kids in her class, but he is taking up over half her time. We are coming up on the 8 week mark since school started, and since he is struggling so hard with the simplest tasks, they suggested that we consider that he might not be developed enough to continue in this class, and we should maybe try again next year. My concern, and his teacher commented on this as well, is that he knows the answers to almost all of the questions that are posed to him, and if we wait another year, he will be bored by school and start acting out. The teachers main concern seems to be that he doesn't seem to care when all the other kids get to go play and he is still sitting at the table coloring. He just sits there and keeps coloring. They also seemed concerned about his lack of development of fine motor skills, so we have an appointment with our family doctor Monday to have him assessed.
Kids that age, do that.
He sounds normal.
Kids this age, are not good yet, at doing things in perfect sequence... like an 8 year old.
Nor do they have, time management skills or fully developed deductive reasoning.
He is now in a class "room." Whereas previously, he was at a home daycare. Big difference.
My son is 5. He is in Kindergarten... and I know first hand, that my son including the other kids, do that too.
It really just sounds like he is being a normal child. =) They have short attention spans often. I personally don't think I'd worry too much. If you continue to be concerned, maybe you could talk to his teacher. She specializes in many small children, and can probably better direct you if there is a problem and in also finding solutions that have worked in the past for other little ones.
In her 30 yrs of teaching she's never had a four yr old who gets distracted from a worksheet???? This makes no sense. Are there other issues with your son? Either there is more to this or she is expecting 4 yr olds to act like 6 yr olds and you should switch schools. 4 yr olds should not be learning thru worksheets they should be learning thru experience. The best way to help your son would be to find a better Preschool. Check out ones that are approved by NAEYC (National Assoc for the Education of young children)
OMG....Please ...Your little one is NORMAL, he acts and behaves like any other kid of his same age. He is adjusting from a Day care to a classroom setting which is pretty different. If the teacher is not able to manage this, move him to another class or preschool. Please don't let the teacher even tell you or suggest your child has a problem. He doesn't. HE IS A VERY NORMAL AND SMART LITTLE GUY.
My daughter turned 4 a few months ago and she is pretty much the same way - she gets so easily distracted by everything I feel like I spend 90% of my time redirecting her to what she is supposed to be doing (I actually posted on here about this recently if you want to look up the question under my profile). I really think it's normal for this age and most kids, as they grow up and mature, will get better and be fine. If they get older and it's not getting better and really affecting them in school, then maybe it is ADD or whatever, but I figure there really isn't much point in me worrying about it now. If this is your son's first time in a setting like school where they have a set task to complete, it may be a big adjustment for him and he just may need some practice staying focused. With my daughter right now, I just keep it very simple and sometimes sound like a broken record. Like this morning, she wanted to get dressed all by herself for school, which is great, but kept popping out of her room every few seconds with something else to tell me or ask me or wanted to show me, all in the process of getting her pajamas off and her clothes on. And I had to just keep telling her, "OK, that's nice, now keeping getting dressed." Sometimes I just use one word, if I have to keep repeating myself to keep her on task, like "Shoes!" if she suddenly decides to start petting the dog instead. Interestingly, she focuses better when she is in school and it is the teacher redirecting her. Just keep working with him, you can talk with the teacher too and see what advice they can offer.
Yeah. He is a normal 4 year old boy in my opinion. He is obviously smart. 4 year olds have short attention spans though. My son is very bright and I've never once thought there was anything wrong with him with not being able to focus on things for more than a few minutes. I tell him to go clean his playroom and see him start to put things away, then 5 minutes later I check on him and he's playing! Is this some sort of gifted preschool? Is this the type of place where they expect 4 year olds to be more mature than the "average 4 year old?" If not, this teacher seems to expect an awful lot from her kids.
