Sitting still and concentrating

[wkmmum]

I don't know if I'm making something out of nothing but this is driving us mad!

DS is 5 and has never been able to keep still. I think a lot of it is just 'him' (believe me - even before he was born he moved all the time) and he just has loads of energy. Although having said that recently, when we ask him to keep still, he says that he can't.

The big thing though is concentrating - whether that's concentrating on something he's doing or being told or anything. It's like he goes off into his own little world and is thinking about something completely different. He just can't seem to concentrate on anything. His teacher has commented on it but says it's not an issue as he's not distrupting other children.

But after this weekend, when he didn't sit still on concentrate on anything at all, we've started to wonder if there's actually a problem. By the end of the weekend I just wanted to sit down and cry cos it's so draining and I felt terrible cos all I'd done was nag him all weekend.

I know it's not his diet as we're really acreful about what he eats and as far as we can work out it doesn't seem to be related to any food in particular. He has a dairy allergy but we've known this for years.

I've arranged to speak to his teacher in the morning to see if she has any ideas about what we can do. We've tried having 'concentrate' on his start chart but it makes no difference cos he just can't do it.

Does anyone else have any ideas? xx

[wkmmum]

Had a good chat with DS's teacher this morning and she sais that since parents eveing he's been really well behaved at school and has been concentrating and sitting still far better. So because he's trying so hard at school he's probably just reached the end of what he can do and so is worse at home.

We've decided to deal just with the concentrating for now. We're going to have a notebook that both us and his teacher write in. So, we'll write when he's concentrated well at home and his teacher will write when he's concentrated well at school. He can also write it in himself. That way there's lots of praise and we can also say that we don't want to have to write that he's not concentrated in it.

Also, because he tends to start fiddling and playing with things when we're talking to him, she suggested actually giving him something to fiddle with so his hands are occupied. She said a good thing to use is some blu-tac!

So he'll be coming home today with a notebook and some blu-tac and we'll see how it goes. I'm meeting with her again next week and hopefully by Christmas we won't need to do it anymore.

Fingers crossed! xx

[monica]

Hi

Glad your meeting with teacher was very productive. I can relate to what you're saying as my middle son is a live wire and always on the go. When he was at nursery he wouldn't stop and was soemtimes disruptive. For instance during 'carpet time' he wouldn't sit still, would chat.

Have you tried playing games where he can learn toconcentrate eg, building blocks, jigsaws . Played regularly these sort of things are also supposed tohelp.

You'll also probably find that the more mature he'll get the less figety he'll get.

Monica

[wkmmum]

Yes, we often play games where he has to sit still and concentrate. He's actually got worse since starting school. I think it's because he has to sit still and conentrate so much now that he just kind of 'lets go' as soon as he doesn't have to do it anymore.

We'll see how the book and blu-tac go and take it from there xx