Flitting Behaviour

[basilbrush]

I have a child in my reception class who 'flits' from activity to activity, when he moves around, he tends to be quite boisterous, and finds it hard to stay on an activity for more than about 2 or 3 minutes, does anyone have any ideas on increasing his attention span

[Guest]

Does he have any special interests that you could tap into? Maybe through physical activities?

[Guest]

How about using a sand timer to focus his attention on staying in one area for longer with a reward at the end. Will he stay for longer if there is an adult or another child playing with / alongside him?

Marie

[Guest]

How about using a sand timer to focus his attention on staying in one area for longer with a reward at the end. Will he stay for longer if there is an adult or another child playing with / alongside him?

Marie

31230[/snapback]

If you've got the stamina, you could do a tracking observation to see where he goes, whether there's usually an adult there, or if he regularly chooses the same activities, or follows certain children.

 

Talking to his carers would be good to find out about his special interests, too.

 

These things might give you some valuable information to work with, to build into your planning.

 

Maz

[Guest]

Just noticed that the child is in reception - in pre schools I find that we always have one child sometimes more who do this but they then settle down given time. I agree with Mazlittle that tracking him might be good to see whether there are any activities hold his interest more but I also appreciate how time consuming this can be and it may not be practical especially at this time during the term when it is so busy. Has he been with you since September or has he just started coming full time this term. Not that this helps at all but my observations on a group are that there is always

a child who enjoys very physical activity and is a little too boisterous for his own good to the detriment of some other children

a child who wonders around - always looks busy and somehow never seems to develop a real sense of enjoyment

three children - normally girls who team up against each other and can be very spiteful to each other excluding one at different times

two children - normally boys who also team up - sometimes together - thick as thieves or sometimes main arch enemies

one child who always goes about his business, achieves everything, has wonderful social skills and a real joy

one child who is the groups clown - up for anything at any time

one child who regales us with their knowledge and understanding of the world and keeps us on our toes

Children are so different and it always suprises me how different they are but that's what makes life interesting and sometimes stressfull

He may well settle down on his own - perhaps expending a bit of time with him/her now finding out his likes/dislikes, giving less choices may reap rewards later but maybe this is not so practical.

Nikki

Nikki

[Guest]

I have found that Natural materials are very soothing - a tray of sand, peat or soil especially with little people or diggers or dinosaurs can sometimes hold a child's attention for ages, even the most flighty ones.

 

You might have to let them have a smaller tray just to themselves at first if they struggle to negotiate with others and make sure that they feel they really have permission to get stuck in and explore and extend the items used.

 

I find it very soothing myself - stops me rushing off and answering the phone or taking children to the loo if my hands are covered in Mud

 

McGregor

[Inge]

In pre-school We have found that some children just find too much choice a distraction..particularly when they are not used to being in a environment where the choice is so different to those they have encountered before. they want to try everything now seem to flit from one thing to the next because they do not want to miss anything. As Nikki says they do ususally settle down but depends on how long he has been with youas to wether this is the case.

We have a few times reduced the activites and all children settled for longer providing they were geered to current interests.

 

Inge

[Guest]

I think every class has a 'fliter'. The little boy in my class has a laminated chart from which he can choose 2 or 3 activities before hand, depending on the time we have. We do this together. If he is successful he is given a star. He ticks them off on the chart and off he goes. When he has completed a task in the time limit I then tick off the chart, give him some words of encouragement and off he goes again. If he has stayed on task then he is rewarded with a star.