His suggestion was to have the TV on while requiring the child to concentrate on a piece of work, starting with a very short time span and slowly increasing the time. Honestly, I’ve tried it only once (and he did well) simply because I hardly have time for activities with him at home. Instead, I apply those principles directly in the classroom setting since I’m there with him!
Today, teacher had the kids practise their concert dance in class, during the last 30mins of the day. The kids were excited. She had the kids practise by groups. The rest of the kids were told to colour the pictures in their maths book (it was maths prior to that).
There were a few pages in the maths book that weren’t done because he was absent. So I gave him the choice to either colour or do those pages. He chose to work on those pages.
The CD was switched on quite loud. The music had a very fast beat (Indian music). Of course he was observing them. I think it’s reasonable to expect him to watch the goings-on for a short while (less than 3mins). It was surprisingly easy for him to get back to his book. I explained the first page – count the number of objects and write the answer in the circle. I didn’t count with him. I immediately left for the toilet. When I came back, this was what I saw:
It was surprisingly easy for him to focus! I’m so happy! I’m happy not just because he concentrated amidst the distractions but also that he could do the work without me! On top of that, he counted it all correctly except the top right box. Usually his mind and his eyes/fingers count at different speeds resulting in a wrong answer for quantities larger than 5.
We moved on to another page. I again explained the instruction – follow the path and count the number of flowers, then write the answer in the box. Then the kid next to me asked for my help. When I turned back to my son, he had traced his pencil along the path and wrote the right answer (7). Wow. We did 2 or 3 more simple pages until dismissal time. Somewhere in between, it was his group’s turn to practice, but it was again easy for him to get back to his work.
However, the episode above is in contrast to what happened with the BM workbook which was before the maths period. Teacher explained the page but after a while, most of the kids weren’t paying attention and talking. My son wasn’t paying attention. Since he hardly talks, he was instead underlining the words on the page, scribbling a little on the page etc. It was very hard for me to help him.
I noticed a similar thing happening with the phonics workbook. This is what I suspect: the work is too hard for him/he’s confused/it’s not explained clearly.
The BM workbook - I think it’s too hard for ALL the kids judging from my observations and interactions with them. They don’t understand the meaning of the spoken words in the activities, let alone expect them to decipher and understand the written word. On top of that, they’re not yet familiar with that activity’s presentation. The activity was to fill in the blank with a choice of words written in brackets, separated by a comma or a big dot. That’s seems like something for Primary school kids, no? There were other matters to do with the presentation that confused the kids, but I won’t mention it here.
The phonics workbook – Along with the other kids, he’s slowly getting the hang of what’s expected in those activities because the activities (e.g. bingo, word search, treasure trail) are always repeated for each alphabet. Also, the words used are presented frequently via story, song, etc (and via powerpoint presentation and their workbook).
Anyway, I side tracked a bit on commenting on their workbook activities. I think I’ll have to teach him how to cope when he finds the activity too hard (be it a poorly designed activity or instructions poorly explained or he lacks the knowledge). What strategy can I teach a 4.5 yr old child that can be applied for all situations?
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