Movement and Focus

[beaners]

Am I the only one with a very active child whose focus is worse with more movement? I always read recommendations for letting high-energy children move more, but it just doesn't work in our house. I don't have a child who can roll around the floor and give math facts at the same time. She will completely forget that you just asked her something, and go roll out the door.

 

I've read so many fun suggestions for active kids. I just don't see trampolines and math in the future for my easily distracted daughter. She sounds so similar to so many of the children that this works for. Trying to customize our day for her activity level in this way has been a complete failure.

 

So, is she the only child like this out there? :tongue_smilie:

[SkateLeft]

For an active kid, I highly recommend something like a Disc o' Sit. Without it, my little guy would lean back in his chair all the time, and eventually fall over. Repeatedly. We take his Disc o' Sit EVERYWHERE, even to church! It works *brilliantly* for him. He gets the sensory stimuli of being wiggly, but it keeps him in one spot.

 

Another option is to use a large exercise ball as a desk chair. That worked for my older kids, but my littlest ds would just fall over. Repeatedly. (It's what he does!) :D

[Writerdaddy]

yes, i have the same thing in my 8 yr old son. he seems like everyone else's active one, but having objects to fidget hold in hand, or balls to sit on, or whatever, trampolines, etc.... these things will just occupy the attention. Also no amount of exercise will wear him down.

 

I just want to acknowledge this first, since that is the first thing you asked.

 

What to do? Some chair he can move around in is not going to help.

 

So far the only thing I have been able to do is be very firm. Keep commanding to sit up straight, sit still, listen, pay attention, hands where I can see them... these are things I say a lot. I also get disturbed about it, which disturbs him enough to want to avoid that (and I do hate so much having the fear of my wrath be so integral to the learning process). There has been a lot conflict, but I am winning and there is progress. He's starting to get that in learning it is expected that you buy in 100 %.

 

I really wish it didn't have to be a contest of the wills. But that is the only thing I could figure out to do-- every other advice didn't work.

 

I am watching this thread hoping to find some advice, like you, so that I can abandon my approach, but I fear it's just going to be the same kind of advice like do math while balancing on a ledge, etc.

 

At least, I can recommend a lot of simon says games (and switching roles) which somehow relieves the tension of our struggle a bit.

[Lily_Grace]

Movement with a purpose worked best in our house. We'd alternate sitting down and moving lessons, but rarely anything that would distract from the subject. A day in elementary would go a bit like this:

 

Grammar: run to the four walls of the room to attach nouns, verbs, adjectives, and articles to the respective wall.

Writing: sit at the table and focus.

Math: use the manipulatives on the rug while filling in the sheet.

Science: encyclopedia work.

History: start the project/activity together, tell the story (or read it aloud) while working.

 

The next day would have the subjects switched to allow for writing in some and movement in others. Science would be the experiment, history would be the map and timeline.

 

Movement works best when it's integrated. I think it was M. Montessori who said that as many senses as possible should be involved to gain understanding - sight, touch, sound can all be incorporated easily.

[Heathermomster]

My 12 yo DS has always been like this. I've dealt with it by minimizing visual distractions, severely limiting screen time (except during holidays), using a timer, and giving short breaks. DS has been evaluated for ADHD/ADD twice, and he doesn't have it.

 

We've tried the exercise ball, and it was a total bust, literally. I popped that sucker after growing frustrated by the way the kids were kicking it all over the house....I try to incorporate as much hands-on learning as possible, and we now sit or stand at the kitchen counter to review the more difficult subjects.

 

DS is 2e and excels in some academic areas while struggling with others. I recently had him evaluated by a VT and OT. DS has a positive STNR reflex and goes to OT once per week, performs daily exercises for posture, and uses the interactive metronome. I can already see DS self-correct when he loses mental focus, which is good and new for DS.

 

Trampolines and little squeeze toys definitely do not work in my home.

[Kathryn]

Yeah, my crazy active kid only gets distracted when we try to do anything active in his lessons. We've tried over and over and it just becomes a huge mess.

[NittanyJen]

My kids do best if they move FIRST then sit down to study.

 

The exception is the exercise ball. However, they are not allowed to kick it around. I create a base for it out of a huge blanket so that it doesn't roll, sit them up against a wall so they don't flop over backwards, and put them at a table or TV tray to write on. Then they can bounce while they work if they wish-- in place. For my son who gets muscle cramps in chairs and sits too rigidly, works like a charm. But jumping jacks with math facts.... Not in this lifetime.

 

Go play first, then sit down and work. Sometimes we bridge the activities with a read-aloud to settle back down, but that is it.

[SorrelZG]

Same for my oldest. His wiggles need to be let at out regularly but not during school. If he's so much as twitching, he's not on task - he's probably worlds away. I can tell when he's "in the zone" - when his energy is focused on the task or subject before him it's like the world around disappears for him and amazing things happen but if he's doing something else, so is the energy and focus.

[Spy Car]

Have you tried having her run (or otherwise move vigorously) before/between doing academic work, as opposed to getting the movement in during work time?

 

Bill

[FairProspects]

Have you tried having her run (or otherwise move vigorously) before/between doing academic work, as opposed to getting the movement in during work time?

 

Bill

 

:iagree:Ds can't move during work time, but we have to take a break every 20 minutes and have him run, do jumping jacks, or practice Tae Kwon Do forms.

[beaners]

It's nice to know that she isn't the only one! It does seem like the movement just spirals out of control. Attention to the task is either turned on or off, and extra movement means that switch is turned off. I'm not always sure if the movement is causing the lack of focus, or the other way around.

 

We do have high energy and low energy periods throughout the day. I try to work with those instead of against them. We move during the high energy times. Moving between activities kills too much time trying to transition back to a workable level. Going from calm to bouncing off the walls is easy. Settling down is hard. I try not to get frustrated. I try to keep things at a level that is challenging but not overwhelming, and that does help.

 

Everyone on my side of the family assures me this is cosmic justice playing out, because I barely avoided an ADHD diagnosis as a child. Girls "didn't have that" then, I guess. :001_huh: I am able to sit still for more than 30 seconds now that I'm an adult, so I'm holding out hope that this will get better eventually. It will, right?

[ForeverFamily]

:lurk5: I am loving the ideas on this thread. My Dd4 has A LOT of energy. She learns so differently than my Dd6. I have tried to add lots of hands on activities that have to do with the lesson at hand. That seems to be working, but I can still only get a 8-10 minutes (if I'm lucky) of focus from her before she finds another use for the manipulative:lol:. I haven't tried having her do something active, like jump, while she is learning/reviewing something but I am pretty sure it would not work. I am going to need to learn a lot of patience while teaching her. She is smart but she just has a lot of energy. I can't relate to her energy because I learn more like my Dd6. I think my Dd2 will be like my Dd6, my Ds1 might be like my Dd4, his energy level and personality seems very similar to hers. I am listening in on the ideas that others have because I have one kiddo like what the OP described and will probably eventually have 2 kiddos.

Edited July 4, 2012 by ForeverFamily

[Guest sharkgirl]

This thread is making me feel so much better! I was just talking to my mother today about how I am at my wits end with my son. He simply cannot sit still! I am also very firm with him but then I feel bad that I am ALWAYS having to be so hard on him. Part of the reason why I knew I needed quit my job and homeschool him is that there is NO WAY he would be successful in a formal kindergarten environment. It had been suggested that I hold him back a year and let him start kindergarten at 6 to give him time to mature. Yeah, right. Keep a child who is reading and doing simple math in preschool for another year. I am hoping to get some ideas here because I do integrate some movement when I work with him in the evenings but any advice helps!

[Mom-ninja.]

I let ds use the trampoline and move around between lessons. During lessons he becomes too distracted. I've tried "fidget" items but they cause him to be more distracted.

 

So I give him frequent breaks for getting up and moving.

[Writerdaddy]

I feel bad that I seem like I am the almost the only one who resorts to being firm, so glad to hear there are others. I know it is okay because of the relationship I have with my son and his eagerness to please, and that he gives way and settles down in the end, and makes progress over time in his ability to do that (he is older, at 8).

 

I can imagine it's not good if the struggle is perpetual and no progress made. I think sometimes (only sometimes) little tricks and techniques might be avoiding something as elementary as instilling some respect for simple parental authority. But everyone will interpret that in different ways-- some maybe way too firm and others too lax.

 

I think the important thing is definitely not to have a perpetual struggle going though. I bet to much authority can show up later in drugs and rebellion, etc.

 

One trick, now that I dissed tricks, that helps takes less than a minute:

 

Sit down, eyes closed, my son listens while I ring a bell once (like, donnnnnnnng....). He sees how long he can hear the sound continuously until the bell sound fades out. He is to try and raise his hand at the exact moment he hears the sound disappear completely. Done with other kids at the same time, it's just as fun.

 

This little game, done in perfect stillness, is good practice that does not tax his stillness capabilities, but trains attention and continuity of attention.

[Greenmama2]

Yes, DD 6 is just like that. Large motor movement BEFOREHAND does help a little but I still need to be firm otherwise she fidgets and gets distracted by what she fidgets with.

[Dinsfamily]

This thread is making me feel so much better! I was just talking to my mother today about how I am at my wits end with my son. He simply cannot sit still! I am also very firm with him but then I feel bad that I am ALWAYS having to be so hard on him. Part of the reason why I knew I needed quit my job and homeschool him is that there is NO WAY he would be successful in a formal kindergarten environment. It had been suggested that I hold him back a year and let him start kindergarten at 6 to give him time to mature. Yeah, right. Keep a child who is reading and doing simple math in preschool for another year. I am hoping to get some ideas here because I do integrate some movement when I work with him in the evenings but any advice helps!

 

Ha, I just had a long conversation with my mom about ds6 also. He reminds me a lot of my little sister at that age and I needed advice. I am firm with him and that works to a certain extent but he has such a sweet/meek spirit that I need to strike a balance.

 

If he gets out of his chair during sit down subjects, I lose him. I think the Discosit might work with him. I have an exercise ball, but like the PP, he would just fall over (probably on purpose to make us laugh).

[Momma2Luke]

Enjoying this thread. I too have a very, very wriggly son who must move. And while I agree with the philosophy that such kids NEED to move, he gets himself to an over reactive state very easily when he becomes very active...and I've noticed that he has a difficult time in winding down and it takes forever to get him to a place where he can work quietly again. I need to experiment with some techniques that he can use to calm himself down and start to refocus, with the idea being that eventually it would become second nature....

[Writerdaddy]

Mamma2Luke, how about trying that bell exercise I described, once a day? It only takes the time it takes for the sound to fade (it's good to get a nice bell, or, say, a tuning fork from scientific supplies that can be used later in physics experiments).

 

The point of it is to get near 100% continuous focus for just a few seconds, in a fun way. At the same time, it's not active game playing focus which our wiggly ones can all do, I bet.

 

It's very specific training, an interruption in the usual flow of action, and it is not too long (although there will be, with our little ones, certain times when even this is impossible).

 

Of course these few seconds do not train directly the 15-30 min. of attention we need for a lesson, but it does work on one aspect of attention, while other things we do can work on other aspects.

 

Also I forgot to say that 15 min of cursive copywork, and copywork in general, possibly with continuous standing over shoulder, is also great training because they have something to do with their hands and it is not a distracting thing to do with the hands.

 

ALSO FORGOT: I think some of us here are talking about 6 year olds! That's VERY young. Mine is 8 and it is time to start to get down to business. At 6 you've got to allow for some wildness, I think. Just get them going in the right direction, that's all, toward a little more focus, a little more ability to settle. As long as it keeps going more or less in the right direction it will get there, I say.

Edited July 7, 2012 by Writerdaddy

[pixeldog]

My 8 year old wiggly son has just recently (last couple of months or so) started getting to the point where he can sit on a ball and do memory work, read on the sofa, play a math game all the way through, etc. etc.

 

Prior to that, he just *couldn't* and I fought it at first. Then I realized that allowing him to run and play and climb trees and dig holes was what he needed to do for a time. I just eased up and stopped fighting him by doing little bits of work as he would tolerate. Academically, he's made *amazing* progress in just these past couple of months! It's almost as if something "switched" in him and now he's ready to do some work.

 

Perhaps it helped him to get some of that out of his system....maybe he was in a "gross motor" development time....I don't know, but things are *much* better!

 

Not incidentally, we've changed up our eating choices to "traditional foods" and have cut out a lot of sugar (and wheat). We all feel better.

 

Be encouraged!

[ColoNative]

We also use "brain gym" activities that help kids focus. When attention starts to wane, we stop and do some of these activities. It has worked really well with my little guys....

 

Here's a link to some of the activities.

 

http://esl.about.com/od/englishlessonplans/a/braingym.htm

 

This book has more information:

http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Moves-Learning-Your-Head/dp/0915556278

[Lori D.]

Other things to consider as causes to distractibility and high (ADD/ADHD like) energy:

 

- food allergies or sensitivities can cause these symptoms

Hyperactivity and food allergies = http://www.adhdchildparenting.com/the-treatment-of-hyperactivity-and-allergies.php

Natural remedies for ADD = http://www.diannecraft.com/article-011.htm

 

- too much sensory stimulation (too many things to look at/hear/feel, combined with a child who has a deficient or under-developed ability to "filter" all the sensory input can lead to stress and hyperactivity trying to deal with it all; one way to help is to minimize the input -- strip the child's bedroom down to a bed and little else to enhance ability to sleep; do school in room in a stripped down room, etc.; reduce auditory input, or consider running a "white noise" machine to block a lot of sound -- to be the filter FOR the child until the child can develop his/her own mental filter to sensory input)

 

- too much brain stimulation (screen re-draws on TV and computer monitors causes the brain activity to trigger in response and causes over-stimulation that takes hours for the brain to calm down from)

 

- nutritional deficiencies can make it hard to focus and can lead to hyperactivity (check out Dianne Craft's article on essential fatty acids and the brain = http://www.diannecraft.com/article-009.htm)

 

 

Ideas:

 

Start your day with activities to burn a lot of energy with a lot of movement (cardio activities -- running, jumping, swimming, martial arts, etc.).

 

Do school in very short "bursts" (10 minutes of listening/working/learning), followed by a short burst of HIGH energy to burn off the excess.

 

Start the day, and again partway through the day, do 5 minutes of movements designed to increase left-right brain hemisphere connections to help with focus (Example: to lively music, do alternate arm/leg marching -- left arm swings forward while right knee lifts high to march; then right arm swings forward while left knee lifts high. Or, alternate arm/leg crawling around the room -- right arm and left knee go forward at the same time; then left arm and right knee go forward at the same time.)

 

Drastically reduce/restrict all screen time (computer, TV, hand-held electronics, phone APPs, etc.).

 

Get the child into a martial arts class, which not only helps with burning energy, but in learning self-control.

 

Consider a Therapeutic Riding program to help with developing concentration.

 

Research food allergies and nutritional supplements to see if anything in that area would be of help.

 

Consider a minimalist home, or at least very little in the child's bedroom and study room to reduce visual "stress" and overload.

 

 

Hang in there and persevere! We had to work with our highly distractible and spontaneous DS with mild learning issues for years, but it slowly gets better over time -- you seem to hit these milestones where they "jump" ahead in maturity in some areas -- usually you see one at about age 9-10, another at about age 12-14, and another about age 17.

 

BEST of luck in finding what works! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited July 9, 2012 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

...I barely avoided an ADHD diagnosis as a child... I am able to sit still for more than 30 seconds now that I'm an adult

 

 

Think back to when you were your child's age:

What things helped you?

What things made it worse for you?

What are reasonable expectations for your child, based on your own experiences?

 

You are lucky to have an "inside track" in working on this issue -- put your first-hand knowledge and experience to good use now! :) BEST of luck, warmly, Lori D.