Question
My six-year-old kindergartener has trouble sitting in his seat and paying attention in his school. His teacher reports that he will talk to himself under his breath during instruction time, get up out of his chair and dance or jump around. She has moved his desk to the back corner of the classroom because of this. She believes he has ADHD “like her brother and her husband” so I think she goes easy on him, which doesn’t help.
He often is picking up on the instruction even while doing this, and can complete his work as needed, but he has days where he cannot do the work, which is when we will get notes home that he “refuses to complete his work”. I ask him what happened and he tells me he didn’t know what to do.
We see him talking/jumping/dancing to himself too at home some - he likes to tell stories to himself, especially when he’s not interested in what is going on around him.
My question is - 1. How do I break the habit so it’s not an issue at home or school? 2. What should I communicate to the teacher? She just let’s him dance and jump around because she says she’s fine with kids moving, but it’s obviously disruptive enough that she’s moved his desk. She does not have a very authoritative tone - she is 22, and this is her first year teaching. The authoritative approach is important for our six year old - he does not listen to niceties.
We have been nipping disobedient behaviors in the bud with him recently through the “go to bed immediately after dinner strategy.” It seems to be an effective strategy- but we just came off a 2 week period where we stripped his room and he went to bed every night right after dinner due to disobedience. He is already a much happier and more secure kid, but do we do this again for this behavior? Or something else?
How do I extend this strategy into this dancing/hopping/talking to himself behavior at school?
Thanks!
