Kindergarten represents a transition for both children and their families. Moving from preschool into a more academic environment can become stressful for everyone. If you're worried that about your child's ability to focus, or if the teacher has noted that your child struggles with distractions, you can do a number of things at home to help your child at school.
Step 1
Assess with the teacher your child's readiness for kindergarten. At the start of the school term, distraction is high for all children due to the novelty of the classroom environment. But if your child struggles with distractions well into the school year, review with school staff if a repeat year proves appropriate to ensure your child's academic success in the future, notes Debra Collins, a family therapist. Often children who don't fully understand a task or haven't yet matured to kindergarten readiness respond by acting out in the classroom.
Step 2
State clear instructions and communicate them without frustration. If your child proves consistently distracted at home, you may naturally lose patience. However, a child receiving multiple commands fired at them by an impatient parent may cry or change the subject; all age-appropriate coping mechanisms, notes Collins. Clarity and simplicity of instruction teaches your child to master the skill of taking direction, a skill critical to academic success.
Step 3
Create a reward chart. Many kindergarten teachers use some form of a sticker or reward chart in the class. By echoing it at home, you reinforce the teacher's method and can also track the effects of positive reinforcement in the home. Determine three to five tasks that your child can accomplish successfully. Track them and reward him with a sticker when he completes the task as directed. Once he's reached a pre-determined number, three or five is appropriate to kindergarten age, reward him with a trip to the ice cream store or a new, small toy.
Step 4
Track time consistently. Give your child a set time by which she should be ready for school; then break the tasks down clearly and set time limits for each one of the tasks. Remind your child of the time by setting a timer that goes off after the set time. Don't just call out that a child should be ready to go in two minutes and then let the time float; this gives a child no real sense of time, which can lead to increased distractability. With no consequence to not getting things done on time, there's no reason for your child to try to work to the end of a task within a set time period. Help your child focus by training her to understand what two minutes means and what she should do in that time.
Step 5
Step things up. If your child runs through a project without care or sufficient thought, help slow him to focus more thoroughly on the project. If he needs to count a number of chickens on the page, for example, ask him to color the chickens one color and the cows another. This helps reinforce the lesson and also slows him down and focuses him on the task by providing more of a challenge.
