Not Listening

We’ve hit a spot with my son where we’re going to have an emergency (as in last minute scheduled) appointment with his play therapist.   We know he has had a hard time focusing.   We’re aware that he wants to bounce around and move all the time.   And we also know that children don’t typically put listening or paying attention at the top of their list—but this has gone beyond.

His teacher has told us over the past several weeks that my son is having a hard time focusing in class and getting work done.   Today she did something we know she didn’t want to do, but she was left with little choice.   She told my husband that if there were problems with listening, paying attention and following rules that my son wouldn’t be able to go on the field trip on Friday.  

That news was very upsetting to my son.   What his teacher told us was he is unable to take direction from his peers.   He is not able to work with the teachers, saying he’s distracted because his sister just turned six or that his friend decided to be a boy instead of a girl (which is true and is another blog post altogether).   My son also said the sun is too bright and he can’t work (regardless of where he is in the classroom).   It’s excuse after excuse.   And we don’t know why.

My son did similar behavior tonight when I was working with him on his homework.   He wasn’t able to focus on the one task with a ten minute timer he knew was set of simply brushing his teeth.  If he could have coordinated a rave party during that ten minutes and invited everyone he knew over to jump on the bed with his pajamas on his head, he would have.   He got his sister involved and was then absolutely distraught when he was told he not only didn’t get a stamp, he wasn’t allowed to brush his teeth and must go straight to bed.

And wouldn’t you know it, he can brush his teeth very quickly and thoroughly when he’s told he’s not allowed.   I tried to kick him out of the bathroom saying he couldn’t brush his teeth and he was telling me I couldn’t stop him.   It would have been funny if only it hadn’t been so upsetting to him.

Tomorrow we’re taking my son out of school to see his play therapist in the middle of the day.   Maybe she’ll given us some insight after tomorrow.

The Big Boy Update:  Even though my son can’t focus and is constantly distracted from the post above, tonight he did two days of reading homework with me and did very well.   He even sort of say still for some of the time.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter was wanting to play a song on Alexa.   She said to me, “Mom, do you know the song I’m talking about?  I can’t remember what one it is but it has the word, ‘I’ in it.”