Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school All children are like that - a little vent

I casually mentioned to one of DS2.5 daycare teachers that DS can sit for >1 hours doing puzzles/maze books/etc.

Her response was that many kids at 2.5 have the attention span of an hour or more.

Not that I think DS is all that different, but from what I see at daycare, most 3yo have an attention span of 10min.

I am just kind of upset that the teacher brushed it off like that.

At 3.0y Mr W had a teacher like that.

When she tested him, she stopped at the age level and did not keep going on the entire test through age five, which he knew all. We pointed out that he knew everything on the list. She did not even say anything to that.

Later she said he would not sit and "do his work." A 10 piece puzzle which he had mastered at 7 months was supposed to keep a kid occupied who could do 100 piece puzzles? When I asked did she think he was bored, she quickly said, "No."

Excuse me?

If this woman did not listen to us, we who pay her salary, or notice the specific content of our words, then she surely would not notice or care about a precocious little boy, which she obviously didn't.

Either she was an idiot, or she had malice towards him. Not sure which.

We moved Mr W shortly afterwards to a place that had a solid curriculum where he was accelerated into a class with kids 1-2 years older than he.

"Dad, the kids can talk!" was his first response when I picked him up on his first day.

Most three-year-olds do have an attention span of about 10 minutes - an average of about 3 minutes per year of age is normal.

That's interesting, I'd wondered. Do you know what the source of this is and what it actually means? Here's what I'm getting at. I don't think it's the case that 3yos typically change activity after 10 mins, is it - IME they will all play with Lego or with the sandtray or some other favourite until torn away. *But* this doesn't mean they're working systematically towards the same goal all the time - their attention can wander a lot, but still within the scope afforded by this favourite activity. So I'm wondering how you measure a child's attention span. Is it the time that the child is focused on a particular task, e.g. building some particular target Lego model, or the time the child spends continuously with Lego, or what? Would a child who starts building a car, gets distracted after 8 mins by pieces falling off, plays at making noises in the lego piece boxes for 4 minutes, then decides to make a house, does that for 8 mins, and finally wanders off to colour, be counted as having an 8 minute or a 20 minute attention span? Perhaps if there's ambiguity over this, it might account for the annoying response of HelloBaby's DS's teacher.

That comment would bother me, too. She sounded very dismissive. Obviously your son has an excellent ability to focus on something that is advanced in it and of itself. It is not typical for 2.5 year old to sped any amount of time on puzzle and maze books.

If for some reason, she was only responding to the half of your remark regarding attention span of 2.5 year olds, she could just be interpreting that as meaning the time a 2.5 year old spends entertaining himself. But, IMO, a 2.5 year old playing at a train table for an hour is much different that a 2.5 year old solving puzzles for that long. I think you really need the qualifier.

In the end, It is probably fruitless to try to compare attention spans. My DD would not give a maze book a second look, but she would flip through an encyclopedia about the presidents for an hour.

DD(3) will play by herself for hours at a time inventing elaborate play scenarios with imaginary things. She will also sit and be read super long and complex books indefinitely. And, will sit and listen to anything you would want to teach her. Yet, she will get bored or frustrated with legos after 20 minutes, and will not focus on puzzles at all.

It all brought about because I commented about how DS doesn�t like to do crafts, which he will spend at most 10 mins on them. The teacher mentioned that�s normal for his age.

Then I started to say how he can spend an hour on puzzles/mazes/etc, and she said that�s normal as well. For example, children his age ask to be read to repeatedly (for an hour?)

Like ellemenope wrote above, I think there is a difference between being read to vs reading an encyclopedia by yourself for an hour.

She said that because it's true. Both are normal. And it depends on the child and the interest they have for the activity.

While many kids do find activities that can occupy them for more than 10 minutes, I think a puzzle is usually not on the list for that age group. It sounds to me like the teacher was being dismissive. Is the teacher really aware of your son's abilities?

Last year we were blessed to have preschool teachers who acknowledged my daughter and went so far as to pull me aside to tell me how off the charts she was. I didn't really believe them at the time and then we had her tested and it all made sense. I can't believe all preschool teachers are not like that. Now I'm a little scared of the upcoming school year with new teachers!

My younger son's PreK teacher told me over and over again how gifted he was and I was the dismissive one. I thought he just looked good to them because English was his first language and most of the kids in his class were just learning English...of course he looked sharp.

It took an entire year of K for me to get on board with the gifted thing and he was screened for gifted services by the guidance counselor and didn't meet the screening cut off (K-Bit). But now I am certain he is quicker than the average bear. What LOG he has I don't know. He will probably be screened again this year.

Love this!!