Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Spacing Out

Hi GeoMamma,

I see what you're saying. I actually had no issue with it until he did poorly in a test. He didn't feel bad, to be honest, because that must have been his first test ever, but I don't want to dent his confidence going forward. It wasn't that he didn't know how to do it, but he didn't know the format. I explained that sometimes, he has to just catch the instructions instead of trying to figure what to do during the test .

LOL on the "no recollection"! He's exactly like that!

This is interesting. What I'll do is start this habit at home and see if it helps. If/when he's used enough to it so that it's not a distraction in itself, I'll speak to the teacher. Tks!

Interesting discussion. I definitely did this as a kid, and still can find myself spacing out at boring, slow paced meetings or discussions. My DS9 definitely does it too. Both the kids have been sitting on yoga balls to do their school work lately. They *LOVE* it and it seems to help them. It's funny, because the yoga balls showed up for DH and I to sit on at our computers. They have rarely gotten used for that purpose. The kids play with/on them constantly.

My DD5 does not appear to space out at this point, but she also has never been to "regular" school. I wonder if it's a "learned skill". I spent hours and hours daydreaming through elementary school.

That's really interesting. I wonder if other homeschoolers have seen this? I wonder to what extent this is a learned skill or if it is just more related to auditory learning vs. written word. I'd love to hear back from some others on this!

DH also does this A LOT to the point that I always make him answer me with at least something so that I know that he's actually listen (we've had sooo many times in the past that he didn't do something important because he was completely zoned out). And I'm one of the people he listens to most! He has an office mate who has whole conversations with him and he remembers absolutely nothing! Although his school differentiated even less than mine and he literally skipped almost his entire HS to play the guitar so I wonder if that contributed to this?

Too bad about the gum. My daughter spaces out too and same age. At home, she is allowed to chew gum when she does her homework if she thinks she is spacing out. There's no way the school she goes to would allow this, but her old school did and it helped a lot.

Some kids a dd's school use these disk stability cushions like you'd use in a fitness gym as a seat cushion. We use one at home in the kitchen more as a booster seat than anything else. I find that it helps her focus, but I don't think she uses it at school.

What about semcils - those scented pencils? Could he use them at school as long as he is paying attention? There are regular and colored pencil ones. They are the "in" thing at dd's school right now and I have been thinking about paying my dd some for school - we have the colored ones at home for fun.

http://www.target.com/Educational-I...mp;pf_rd_p=58371022&pf_rd_s=bottom-4

I know these are more sensory aides, but maybe could give his nervous system something to process...

DD has just started using an attention chart at school. The spacing out had gotten really out of control. Now she has a chart that all her teachers sign off on everyday. The only goal is that she looks at the teacher while they are giving directions. If she earns 2/3 of the check marks in a week, she get 5 minutes of computer free time at school. It sounds kind of harsh, but she decided on the goal and the reward herself. This was the first week and she got 24/25 check marks. I know its not going to fix things forever, but I think part of paying attention at school is a habit. If this gets us to the end of the year on a good note, we'll be thrilled.

chrys

Not to raise any alarms, but in my husband's family there is a history of epilepsy that manifests itself with Absence Seizures, pronounced like the French "ab-saunts". A child will zone out for 2 to 30 seconds up to 200 times per day. It is difficult to get them out of it. The epilepsy seems to go away in the late teen years thus often goes undiagnosed. Google epilepsy and you will find some great websites and you can check symptoms, but it might be worth mentioning to your pediatrician. My husband's family also has some incredibly smart people.

That said, both our boys space out and we had them checked by a neurologist at the urging of our pediatrician and it confirmed there was no epilepsy, they just ignore us! Good luck.

Thanks guys! The suggestions here are great- so many different directions to think about. Will certainly explore them.

My son had the same problem in Elementary school. He went to public school until 5th grade, Good student, never studied. After we started homeschooling, I notice he couldn't focus for long period of time, say 20 minutes. His sister 4 years younger can sit for 2 hours. But since he was such a fast learner, it did not bring much trouble. As we hit high school subjects, it it taking him longer and longer to finish it, because he even noticed that he zoomed out, and asked to get up and shake it out. Guess what, he has ADD. A cup of coffee in the morning made it all better.

I've never heard of that?

Hi Vivace, I'm starting to wonder if this is the case... I tried the squeeze balls to help him get focused - not working, at least not now. He had an achievement test recently and zoned out half the time.

I'm bringing him for an evaluation later since this has been niggling at the back of my mind for awhile now. He felt bad zoning out for the test, and I'm trying hard to talk him out of it. But as always, my words don't count as much as if he sees the improvement in himself.