Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy wandering attention (?)

When I work on math with my 7yo son, doing problems at the 5-7th grade level, I have noticed that he often fiddles with nearby objects -- and then gets an answer. Part of his brain must have been working on the problem. I have been scolding him for not paying attention, but maybe I should back off and allow a certain of level of fiddling. You can't peek into someone's head, and it's hard to tell what he is thinking about. OTOH, sometimes a child really is just goofing off.

How much "rope" should you give a child who is supposed to be doing academic work?

With my son, it's noises (humming, psh-psh! or whatever) and maybe a bit of bouncing.

I initially went through the scolding process, too. Now, I back off but pay attention. Sometimes he seems to need the fiddling to focus his mind. Last week, he whipped through a bunch of math problems, made two small mistakes in the bunch, and spent the entire time talking to himself and drumming his pencil.

That said, sometimes he's just fiddling around! Which is why I pay a bit of attention (e.g., I leave them room but peek around the corner now and then).

Val

Some kids are noisy when they consentrate. I'd start looking around for quiet fidget objects and look at this as a great opportunity to teach metacognition. As school progresses being noisy is more and more frowned upon.

Chewing gum, worry beads, squeezie apple, destroying pens, chewing on pencils, seated pushups are all reasonable fidgit activities - part of each person's job is to find ways that they can be comfortable without bother the people next to them. These may not sound appealing, but they sure beat some more destructive fidgit habits I can think of.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

I just this morning talked to my DS's teacher about how DS6 likes to stand up when he works. It's not a problem, per se, as he easily does his work and he's not wandering around the room, it's just the way he thinks. Still, I know it's something we need to work on as he gets older because it becomes less and less acceptable as he goes up in grade. Not fiddling, exactly, but it's something physical that seems to help him think.

The school OT has given my son a koosh ball and several other "fidgets" for class, but he prefers wiggling his pencil back and forth between his fingers, rolling a small plastic figurine in his hand, sitting on one leg while swinging the other, or quietly rocking in his seat.

When he was in kindergarten, he hummed and would stand up from time to time and break out in song. The teacher said one day she let him carry on his impromptu concert and that several of the other kids joined in with his little melody. Needless to say, we worked to quell that one. He explained that he had songs he made up in his head that he just had to hear out loud to concentrate on anything else.

He still sings and hums incessantly around the house, and we bought him a keyboard with headphones that he plays for hours.

My DS7 is a fidgeter, wiggler, and a hummer. He used to moan and groan! He looks like he is in his own world, completely oblivious, yet consistently comes up with the correct response. As long as people talking to him or teaching him understand this, it is ok for now. But it will become less and less acceptable as he moves up. Luckily he has an IEP that allows accommodations for this, but obviously he will lose serious social standing if he is still doing this in grade 7. Nan