Attention spans for pre-schoolers*very long sorry!!*

**SarahJ** · 12-28-2007, 05:47 AM

I homeschool a 3yr 9month old girl (B), who has the mental capabilities of between 12 and 24 months. I get to her house around 8:15/8:30 and 99% of the time she is dressed and ready for the day, on bad days I'm the one who gets her dressed which is actually quite fun and we make it a learning experience.

I'm really battling with her attention. I think she's bored. She's been 'stuck' as a baby/toddler for 2 yrs now which means her style of toys etc has not changed for 2 yrs. She has been given new toys but always variations on a theme - stacking rings, stacking cups, peg puzzles, shape sorters, blocks, books etc

I try to stick to the same routine each day, but with B its quite difficult, especially since we're at her house, and depending on how she slept, how many seizures she's had etc. We start off inside saying hello, she'tells' (can't talk properly) about her night before, mum updates me on anything I need to know, and I generally have 'freeplay' for the first 15 mins where she can choose what she wants me to do with her - usually reading a book - this means she will collect as many books as she can hold and clutch them to her and look at 1 or 2 of the pictures. I get another book and read it to her whilst she tries to grab it. It is also highly possible that she will try and eat the book

Then we go outside. I vary what we do. sometimes we play with the puppy - she LOVES the puppy and its great to develop her upper body strength coz I make her play tug-of-war with puppy! But that lasts all of 2 - 3 minutes. We can play on the jungle gym but she just likes to stand and look at the world go by, I try and encourage running - very difficult for her - and jumping and we crawl a lot. Also have a trampoline which is fun but I do most of the work. She just laughs!! :lol:

Then after about 30 - 45 minutes outside of various activities or her just hanging onto the boundry fence watching cars (I use it as a time to discuss colours, big/small etc) we go inside for tea.

Fine motor activities he gets frustrated about. She battles to do peg puzzles (we've adapted by putting drawer knob handles on the puzzle pieces) but even if she cannot get the piece in, she knows where it is supposed to go, but she gets cross and then starts to throw things. She also enjoys drawing and painting, but eats the crayons and the paint more than drawing with them! Can't do baking, it just doesn't work. Playdough she picks into small pieces and throws onto the floor.

She then has another 20 mins or so of free-play where I take her to her playroom. There's a play kitchen etc set up there and I sit on the floor with her and chat to her about what she is doing. Sometimes all she wants to do is empty all the toy boxes onto the floor and sift through the toys and throw them around - by now I'm exhausted! She's 22kg and I have to hold her up, balance her whilst walking etc a lot of the time.
Does anyone have any good ideas to hold her concentration on a specific activity for slightly longer - say 5 - 10 minutes! I feel like I set up a drawing activitiy and 30 seconds later she's eating the green crayon, and drawn 1 line with the orange and had enough.

Somedays we will go out with her mum so that we can expose her to social situations which is a big thing for her and also to change the scenery!
My day with her ends at 11:30/12 when I make her lunch and then she goes with her mum to fetch the older sister and has a nap in the car.

Her diet is very good, and I don't feel like I'm over stimulating her, it just feels like I sometimes cannot get through to her. Been there 2 months and I know she likes me coz apparently she asks for me on weekends

I feel guilty for now being able to do as much with her as I'd hoped - feel guilty being paid when some days all she wants to do is cuddle and read books and will lie down on the floor and refuse to do anything if you try. I'm being paid to teach her but doesn't feel like I'm doing much 'teaching' but more behaviour management. Which is part of teaching I understand, especially with special needs children, but soemdays I get despondant.

Anyway, sorry to go on so long...

Any adivse? We don't have parks or playcentres etc available to go to and its not really safe to go out for a walk so we pretty much stuck at home.

**Kelley_the_Gardener** · 12-30-2007, 11:06 PM

It sounds like you are doing well with her. What, exactly, are you supposed to be "teaching" her? If she is developmentally disabled, I'd saturate her with activities that work with children at her developmental level. Here is a link to many age-appropriate activities:

[url="http://www.humsci.auburn.edu/~abellel/beeprogram/links/resourceupdates/oneyearolds/activities/activities.htm"]http://www.humsci.auburn.edu/~abellel/b ... vities.htm[/url]

Here are a couple of pages of links for special education preschool activities:

[url="http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/pep/teach.htm"]http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curr ... /teach.htm[/url]

[url="http://codi.buffalo.edu/special-education.htm"]http://codi.buffalo.edu/special-education.htm[/url]

**borntoteach** · 01-02-2008, 02:57 AM

I'd also start to use materials that she can eat if that is an issue. Paint with pudding, for instance. stick fruit loops on paper using cool whip. Use music to stimulate her. Does your library have a lending system for toys or kits? Bring over new items.

Sounds like you're doing good things already...keep it up!

**SarahJ** · 01-06-2008, 06:20 AM

Hi

Tx for the replies. I'm really having a hard time logging onto the site. Have tried 3 or 4 times since I posted to reply to your msg's. Promise I was not ignoring you!

borntoteach - food doesn't work with her, a) its too yummy and too tempting to eat and b) there are issues with what she is allowed to eat. The drawing and painting is getting much better and last week we managed stickers! She doesn't eat as much (I just move her hands away from her mouth) and if she does, its non toxic so hopefully won't do anything exept stain her tummy insides! lol

No additional toys, she has lots at home which we rotate so that works a little. I try and use different toys each week.

Kelley - I am doing a basic pre-school curriculum with her. Colours, shapes, animals, numbers etc. Our current theme is 'ME' and we're doing body parts, left & right, family etc. Next week we will be moving onto Farm Animals. We might also do a brief section on 'school' as we are starting playschool on Wed as a social things for her. Will just be going a few hrs a morning, 2 days a week so she can put into practise and learn social skills and for a change of scenery.

In between all this, we are trying to potty train, teach her to dress herself, do her physical, speech & occupational therapy and allow her some time for structured freeplay (since our theme is ME we were playing with dolls and housekeeping toys etc)

Hope this posts this time!!

Tx for your responses

**ettennan** · 02-10-2008, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by SarahJ

Hi

Tx for the replies. I'm really having a hard time logging onto the site. Have tried 3 or 4 times since I posted to reply to your msg's. Promise I was not ignoring you!

borntoteach - food doesn't work with her, a) its too yummy and too tempting to eat and b) there are issues with what she is allowed to eat. The drawing and painting is getting much better and last week we managed stickers! She doesn't eat as much (I just move her hands away from her mouth) and if she does, its non toxic so hopefully won't do anything exept stain her tummy insides! lol

No additional toys, she has lots at home which we rotate so that works a little. I try and use different toys each week.

Kelley - I am doing a basic pre-school curriculum with her. Colours, shapes, animals, numbers etc. Our current theme is 'ME' and we're doing body parts, left & right, family etc. Next week we will be moving onto Farm Animals. We might also do a brief section on 'school' as we are starting playschool on Wed as a social things for her. Will just be going a few hrs a morning, 2 days a week so she can put into practise and learn social skills and for a change of scenery.

In between all this, we are trying to potty train, teach her to dress herself, do her physical, speech & occupational therapy and allow her some time for structured freeplay (since our theme is ME we were playing with dolls and housekeeping toys etc)

Hope this posts this time!!

Tx for your responses

Sarah,
If this child's developmental age is 12 - 24 months a preschool curriculum may be too much for her. No one expects 12-24 month old children to know left and right or much about numbers. Learning a few basic colors may be reasonable, but I wouldn't expect the child to learn all the colors. It seems that right now the emphasis should be on communication.

Here's a link of what to expect from an 18 month old that may give you some ideas for appropriate activities to try.
[url=http://www.nncc.org/Child.Dev/mile2.html]Developmental Milestones[/url]

Feel free to pm me, if you have questions. I'm currently teaching PreK and would be glad to share ideas or info.

**Flor** · 02-20-2008, 05:08 PM

I'm not a prek teacher, but I'm mom to a prek kid. Three books I use all the time are Montessori in the Home and Montessori the Preschool Years and the Toddler's Busy Book (The Busy Toddler Book?). They have excellent SIMPLE ideas for educational/artisitic fun usually with few extra materials. I agree with a previous poster about rethinking the goals for the child. An 18 month old is often just absorbing vocab and playing. A "preschool curriculum" seems too advanced. Does she sign? My son couldn't speak till he was about 24 months but he communicated through sign langauge. I didn't really use a "baby sign" book, just a regular ASL dictionary.

**MThompson** · 05-28-2012, 05:25 PM

The Montessori books are awesome and there are also some wonderful Montessori homeschool websites. We have been using them with both of our little ones. The Toddler's busy book is really good too. I pull that one out a lot on rainy days.

**BGCteacher56** · 07-05-2012, 01:00 PM

I haven't worked with special needs so I don't know if this would be different for her, but I worked with a child who was always going on to the next thing like B is. I started working with her on staying in one activity a little longer at a time. When she was done, I'd try to get to play about five minutes more, and then after she was used to that time frame, I'd add more. For your case, maybe a minute longer. Slowly over time, she was able to play for much longer periods of time with one thing.

Also, gently encouraging them to get back to the task at hand can work, for example, with the coloring, "Oh what a pretty orange color you used! Can you use a pretty purple for me next?" Getting excited about the activity may make her more excited about it too. Again, I am not used to special needs so I don't know if it will work for her, and each child is different, but I hope my suggestions can help.

**Beth09** · 07-23-2012, 07:21 PM

BGC that is the same approach I take with my three year old at home. We don't usually make it another full five minutes but she is getting better. She loves to be read to so we do that a lot because I feel like it is good practice for being still and listening.