My son has a hard time dealing with distractions while doing his schoolwork?

Question

My soon to be 9 year old son has a hard time focusing on his schoolwork. He gets distracted by any little thing. Any sound will distract him, his younger sister making any sound will distract him, etc. He's used to sounds and I've never kept a quiet house. It's just the distraction issue. He hates doing schoolwork. I have tried using timers to help him focus, but that just agitates him and keeps him from working as well. I do not have the television on, so that is not an issue either. Are there any good ideas I can try to help him keep focused on his schoolwork?

Answer 1

My best friends daughter is the same way, and a teacher at school gave her a "lap pad". It's basically like a fabric place mat with beans or sand sewn into it. It provides a calming "weight" and helps her settle and concentrate. It doesn't weigh more then a pound of two, but it's just enough to trigger something in her brain that allows her to calm down and focus. It can't hurt to try it. Good Luck.

Answer 2

Wow! I could have written your question word for word about my son! Same age, same exact issues. I had a meeting with his teacher and she and I are working on several things. A few tips we have found to be helpful:
1. He started carrying a small notepad to make notes of things he want to remember, just get out his head for the moment.
2. At School his teacher has started having manditory quiet time for work time. No noise for anyone, this hasn't just benefited my own son. On the occasions where there is noise at school during worktime, the teacher has a seperate desk with a 3-sided partition off to one side of the classroom for ANY student who wishes to concentrate harder. I was careful not wanting my son to feel like it was put there for him alone and other students use it as well.
3. Like you, we can have NO NOISE or DISTRACTIONS during homework/study time. No TV or radio, not even a sibling in the room. This has been important because siblings can sabatage (sp?) without meaining to. I know I get easily distracted when there is alot going on so I can understand why my son struggles with this.
4. Homework must be done right after school or immediately upon arriving home. Once my son starts playing or wants to start playing, there's no bringing him back to schoolwork.
5. Make sure he's not bored with the work. We have found through testing our son is above average for his class, not gifted or anything, he just might be a bit bored and therefore not able to concentrate on things he thinks he already knows.
6. Keep at it, things have gotten much better once we identified what the core problems were. It is an easy problem to fix.
7. Let him have time to talk about whatever is on his mind. Mine likes bed time but it doesn't matter when, maybe alone in the car or while you make dinner. He just needs to unload all the stuff in his head and kids don't know how to do that automatically. We need to help them. Good Luck!

Answer 3

I think a good way to keep children's attention is to set up a routine. Get big laminated schedule and some dry erase markers. Establish a time of day where he will study, do homework..(try to seperate them with a snack or something, but not tv! one show turns into 2!) And then get him a pair of headphones, they have the contruction kind, or the earplugs you squeeze and ut in your ear that then release and conform to the shape of your ear and black out all sound. I live in a college dorm, I hate noise it breaks my distraction..if everyone sounds like they are having fun then I want to be a part of it too. make sure that you other children (if you have) are not distracting, get him somewhere where he can't hear the tv..or look out the window. also try implementing a reward system, it's not the best way to go..but at that age the reward pnuishment chart on the side of the fridge is a good tactic

Answer 4

My son is the same way. He can get distracted by his own pencil!

The very first thing I suggest is to see if there is value to the assignments being given. Is there a true point to it, or is it busy-work? Homework should have value. If it does not, kids are more likely to be resistent to doing it. Discuss what the value of the assignment is with him. WHY is it important to do it?

Talk to his teacher and see if she has any suggestions. Find out how long she expects the work to take. If your child is bored by the assignments, find out if there is a way you can switch it around to make it more challenging or more interesting. (Say writing a story with spelling words instead of just copying words.)

This is a variation on the timer idea that seems to work for us -

Make a chart. Write the child's homework for the night (ex: spelling sentences) and then how long it is supposed to take (ex: 20 mins for my 2nd grader - usually 10 mins per year of school each night) and then how long you will allow him with extra time (ex: 45 mins). In the final column, have him write the time he starts and the time he stops. Figure out how long it took. See if he can beat the "extra time" or the "expected time" column.

Set an amount of time you will allow per night for homework. "The homework hour" falls at "X" time. During that time he is to do homework. Now.....here's the hard part. HE is responsible for his homework, NOT you. If he doesn't do it in that time period, pack it up. "Well, you'll have to face the consequences at school tomorrow since it's not done." (Usually a lost recess to finish the work here.) Let the TEACHER handle it. He is responsible to her for the work, just as you would be responsible to your boss for a work assignment. (This is what many teachers will tell you to do. They DO NOT want homework to become a big power struggle that takes all night in your home.)

Let your son know that you and the teacher are on the same side by being in contact with her about this kind of stuff. Call the teacher and leave a voice mail letting her know that he didn't get his work done. Let him hear you doing it. Send her an email about what happened at home and why he didn't get his work done. Have HIM call and leave a voice mail explaining why the work isn't done. My son's teacher will have the kids come listen to their parent's phone messages or read their emails!

DO NOT "do the homework with him" - this is what ALL the teachers at my kid's school will tell you for this age group! He needs to be responsible for it. If he is stuck or has a question, by all means help him! But don't walk him through the whole assignment step by step!

Instead, sit down with him at the kitchen table. While he does homework, you work on grocery lists, pay bills, read mail, read a book etc. "Study" type work of your own.....modeling behavior to him and being nearby to keep him on task.

Hope some of these ideas helps! Good luck!

Answer 5

My daughter had the same problem at that age too. In fifth grade I let her join band. I had heard that it would help her in other areas and surprisingly enough it did. It takes real focus and concentration to learn to play an instrument and this spills over into school work as well. She started to get much better grades and didn't even have as much homework because she was able to focus and get more done in class. If your son's school has a band and playing an instrument might interest him, I think it is definitely worth a shot. My daughter is a senior now and has been making almost all A's with hardly any homework since about sixth grade. When she does have homework it's usually done in a flash and she even helps her brother with his 9th grade work.

Like some of the others have said playing soft music might help, and I have read that it is proven that letting kids chew gum (sugarless of course) gets the creative juices flowing when doing school work!

Hope this helps, good luck to you and your son!

Answer 6

It might be an idea to sit and do his homework alongside him, just to help him concentrate. That way if he gets distracted you can talk the answers over with him and try and put it into a way that's fun for him.

I understand what it's like for your son not being able to concentrate on his homework, as I'm fairly similar even if I am a teenager, and I find it extremely difficult to concentrate on work for a prolonged length of time. It might also be an idea to break up his homework, in that do a little bit over the course of the night rather than having to do it all at once and for it to take half an hour or more.

I hope that helped.

Answer 7

Honestly I am 20 and I get distracted by ANYTHING while doing school work, and when it comes to listening what the teachers say I could walk out of a 3 hour lecture and not know what the teacher was talking about. And at home doing homework a fly could go by me and I will catch myself watching the fly. lol.. I am finally getting on ADHD medicine, I have had enough of people around me thinking that I am not trying or that its my fault I can't focus so hopefully the meds help out. Haven't so far but I haven't been on them long.
Is there a room in the house that you could make a "quiet" room shut the door, let him be in there without any kids or pets?? Tell the other kids that go by the door/room that they have to use their "library voice" while going by.

Answer 8

From personal experiance, I was the same way its not so much ADD as it is just not interested in what he is doing!... It may take time out of your day but the best bet is to sit down with him in his room or at the table whereever he is comfortable doing his homework where there are no distractions and help him keep his concentration. Get him on a good routine and stick too it otherwise when he is in highschool it will get worse!

Answer 9

Actually, yes, if you are not buisy, you must help him; or at least someone should. You should sit by him and do the homework with him. But dont get distracted yourself, like somethings burning in the oven, or you have to leave in10 minutes and he knows it, he might get distracted to agitated just like with the alarm clock. Pretend you have all the time in the world, and slowly work him through it. Dont tell him you have to leave untill last minute. That way, his homeowrk will be finished and hell feel more confident about himslef. Good Luck!

Answer 10

I think you could help by making it fun and/or rewarding.

Try a reward system. He's may not be seeing a purpose except to make his teacher or you happy. That can get frustrating. I started a reward system with "chores" appropriate for age of course, and homework was included in that reward system. He needs some motivation. Eventually, he will learn that even if some things are not fun in life but must just be done. But, he is young still, I think.

Or you could make it like a game or contest - like "beat the clock" and he gets an extra 30 mins of whatever he wants to do if he beats the clock and does good work. You can make the rules how you want .