Q: Our 6-year-old has always enjoyed school. Lately, though, she’s been talking about “hating” school and that she’s bored. What can we do?
A:Michael,
Thanks for your question. I can respond to this from a teacher’s point of view, but I think I’d like to invite School Psychologist J. David Carr to chime in as well. We are going to respond together.
First, we need more information. You need to act as a detective. Speak to your child and get some clarification about their boredom. Why are they bored? What do they think being bored means? Have them name some activities that they do in school that they do not identify as “boring”. Try to get your child to look at what they do enjoy in school. Also, speak to your child’s teacher to get a better understanding of his or her classroom behavior. Are they doing the work? Spacing out? Isolated? Not challenged?
Many times a child is bored at school because they are not socially engaged. An example of this is if a kid goes to school and does their work but does not have a good play partner, school can turn into “all work and no play.” A young child can identify that as “boring”.
If your child identifies social difficulties, like no friends, it might be a good idea to set up a play-date within the confines of school. You can ask the teacher if your child can pick someone they want to play with during a recess play-date or, if it is okay with the teacher, have a play-date in the classroom at recess, where they can play in a quieter environment and develop a friendship, without the distraction of other children. I do this all the time for students who I feel need a little jumpstart to creating friendships and it works very well.
If your child identifies the academic work as boring, speak to their teacher and find out what subject area or work they find boring. Sometimes the work might be too easy and the teacher can help by varying instruction. The work might also be too challenging and they are not able to engage. They might need added assistance to meet academic goals. It is common for children to claim something is boring because they have no purchase in the academic work because it is so far above their head.
But at this point, the most important thing to do is get more information. Find out why your child is bored and identify activities in school that your child does not consider “boring”. This will help you and your child’s teacher to effectively intervene. And let us know how it goes.
February 8th, 2010
