My 6 year old son having issues in School

[jessie007]

My Six year old is having trouble in school. He is in Kindergarten.
His teacher says he is great accademically.
But behaviour wise is very immature for his age and has trouble following directions.
Sometimes he is very disruptive in class.
He seems to have his ups and downs in school. Lately more downs.
The frequency of complaints from his teacher have also increased.
His teacher says he is not a mean child, but a very loving child.
But he has very poor listening skills.
She says he has a great sense of humor and is the class clown.

At home he is well behaved. Follows directions.
My husband and I have tried everything from time-out to loosing previliges.
It does not seem to have any effect on him.
Is this normal behaviour for a Boy?
Any suggestions

[deeyana]

If he is continuing to have trouble in school, you might want to request a Functional Behavior Analysis or a Behavior Intervention Plan. This is when a behavior analysis at district level  or Child Study Team gets together with the teacher to come up with a positive motivational plan for the child. They will meet together and brain storm ideas about once every week or so until they find something that will help the child improve his behavior. The plan focuses on positive reinforcements and incentives not punishing or taking things away. In my experience and opinion, teachers are not always eager of FBA or BIP because it take up a lot of their time. But if you feel it is something that needs to be done, then you need to push.

[Natta1980]

I would say behavior is pretty normal. Since it only occurs in a school setting, the trigger is there as well

You cannot manage his behavior in school because you are not there. Taking away privileges for misbehaving at school does not seem to work with children under 7 (rewards, on other hand, seem to work a little better)


Key thing to remember is that every behavior has a purpose.
Get more detail as to whether he does not listen in certain situations/times of the day, or does not listen period. When and how disruptive he is, have them take notes with time and activity type. My son, although he is younger (he is turning 5 tomorrow) becomes pretty disruptive when there is something he does not like to do, or there is something that offends his senses (too much noise in class, haos, etc), and usually later in the day. Transitions can set him off as well. Once you figure out what sets your little one off, you can get together with the teacher and make suggestions as to how to manage that behavior. The fact that he follows directions well at home means that it should be a piece of cake once you know the triggers and bring some consistency into the picture.

Good luck:)