Lack of concentration

My daughter's teacher has informed me she lacks concentration at school. I have also noticed this at home. Is this part of ataxia or is her lack of concentration just typical of being a 5 year old. I want to be able to deal with this in the best way to suit the cause.

Thanks.

hi pauline , would you believe i got a note from my daughters teacher also today stating very poor concentration . erin has cerebellum ataxia . she is also extremely fidgety and uses all sorts of ways to distract from doing whats in front of her. we have a few problems with her muscles in her eyes and recently had eye surgery on muscle and it made a slight difference not a huge one though. i would also like to know if any one could advice as she is 6 years old and it is difficult at the best of times to make a 6 year old sit still but when ataxia is involved its near impossible !!

marcella

Hi, I have Sporatic Ataxia and am an adult (most of the time anyway :-) ). I find it a real challenge to concintrate on something for a long period of time. I find I have to re-focus myself quite a few times in doing a project or read something. But with practice it helps me do it longer.

When my son was in school, I was told he didn't concentrate well or long periods of time all at once. I totally understood not being able to because I couldn't then either. The counselor at his school told me that the mind could be trained. If I needed him to re -focus on something or concintrate on something, that I needed to put my hand on his shoulder and call his name to help him to focus or even re- focus so he could be in the moment and not to get angery with him about it. Eventually he would be able to concentrate longer and longer. I play allot of games myself to re-focus. I rememer her telling me to only exspect him or anyone to be able to concintrate 1 min for ever yr old that they are. So having Ataxia I find I have to meditate each morning so I can focus better during the day, but I still have to work on it almost constantly.Some day's it's easier than other's to concintrate. But I actually have to play games with myself to be able to concintrate better.

In working with my son over the years I really think this has helped him. He's very creative now. His brain just works diffrently than they exspect kids to think in school, and now I realize it's ok. I wish I would have realized that then so I didn't worry so much how he would turn out. He's a man now and I relly like who he is! Other's actually appreciate his way of thinking now too! So part of that I think is normal to not concintrate so long on things at her age. So I think having Ataxia on top of that is even more of a challenge for her. She'll be ok. She's very lucky to have you as Mom that cares so much about her, to wonder about it and ask about it so maybe you can either try things to help or understand it! :-)

Thank-you.



Pauline Brotherton said:

Thank-you.

Thank-you this has been helpful.

Marcella Feagan said:

hi pauline , would you believe i got a note from my daughters teacher also today stating very poor concentration . erin has cerebellum ataxia . she is also extremely fidgety and uses all sorts of ways to distract from doing whats in front of her. we have a few problems with her muscles in her eyes and recently had eye surgery on muscle and it made a slight difference not a huge one though. i would also like to know if any one could advice as she is 6 years old and it is difficult at the best of times to make a 6 year old sit still but when ataxia is involved its near impossible !!

marcella