Hello everyone!
Sorry for this long post! It’s been a while since I’ve posted!!! My daughter is 7 and we live in France, I’m originally from Australia. Here, teachers appear to be perfectionists, one small mistake in handwriting could cost you a fair few marks but her biggest problem seems to be maths. Her teacher says she still uses her fingers and expects her to know her addition facts off by heart. Even if it’s just 2 + 3 for example, she still needs time to think of the answer, yet other times, she can immediately say 5 without even given it a second thought so my daughter is giving a lot of wrong answers in class and the teacher is complaining she does not unerstand! Sometimes I have to repeatedly tell her what she has to do, other times, she concentrates and gets it. How can I teach her not to count with her fingers and know them off by heart?
I suspect she could have ADHD or something more serious as she has selective attention, easily distracted or focusing unless interested BUT we know she knows the answers for basic math questions and other non-math related school work, she just deliberately puts the wrong answer or counts all the objects and says 11 for example, when only there’s 5. Ask her again the next day, she will say 5. Once I raise my voice, she appears to know the answers suddenly. She is impulsive, the classic “She acts before she thinks behaviour” and very hyperactive but just at home apparently.
I brought up the subject of ADHD or something else being wrong and the teachers say no. She appears happy in the playground and is very bright and capable, just immature. I know there is something wrong. She goes to a bilingual school and there is a heavy workload so I asked them to remove her from English at least until we see if there’s any improvements with her overall work but they won’t. Last year for grade 1 she did very well the first 2 semesters, A student. She also got A for third but her overall performance dramatically slipped and overall points were lower. We have a grading system out of 20.
Since starting grade 2, she has been HORRENDOUS in class with her concentrating and deliberately making mistakes with EVERYTHING, when we KNOW she knows the answers. If she has to copy a text written in front of her, word for word, it’s nothing like the text, she forgets to add so much but is fine at home. When we practise spelling at home, she gets everything correct, but at school, everything wrong.
Today she had to put these letters in alphabetical order; U-A-K-G BUT she put A-G-H, the next Y-T-O-S-Q and she put Q-R-S, she DOES NOT pay attention, even when it’s right in front of her. I’m so worried about her. She does all this properly at home but not at school. The teachers say the problem must be at home. She does not like French classrooms! They are strict and boring too!
A big problem we also have is we put her to bed at 19-19:30 and pretends to be asleep but then gets out of bed and moves stuff around in her room, like furniture, then goes back to bed or is still awake hours later. I notice she moves her bed away from the wall when it was against the wall when I put her to bed or plays with the curtains and pushes them away to the end of the rod and does really strange stuff. when I think she has been sleeping the whole time, she’s quietly moving furniture or putting things on the floor or doing something else. Other times, she acts perfectly fine. She doesn’t want to sleep! Something sounds REALLY wrong…BUT no one takes me seriously.
Any ideas? Am I looking at autism? ADHD possibly? She also flaps her arms but ONLY when excited…I’m crying everyday because the teachers are so mean to her. All education and school systems and teachers are the same in france. Strict and perfectionists.
Thank you
