Challenge: You notice that Johnny is having difficulty sitting still with what appears to be a very uncomfortable and stressful maths task. His concentration is diminished and he begins to distract others quietly working around him.
Solutions: Quietly ask Johnny to go to the back of the room and do a series of Cross Crawl or say to him: “Johnny, I’ve noticed that you are having difficulty sitting still so I thought that you may like to have a run to stretch your legs.” Johnny nods with a big smile of relief.
“Would you please take this note to Mr Jones in room 32. He is on the other side of the school. I’d like you to run with large steps to his classroom and then do some ‘Cross Crawl’ and ‘Calf Pump’ outside our classroom if you feel you need too.” (You have an arrangement set up with Mr Jones for this purpose).
The next time that Johnny can’t focus, (leading to uncontrollable wriggling), instead of ‘trying harder’ which always results in him becoming more uncomfortable and disruptive, he comes to you requesting if he can deliver a note to Mr Jones. The children tend to really appreciate your support and acknowledgement of his learning difficulty, becomes self-managing, happier and more confident with achieving given tasks with greater success.
