Is this normal behavior for a 6 yr old?

Question

My daughter can talk about the solar system, do math drills all day, reads entire books alone, & taught herself cartwheels to name a few. She has a sweet/calm demenor and lives for our praise. The problem is she doesn't follow simple instructions. Remebering to put away her dishes, brushing teeth, bringing homework home, paying attention in dance class or cheer... You can give her step by step instructions and she will either do half of what you ask in a hurried frenzy or stare at you blankly. Her dance instructors and cheer coaches have both commented from time to time it's as if she's on another planet and they can't get her to focus, she daydreams. Her classroom teacher hasn't noticed it, she does well at school. It happens at home daily - upsetting. Her father and I divorced 3 yrs ago but she sees him every 2 wks. Not really any family stress. She gets 10-11 hrs of sleep each night. Is this normal for age 6? What can I do to improve her focus and memory? It's becoming more frequent

Answer 1

Check out the symptoms of ADHD. I have a little cousin that is the smartest little boy I know, but he also acts like he is on another planet. At age 8, you have to ask him a question 3 times before he will respond to you. He has been tested for a lot of things, but I am not his mother so I don't know what he has. Best thing to do is go to your childs pediatrician. They will give you the best info.  Good Luck!!!

P.S.- My aunt has also taken my cousin to many socialization groups and play groups to get him to interact with other kids better. He is in boy scouts, soccer, karate, ect.

Answer 2

I did this type thing, the counselor at school took me to test my IQ and it was above normal- I think 131, in particular in math and patterns. Yeah no one wants to do housework and that sleep is the right amount. She probably just has a lot of thoughts in her head, being an intellectual.

Answer 3

Does she have attention deficit activity? Or maybe she is just a genius and has a lot of things on her mind. There may be a lot of things she finds just plain boring.

Answer 4

I had selective hearing.  My teacher even had me tested for a hearing problem.  

No I didn't want to get out my book for the next class just yet, I wanted to finish my homework from the last class.  I'll get the book out when it looks like you are actually about to teach.  - That is what went through my head at age 7.

Oh yeah, and to this day I STILL hate chores and housework.

Maybe try a different approach for getting her to do things... maybe the big picture first and then the details.

Answer 5

Yeah although I was NEVER a 6 yr old girl, I was 6 yrs old.

No kid wants to do homework when they can play instead.Especially after being in school all day long.

I didnt like doing dishes when the tv had something good on, and I didnt like having to brush my teeth.Your just going to have to stay on her and maybe talk the teachers into lightening the homework.

Answer 6

It might be worth seeing a dr. Sound like she has issues with attention and possibly short term memory (thus the hurry before I forget issues). It could be nothing.. or it could be ADD or even a minor form of autism.

Answer 7

sounds like she trys to do all the big things to impress mommy and daddy so she forgets the simple things.

Answer 8

Most probably Asperger. Not authistic child, not PDD Nos, and not ADHD. There are wide span of autism, so you had better surfing net about autism and asperger. Asperger children seemed like obsessed with whatever they like (planet, dinasour, etc.) but they really seem to master it. Authistic children usually has little or no eye contact, ignoring others, etc. ADHD only have very short span of attention and easily distracted. PDD Nos very2 light autism sometimes u hardly recognize the symptom (for example, a good eye contact). Check out this site: http://www.autism-help.org/

Hope this helps. Cheers

Answer 9

My daughter is amazing at school and very intellegent. But when I give her chores... she doesn't hear me. I find a good test to see if something is wrong or not is this:

When they dont' respond and do their chore.. give her a one. Than a two. And a 3... time out. Usually at this point my daughter will argue and "I didnt' hear you"... etc. Now my daughter jumps when I say 'one'. She hears me really well now when I say numbers and that pushes her into action right away and she does her chores.

Also, you can't give kids to many steps. It confuses them. My daugther is 8 and I can only give her 3-4 step instructions and usually she will ask me to repeat them half way through.

Your daughter sounds pretty normal to me. A good thing to is to ask 'Do you understand?' after your instructions and look and give her a chance to respond. Often kids dont' 'get' what we are saying.

Answer 10

If you're getting completely blank looks - as if there's simply nobody home for a few seconds - then you need to talk to the doctor about it. If she just has her mind elsewhere, that's normal, especially for a clever child who may have been concentrating hard on something else.

What I do with my son is to start off with "look at me" and wait until he does. Then I know he's listened to ALL the instructions. I also sometimes have to specifically tell him to put his book or toy down, he can come back to it in a minute, or he'll try to do what I've said without stopping thinking about it - this is very like the "hurried frenzy" you describe. Basically just try to get her into the habit of doing one thing at a time instead of trying to multitask or paging frantically.

Answer 11

I dont have a six year old myself, but I have babysat a LOT of six year olds. A lot of them acted just like your daughter. The girls that Ive babysat also pay amazing attention to other details. For example, more than one was acting in a high school play and memorized a TON of lines for it, but completely forgot about other things. Another was in four different dance classes and did a million and a half other things, but seemed to ignore other smaller tasks.

I dont think it was that she was ignoring them, but just did forget. Maybe your daughter has too much going on, and you should reduce the amount of time she spends doing excessive extracurriculars. Not dramatically though. Forgive her for forgetting so often though- she doesnt mean it. With how much stuff kids have to take in each day, its a wonder their heads dont explode. I know some days we feel like ours will, just imagine what its like for a child!