Son is intelligent and hyperactive (7 years) but has no interest in studies.

Hi, witty this is namrata. This is a problem but not that big. Actully if he is not intrested in studies u should check his friends and with whome he is siting in class and ask his teacher togive him some work and then ask her to give him some gift such as pencils, chocklet, or even appriciat him by simply asking other kids to clap for your child  in class,I hope this will work.Good luck

 Witty,

Please use this children's intelligence profiler to see what kinds of mutliple intelligence your son is strong in and use them to encourage your son in his studies

Regards,

PGC

Hi Namrata,

We have tried this and it does work. to some extent.  But it seems he does have some attention deficiency syndrome because of which he cannot just seem to concentrate on his work for too long. Surprisingly though, when it comes to playing the playstation the concentration levels go up.

What could be the reason?

Witty,

> Surprisingly though, when it comes to playing the playstation the concentration levels go up.

I think you may have answered your own question.  Video games are designed so that everything one does (press a button, move the joystick) produces an instant reaction and this gives feedback to the child's brain. If the child does something right, then he gains something in the video game world (a new weapon or overtaking another car). If he does something wrong, he loses something (he misses a goal). This is known as instant gratification.

The video game is conditioning the child to expect results for every action immediately, without having to wait for a long period of time. Instant gratification results in impulsive behaviour in children.

When you ask your child to study, he sees no immediate results. There is no positive or negative feedback coming to him every few seconds. Studies produce results only over the long term. This is known as delayed gratification.

When studying your child is not getting the immediate feedback that he is used to receiving from the game, so he starts indulging in impulsive behaviour which gives him the immediate feedback.

What you see as "concentration" when playing the video game, is actually your child indulging in a series of "impulsive behaviours".

You need to slowly wean him off the need for instant gratification:

1. Cut the video games down to a very small time frame (maybe an hour or two a week)

2. Set some routines for your child. Do certain things only at certain time. For example, 7 to 8 PM is only study time. No other choices allowed. ANother example is setting a fixed bed time.

3. Don't buy things as soon as your child asks for them (Not saying you are doing this but this is also instant gratification)

4. Instead of telling the child to do some thing, explain to him why he has to do some thing.

5. Check the foods you are serving your child. Read this to see how food additives and food colours also cause impulsive behaviour.

6. More unstructured, free play time.

7. Read this article on study tips for children

Good luck,

Sathya

Hi,

    I think sathya has great suggestions and all valuable. But i would like to pick up from where he left off.

We live in a world where TV, the internet, Mobile phones, games are all part of the world we currently live in and our kids will grow into that world with 5 more stimulants of technology that will surely evolve by the time he or she has hit college or the work life.

We live in an information highway and will live in an information super-highway 5 yrs from now! With all of this around which 'IS' going to be part of daily human life in the times to come, limiting time on computers or routines etc are only patch jobs to make the problem go away for a little time. We cannot possibly isolate our kids from the world we grow up in.  The 'Book' or syllabus he is reading(probably  written and illistrated in 1950 just after independence) is suposed to be interesting? HOW?

If he cant pay attention we say he has an attention problem, and some doctor puts him on medication and all sorts of remedies.

Look at the visual stimulants crowding every aspect of our lives and he has to go back to reading and MEMORIZING that book.

Education needs to progress. For our kids to learn we need to talk to them in the language they understand, not the language WE understand! One cannot stop technology, evolution or stimulants. We cannot make time stand still in education and have them grow up in an information super-highway, because MOST of them will not be able to make that jump few years from now.

We need education to be more relevant to the world our kids will grow up in. Not the other way around.

I have written some thoughts on this in another section, if any of u would like to read them. They are on ICSE or CBSC - What is better career wise.

Lastly, for the record....ADHD is a term coined by a drug company....to classify our kids and sell them a drug for life!!

hi , thanks for this knowledge but my son has same problem he is not ready to sleep in his room , he avoides to read , every time he wants to play  computer  games or watch  tv he is intelligent but dont want to put afforts to read.Help to help him