the class talker

[griffin2004]

Is anyone else here the parent of the class talker like I am? DD is in her 7th month of kindergarten and has been disrupting her class with constant unrelenting yabbering since day 1. I've tried every strategy I can think of. The teacher is almost out of strategies, too.

What can I do to help, encourage, motivate, impress on her, just plain ol' get DD to get a grip on this behavior?

I've discussed with her that when she is talking at inappropriate times, she is missing out on learning, she is making it hard for the other students to learn, and she is making it hard for the teacher to teach. I remind her every morning to have a good listening day; I've done the 2 ears / 1 mouth thing to give her a funny way to remember. I've asked her to tell me what would work for her and how I can help. And on, and on, and on...

I'm stumped. Nothing I do seems to be helping.

[MichaelsSahm]

My DS who is also in 7th month of KG. Same problem. I get notes home at least once a week because he got on red for talking at inappropriate times, intterupting. etc.
I have tried everything like you. What has helped me so far though, is leaving little creative notes in DS's lunchbox and that seemed to have motivate him to listen and come home everyday last week with outstanding behaviour.

[griffin2004]

After thinking I'd tried everything, I haven't yet tried the lunchbox note. It will refresh my morning reminder and/or give her a boost for the 2nd half of the day in case the 1st half hasn't been all that successful.

Great suggestion. Thanks!

[MichaelsSahm]

Originally Posted by griffin2004

After thinking I'd tried everything, I haven't yet tried the lunchbox note. It will refresh my morning reminder and/or give her a boost for the 2nd half of the day in case the 1st half hasn't been all that successful.

Great suggestion. Thanks!

Exactly! And you could make all kinds of little fun notes, and kind of hint to her that there is a time to listen and time to share our stories, and that teachers do give them time to share.

My sons mind is going all day, he has so many stories. I always tell him to either write them down, or draw pictures of it and then when its time to share our story we won't forget.

[Materfamilias]

:

[griffin2004]

We did the calendar with stickers today. Not too successful, but we had a good talk about the importance of re-grouping and trying again tomorrow.

We do the bunny thing ("2 big ears for lots of listening; 1 tiny mouth for not too much talking"), so we decided that I'll draw a bunny face on the back of her hand in the morning so she can remind herself all day. We'll see how that goes.

[junipermuse]

Is it possible that your daughter needs to talk to process what she is learning. My daughter isn't in school yet (she just turned two), but I was the talker all the way through school. It took me until I was out of college to realize that
I NEEDED to talk something out to process it. No talking meant no learning. I also was later diagnosed with ADHD so I also have some impulse control issues, but frankly your dd is only in Kindergarten, it is normal for her to not have totally developed impulse control at that age. Especially if her brain is telling her she absolutely must talk about something until it is totally figured out. I can already tell that my dd is going to be this way too. She talks non stop often saying the same things but slightly rephrasing it each time, it's like she is verbally expressing everything that her mind is processing.

Another thought could be that she isn't being challenged enough and she is bored. I think before you can really come up with a solution you have to figure out why she is talking so much. Does she get much recess or enough other opportunities to talk that aren't during class time? Does the teacher offer enough collaborative work where your dd gets to talk to other children in her group? Does the teacher call on her frequently enough in class to help your child meet her need to talk (this is especially important if this is your daughters means of processing information)? My experience is that teachers often feel they need to teach "talkers" a lesson by not calling on them. Or they feel they must give every child "equal time" to talk despite the fact that every child is different and some children have very high talking needs while other children are naturally more quiet or prefer to process things internally. I honestly think that if you and the teacher focus on meeting your dd's needs while also adjusting your expectations a bit you'll find that your dd's behavior probably would improve.