Top 10 tips for fidgety kids

Does your child struggle to sit still? Or is your child constantly moving around or fiddling with objects around them. Most often these kids are labelled as “ADHD” and are constantly being scolded to sit still. Here are some useful tips in dealing with kids that are “movers”.

1. Not all children that fidget have ADHD. These children may just have a kinaesthetic learning style. In other words, they may be more of a mover instead of a looker or a listener. 

2. Fidgety kids actually do concentrate on what is being taught. In spite of being fidgety, these kids show evidence of listening and grasping the lesson at hand. They show the ability to concentrate even while moving or wriggling around. 

3. Fidgeting in children is quite normal. Children are generally full of energy and like moving their hands and legs around. Some educational psychologists say that children actually tend to take in more when they move their hands and legs around. At home, children could sit on stability balls so that they could move around instead of a fixed chair. 

4. A fidgety child could well be a gifted learner. Often, children fidget when they are bored and the lesson lacks challenge. More stimulating and challenging work could help the gifted learner to stop fidgeting. 

5. Allow children who fidget to hold onto some small object. Instead of stressing about a child drumming on the desk or throwing things around, rather give them some small object to channel their energy into like a squeeze ball or a beaded bracelet. I often give my kids coloured pens and a sheet of paper to doodle when they have to listen for more long periods. Instead of focussing on keeping still, the child can then focus his energy on the lesson. 

6. Break up long activities into smaller sessions with breaks. Instead of an hour-long activity, break it into smaller 15 minute chunks with breaks in between for the child to move or stretch. This gives them a chance to get rid of the pent-up energy. 

7. Rotate the type of activities to refresh the child’s focus. Instead of expecting the child to sit and listen for an hour, get them to listen quietly, have a discussion with others, do some written work, engage in a computer activity and so on. By varying and rotating their activities, their concentration is refreshed each time which minimises fidgeting. 

8. Allow the fidgety child to do their activities moving around as far as is practical. They could pace while reading or do their math while standing up as long as they are not a distraction to others. Giving them errands to do also helps in using their energy. 

9. Children need to move around and exercise more. Due to our modern lifestyle, children are not moving around and playing outdoors like they used to do before. This results in poor core strength and vestibular balance which makes them to fidget. 

10. Introduce more “hands on” learning material. Learning aids like flash cards, board games, puzzles, floor activities interactive computer activities work really well with fidgety kids as it allows for movement. 

The Kip McGrath Education Centres are perfect for fidgety kids as activities are rotated after every 10 minutes so the child is constantly on the move with teacher-based, computer and worksheet activities.