Coaches 3 & 4 yr olds: listening and attention issues

[catou]

You can also have a theme every week. For example in my psychomotor learning session, this week we were doing automn related games. We walked in a magical forest where there was some animals. And to be sure the animals wouldn't go away because they were scared, we had to walk like them. We also made some imaginary apple juice, to work their core strength and upper body strength. Have them put their princess's high heels to make them walk on demi-pointe. Just use your imagination. Enter their world. Don't be shy to make a complete foul of yourself.

If you can, have a look at Carrasco's book Gymnastique des 3 à 7 ans. It's in french, but there are a lot of pictures and ideas of things to do. He also recommends to do some breaks during a circuit, where you give further instructions to the kids.

 

[JBS]

Enter their world.

Yes...enter their world.

When you are explaining things...be like them...

• Use crazy faces
• Use crazy voice tones
• Use large...exaggerated movements
• Get lost right in mid sentence and see if they are listening (ex. "And down this hill we are going to........hey.......do you see that tiny hippopotamus behind the soda machine?")
• Get frustrated and stomp your feet like they do...see if they try to help you (they will...but you have to make it really believable...like a kid...not an adult)
• Do first...explain later (this one is my favorite...because it works the best...just don't be unsafe)

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

 

[catou]

Get lost right in mid sentence and see if they are listening (ex. "And down this hill we are going to........hey.......do you see that tiny hippopotamus behind the soda machine?")

I'll have to try this one...

Also, listen to them when they talk about the tv shwo they watched, their family, their favorite colour. They will tell you what they like. Then it's super easy to incorporate these things in your trainings. Superheros, pirates, knights and princesses, animals, these are themes that works really really well. They can easily become batman who has to walk on the top of a roof (the beam) to save a cat (stuff animal at the end of the beam) that can't go down by itself! Just add some bean bags or cones on the beam and now they have to jump from a building to another!

 

[iwannacoach]

I get a kick out of

Yes...enter their world.

When you are explaining things...be like them...

• Use crazy faces
• Use crazy voice tones
• Use large...exaggerated movements
• Get lost right in mid sentence and see if they are listening (ex. "And down this hill we are going to........hey.......do you see that tiny hippopotamus behind the soda machine?")
• Get frustrated and stomp your feet like they do...see if they try to help you (they will...but you have to make it really believable...like a kid...not an adult)
• Do first...explain later (this one is my favorite...because it works the best...just don't be unsafe)

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

I'd say you and I must have read the same book on the subject, except you watched tapes, and I didn't do anything. I just watered down everything to keep things within their ability. I kept them under control and working on skills while I'd spend the rest of my my energy correcting what they were doing. It kinda worked and I thought I was doing well with it, but then......

This mother calls and sets up an appointment to talk about her two dd's that I had in the same class. These two were really good about listening and staying on task, and were pretty much model students. So I anticipated their mom wanted to chat about their potential and future in the program, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

She told me, in gently chosen words, that I was going about it all wrong, that her kids weren't enjoying their lessons because I was too serious and had them working all the time. She told me that kids are supposed to be a little goofy and giggle, and I had to figure a way to make it more like play than work. Any gymnastics, she said, should be blended into whatever it took to have fun. She finished her side of the discussion saying that if, after the next three weeks, her kids didn't want to come anymore she'd stop bringing them. The bottom line was I had very little time to figure out how to put fun first without throwing gymnastics out with the bath water.

That's when I started to get it right.... by doing every goofy thing in the JBS quote above. Well almost everything because we didn't have a soda machine, and I didn't stomp my foot, but did teach them to cross their arms and tap with one foot in front of them to show me they were exasperated or losing patience. The neat thing about that, and many others, is it kept them in one place and bonded them in a common cause... all while forcing a serious look on their faces when what they wanted to do was giggle and grin about how clever they'd become.

The weirdest thing is even though I had a pretty good group of team kids, I learned more about team level coaching from the preschool kids than I did while working with the big dogs. The most important thing they taught me was the process of understanding communication, both in explaining and listening......Probably because I also taught those littles to feign pulling hair out of their own heads to signal I wasn't explaining things correctly..... and boy, did they ever do a lot of hair pulling.

Just think about it for a week. We seldom sincerely listen to the littles, well that's the way I was, but we expect them to listen to us?

 

[txgymfan]

I am teaching 4 year olds daily ( while working with another teacher). I've come to the conclusion that if I master working with these kids, I can teach ANYONE. We have 9 boys and they tolerate NO downtime ( given 30 seconds of quiet and they are rolling on the floor and playing puppy) they do better with routine, CLEAR instructions and visual or movement instead of just listening.