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Children Son not interest in study My 5-year-old son has started kindergarten for 4 month but he shows zero interest in his studies. He can't write, read or even differentiate between abc or 123. He is active and playful, playing toys and watching TV programmes are all that he loves.

I am a working mother (single mother too) who always goes home late. In the day (after school), my parents take care of him. I try to read to him every night before bed but I notice that he loses concentration easily.

Please guide me on how best I can help him to build a stronger foundation in his studies. How do I encourage him to read and write better? His teachers give him lots of homework which makes him more stressed. There are times that he mentions to me that the teacher makes him stand near the wall, because he is naughty and not paying attention in class.

Answer

Answered by Woo It can be difficult to monitor your child’s schoolwork especially if you are working full-time and having to do the house chores as well. It seems like your son may not have developed the interest for certain academic skills yet. As he loses concentration easily, there may be a possible issue of attention problem. And since he has not developed his reading and writing skills yet, it is best to take him to a clinical or child psychologist to be tested. Through testing, you will be able to find out whether he has any learning difficulties or other problems. If everything else is normal, it could be a problem of learning style. You can also request the psychologist to do a learning style test to find out the learning style that best suits your child.

While waiting for your child to be assessed, you can talk to his school teacher to find out more about your son’s difficulty in class. You can also take this opportunity to see whether the current school system suits your child. There are many different types of kindergarten syllabus in Malaysia, some are Montessori based (meaning more activity and exploratory based) and some are more similar to our primary and secondary school system (which places heavy emphasis on reading and writing).

At night, you may want to read short stories to your son on topics that you know he is interested in. A book with colourful pictures accompanying the story would be best. Since he has not developed much interest in reading, you may want to start off with very simple stories that have only a few pages. Try to be as animated as possible with the stories (if need be, use puppets as well) and when your son seems to be more interested, you can slowly move to stories which are a bit longer.

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Jamilah Samian and Ahmad Fakhri Hamzah

Jamilah and husband Ahmad Fakhri are professional trainers, Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioners and authors. Jamilah has written Cool Mum Super Dad, Cool Boys Super Sons and, together with Ahmad Fakhri, The Groovy Guide to Parenting Gen Y and Z. The couple has six children.
Prof Dr Eric Lim

Prof Lim is the founder of the Kits4Kids Foundation. He has a PhD in Educational Management, Master of Education and Bachelor of Special Education focusing on special education, and a Masters in Psychology focusing on child psychology and counselling.
Dentist Dr Alida Mahyuddin

Dr Alida is a senior lecturer and specialist in Paediatric Dentistry at the Faculty of Dentistry, UKM. She is also the Visiting Consultant at the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, UKM Medical Centre, and a committee member of the Global Children Dental Health taskforce.
Paediatrician Dr. Hon Mun Cheng

Dr Hon is trained in paediatrics, infectious disease, nephrology and neonatology. The mother of two now practices in a private clinic.
Midwife Ann Ibrahim

Ann has been practising midwifery for over a decade now. Having completed her degree, she worked in Britain for a spell and then returned to her homeland Malaysia.
Psychologist Woo Pei Jun

Woo is a developmental psychologist who has studied and worked in Malaysia and the United States. Her areas of research have involved cross cultural issues related to eating disorders amongst Asians, mental health and behavioural problems amongst children and youth in Malaysia.
Fitness guru Debbra Lee

Lee is certified through the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) from Britain, with specialty certification in pregnancy and postnatal fitness by the YMCA (Britain). She has been conducting pre and post-natal classes for many years. She is the proprietor of Fit For 2 cafe, Kuala Lumpur.
Obstetrician / Gynaecologist Dr Ng Kok Chong

Dr Ng was a lecturer at Universiti Malaya. He is currently a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at private clinic. His sub-speciality is infertilty.
Consultant Paediatrician Dr. Yong Junina

Dr Yong Junina is a consultant paediatrician at Klinik Pakar Kanak-Kanak Junina, Mutiara Damansara, and visiting paediatric cardiologist at Darul Ehsan Medical Centre, Shah Alam and Hospital UKM. She is also a visiting lecturer for the department of ? paediatrics, faculty of medicine, UKM.