Incomplete Work Stems from Attention Issue

My son has done a complete turnaround now that he is in first grade. Last year, he never wanted to make a mistake so it took him forever to complete an assignment. The kindergarten teacher was always trying to get him to hurry up and get finished.
You would never believe what has happened this year. He has turned into Mr. Social. He can't concentrate because he is busy watching what other students are doing. Now, the first-grade teacher just wrote me a note saying that he is not completing assignments because he is so easily distracted. How can I get him on track? -- Failing to Focus
Answer: Believe it or not, it would be best if your son went back to focusing on not making a mistake. Being told to go faster earlier may have frustrated him. All along, however, his problems could have been caused by an inability to pay attention. It may have taken him a long time to complete tasks in kindergarten because he was unable to concentrate. Now the attention problem could explain why he is easily distracted.
What needs to be done is to see if your son has the skills to do his assignments. Watch how he approaches a task to see if he can handle the work or if he really can't stay on task. You may find out that both contribute to his problem. One way that you could help him is to have him do extra exercises so you are sure that he knows what he is doing. If simple measures don't help, more evaluations of your son's problems will be necessary.
One simple solution to the attention problem is to change his seat to the front of the classroom -- close to the teacher. This will eliminate much of the distraction from the other students. Also, if the classroom has study carrels, using one could help him focus on his work when doing assignments.