Children misbehave more as the week goes on.
Children are more likely to misbehave at the end of the week
New research has revealed that youngsters become more impulsive and inattentive as the week progresses.
60 kids aged between three and six wore accelerometers to detect how much they were moving about at school and the team used the data to work when the children were not paying attention and had less control over their behaviour.
Analysis showed that a child's ability to regulate their behaviour reduced across the week and the scientists argue that self-regulation is depleted by repeated use during a day at school.
Writing in the journal Child Development, experts from the University of Pennsylvania said: "Why does a child struggle to sit through a story one day, but not the next?
"Why do they rush impulsively into one activity but not another?
"Controlling one's behaviour takes effort, so we hypothesised that children's self-regulation might tire across the school week.
"We found that children's daily forward-motion increased across the school week, indicating that they displayed more uncontrolled behaviour as the week progressed."