I Can’t Do It!

Question:

I have a student in my kindergarten class who is constantly saying “I can’t do it”. This applies to everything from taking off her shoes to doing work. She has a difficult time following directions, and rarely does what she is asked to do. She is the last one to get her coat off when she gets here in the morning, and she is always the last to get ready for recess and when it is time to go home. I have tried encouraging her with “you haven’t even tried yet, how do you know you can’t do it?” or “I know you can do it”, but these encouraging statements don’t seem to help. If I try to give her timeout when she refuses to work, she would spend all day in a timeout. I think she enjoys the attention she gets, but if I ignore her behavior, it distracts the whole class. What is an effective way to deal positively with this type of behavior? Thank-you.