My 12 yr old son was diagnosed with LD in first grade and has been receiving help since. However now in junior high he has been “forgetting” to do homework, “forgetting” to study for the tests, leaving finished homework at home etc. His resource teacher called at the beginning of this school year and said he is having trouble focusing in study hall and in group situations, though he does well when working one on one. She felt this focusing difficulty along with his missing assignments and poor grades this year point to ADD without hyperactivity. We are in the process of having him tested privately to get a better handle on the best high school placement for him so we also asked for an ADD workup. I am in the process of learning all I can about ADD but I was just wondering if anyone else has had this experience of their LD child just “falling apart” in junior high? The homework requirements have greatly increased this year(7th grade) and it is a battle to get him to sit for 15mins. and concentrate on one assignment. He also cannot plan for upcoming projects at all. He’d leave term papers and reports until the night before if I don’t practically sit down and do it with him. We will get the results of the tests in two weeks but I was just wondering if this sounds familar to anyone and if medication helped. Thanks so much for any input.
Re: LD now ADD?
Junior high has changed a great deal. It used to be that junior high sort of bridged the gap between elementary school and high school but now junior high is really that - a high school for younger students. We call it middle school but, as a middle school teacher, I’d say middle school is not in the middle. It’s much closer to high school than elementary school.
All the fun seems to go out of school when they hit middle school and all the extreme need for organization kicks in. Moving from class to class constantly with different homework in each, short term projects and long term projects layered over daily homework and tests and quizzes and writing papers thrown in.
In my middle school, it’s sadly not uncommon for ld students who have held it together in elementary school to struggle in middle school. They need to hit the road running - the homework starts the first day even while they’re still just getting used to finding their way around the building. While they’re adjusting to their new surroundings, they’re also being asked to adjust to much more homework, assigned from many more teachers, all of which have different expectations.
Not all of them can hit the road running and if they can’t, it’s hard to catch their breath later.
I have seen medication help some of this and some of these kids but not every kid. I’ve also sat down with my own ld son for four years as he struggled with middle school. The only difference would be that there were more than a few times that I didn’t practically do it for him - I did do it for him because I didn’t know what else to do.
Good luck to you and your son.
Re: LD now ADD?
I agree with you. Not only is it structured like high school but the requirements are so much more strigent then when I went to school. I have even noticed that my 2 kids in elementry school are learning things at an earlier and earlier age. I have 3 kids 1 in 3rd, 5th, and 8th—they are all studying the human skeleton—pretty much on the same level. The oldest and youngest are both LD with a language component to it—they are having great difficulty with the names of the bones. The oldest is in a mix of LD classes and regular. The one thing that disappointed me was the 1 of the regular education teachers was not aware that he was an LD student—just thought he was being lazy. She had not read his IEP or anything, did not call with concerns. Did not bring to our attention the trouble until report card/parent teacher conference. My fear is we will see more of this in high school. Also have noticed even if a teacher knows about the IEP does not mean they are going to follow it. The kids are the ones to suffer.
What you are describing is very typical when a child gets into middle school. My son’s own problems with ADD-Inattentive didn’t really come to a head until the end of 8th grade. He had always been disorganized, he would use the stash and dash method of filing in the backback. He knew the papers were in there but finding them, that was another story. I remember when he was in 3rd grade they would hang their backpacks on the back of their chairs and the minute he got out of his chair the weight of the backpack would make his chair tip over..No kidding…He was always my dreamy, creative, intuitive child who lived in his own little world. Finally the teacher made him organize his stuff but that didn’t reform him…LOL fast forward to middle school and high school and he was getting more scattered…HELP arrived through our pediatrician and a trial on meds. We had talked about it in 3rd grade but we didn’t do ameds until 5 years later when he was literally drowning in the academia of high school.
When middle school and high school comes on the scene the standards have been notched up and things really come to a roaring head. Your child hey has more to keep track of 6 different teachers, different books, assignments to do, book reports, tests, projects, it is overwhelming. My son had been able to skate by for awhile with his usual slapdash way but when high school came he hit the wall, kind of like what is happening to your son.
I would suggest an ADD coach, or a tutor who can help you get him organized. He needs to have a daily agenda or a daytimer, he needs to have a contract with his teachers where he checks in everyday to see what assignments he has to do and do budget his time accordingly. It takes a lot of time to organize a person with ADD. Yes, meds help a lot but what one needs to do is to change the behaviors. My son before he started meds, begged me to make him do his work and keep on top of him. He would always find something else to do and he told me, “No matter how nasty I am to you, you must keep after me to make sure that I do my work.” He knew he was in over his head and he didn’t know how to dig himself out. We started meds a year ago and what a difference! He made honor roll, he finishes what he starts, he still has relapses now and then, I can tell when those are coming because he starts to freak out and get nervous. He knows what it is like to be focused and organized. The same can happen for your son. I would suggest that you look into Daniel Amen’s website. He has lots of books that you can get to help your son and understand his problems.
Trust me you will get through this and he will survive. He just needs some structured scaffolding, perhaps meds and behavior modification strategies to teach him how to learn and be organized.