Dear teachers,
I have a friend who works as a DODDS teacher, combined 2nd and 3rd grades. She has a child who is fairly obvious adhd in her class, he won’t finish anything, refuses to do work in class, mom states he spends about 3 hours on homework(friend has modified work for him). The child is bright, has nice handwriting but won’t write. There could still be other problems besides adhd I know.
The problems are that the mom fails to attend meetings with teacher, child is late to school everyday, mom acknowledges that behaviors are the same in school and home but doesn’t acknowledge that there is an actual problem, blames it on the teacher. Mom won’t allow testing or evaluations of any kind. Apparently the child was in middle of an eval. in 1st grade but parents pulled him out of it because of the psych(so it was said), then moved here to Germany. There may be a possibility of problems at home that parents don’t want known.
I asked my friend about the DODDS policy about the school going to due process to evaluate without parental consent, she said there was nothing the school can do without consent. I am not completely sure about the rules here.
I understand this sounds like the other side of a coin, but without any evals or help from mom, what else can my friend do to gain this child’s cooperation?
I asked about how my friend is modifying work, she has done things like folding the paper so that only a few problems show, ‘do only 4 and come see me’.She has reduced homework load.
I guess I can see that without knowing exactly what the problems are, it makes teaching this child much harder.
Any ideas? I will go to the accommodations list and see what I can come up with also. Thanks y’all.
Re: advice for teacher friend
When I worked in DODDS, if parents failed to attend meetings or there were other signs of educational neglect (such as truancy/frequent tardiness) the principal called the sponsor’s first seargeant or ommanding officer. Things tended to change quickly when the parent’s boss became involved!
Re: advice for teacher friend
Thanks Rover, she did mention that she could do that, dad has been in kosovo and just got back, some things are better like being on time in the morning, however, sounds like things are not settled at home yet. I think she wanted to save going to the co as a last resort. My understanding from what she has told me is that home is a bit chaotic even when dad is there. I think some investigation may be warranted but that isn’t my call, the school is in another city. I did give her a book on how to reach and teach kids with add/adhd, it wasn’t all that specifically helpful to me so hopefully it will be for her.
Re: advice for teacher friend
Hi!
I read your letter and find it all so common. I’m a teacher in Miami Florida teaching in a self-contained class for students with varied exceptionalities.
I also run into the same problem with parents all the time. I can’t say there’s any one solution. This teacher is on the right track. She should pretty much try anything such as: manipulatives, teacher-made hand-outs, trade-books for reading,etc. There just so much she can try but alot of times it depends on the child’s style of learning. Is she/he a visual, auditory or tactile learner? Even if it’s hard to pin-point all children learn by doing (even if it gets messy). I can go on and on. If any of this sounds helpful and you’d like to get back to me don’t hesitate. Hope I was of some help. Good Luck!
The apple usually doesn’t fall far from the tree. If the son is acting like this chances are that mom probably has her own ADD issues too. There really isn’t much the teacher can do without parental support. There needs to be a united front surrounding this kid. The teacher can see if she can motivate him to stay on task but he needs to buy into it too.
When the mom and son hit rock bottom then things will change but like the mom says, there is no problem and in her current mind set she will not change unless it comes from within herself. You can lead a horse to water but that doesn’t mean he will drink..