latest update on LD/dyslexic/NLD/inattentive son- its good!

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

we went into our parent teacher conference last week prepared to have our son’s school push medication as an answer to his attentional issues. The question I was prepared to ask was “is he learning” since we all know he’s a space cadet , and yet we feel he’s making progress.

Well, to our surprise they presented his progress to us,and its even better than we thought. So much so that they were considering moving him up a reading group this year. (I should remind you that he’s in a special LD school so the reading groups are based on ability) They decided to wait until next fall, when he will make a “leap” and join children who are preparing to mainstream after next year. We do not plan to mainstream him after next year, but clearly he is much closer than we had thought. (!)

although each teacher did comment on the need to refocus him, they also praised his work ethic, ability to work in groups and overall academic performance. (He’s viewed as a top math and science student, despite a tendency to zone out when disinterested or fixate when overly interested.) Socially they find him to be quiet and serious about his work, but chatty enough during unstructured times. Not left out, not excluded.

This was about as good as we could have hoped, and allows us to defer medication decisions. Wanted to share!!

Submitted by KarenN on Mon, 02/28/2005 - 4:33 PM

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Yes, I’ve learned over the past year to be grateful for the fact that he does a small number of friendships even though he isn’t part of a group, either in school or in our neighborhood. Thank god there are other children out there that appreciate him.

Submitted by KarenN on Mon, 02/28/2005 - 9:10 PM

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hi Hypermommy,

He certainly does have anxiety, with some obsessive behaviors thrown in for good measure. nothing that earns him a diagnosis or that anyone has felt requires medication.

We have really decreased his anxiety levels by placing him in a specialized school where he feels understood and that is actually teaching him. As his skills improve he obviously feels better about himself. We also had him in psychotherapy for about a year and a half before changing schools, took a year off, and just recently started him in therapy again. Our goal is for him to learn cognitive / behavioral strategies to help him regulate the anxious thoughts (which we theorize are a part of his attention problem)

The worse of his anxiety was when he was 8 and not reading. He’s almost 11 now and we’ve worked very hard on a variety of things with him since then.

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