Tearing my hair (long,sorry)

1. Is his meds wearing off by homework time? If he doing better in school,and worse at home?

We can tell a difference in how he “presents” at home with and without meds. He has his meds at school, though (dexedrine CR right now, although we’ve worked through the spectrum) and he is clearly not “receiving” while at school. Thanks for your help, and any light you can shed on this!

Has he been evaluated for CAPD—central auditory processing disorder? Some of what you said sounds like my son. Memory and receptive language issues can be part of it. Ritalin ect does nothing for CAPD. You can have ADHD and CAPD.

I have mentioned this to the ADD ped who dismissed the idea, but I am going to ask our adored regular pediatrician for a referral. Am I asking for an audiologist or who does this eval? Thanks.

Here’s a website that might help. An audiologist does the testing. The fact that he seems to participate in class seems somewhat incompatible but there are different types of CAPD, some of which deal with memory issues.

http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/capd.html

I would bet he is verbally awsome:-) I would look possibly towards aspergers too.It is characterized by a high verbal IQ and a lower performance IQ. The gap is significant 20 or more points.Of course any gifted ld kid would have a spread there too. It just depends on the kid. I have two gifted/lders. Both are severely dysgraphic. They also have ADHD. My youngest has CAPD,diagnosed by an audiologist. Information auditorily just doesn’t process the same for him like others. He has a hard time retrieving words. Language therapy,and or an FM hearing device is reccomended for this. Of course in class lots of visual cues,and visual tasks. Maybe a visual display of where stuff goes would help with organization? Don’t know. My kids both struggle with organization, it’s really part of the disability. In ADHD and LD.AND GIFTED,for that matter. Even their dear old dyslexic mom is disorganized,but I learned to be organized in an unorganized fashion.

You don’t mention how well he gets the stuff down? Can he read it? Is his writing so laborious that he is doing good to get all the info down? Without remembering which color notebook to use? Maybe a tape recordered diary? You can get them pretty cheap at radio shack.

For my kids,it definitely helps to be in a smaller classroom situation,especially for my kid who has trouble processing auditorily.

Both of my kids are currently in OT. They are involved in the IM program. Interactive Metronome. This is mainly ,because of their writing difficulties,motor planning,and the program states they have some success in attention span. If the “out of sync” child sounds like yours you might look into this. The program works on timing,and being in rhythm with themsleves. You might check this out.

In the long run the most helpful evaluation was the one that told me how they learn,and how they can’t learn.

Hope all this helped.

getting him an Assistive listening device? This way he is tuned in to the teacher and can’t zone out. There have been studies done on kids who were ADD and when they used an Assistive listening device they were more attentive and did better at school.

I constantly have to monitor my daughter’s notebook and her schoolwork. She is ADD and has CAPD. She has used an assisistive listening device for 8 years now and because of the Assistive listening device she has great auditory memory. In regards to remembering things for tests we have to use lots of mnemonics with rhymes. She is inconsistent on her tests, she can get an A and the next test she gets an F. We too spend hours reteaching her subjects everyday. It is hard, she does go through periods where she is very organized and others where she is all over the map, missing assignments, forgetting her books etc..

I more or less act as an ADD coach for her…24/7. Also, does your son know how to take tests? Does he have the skills to weigh all the pro’s and con’s before he answers them? There is a real art to taking multiple choice tests and when kids are impulsive and inattentive they can really have problems with these type of tests.

I would be interested in finding more about a interactive metronome. Are there web sites for this? Thanks

Sounds like ADD inattentive and disorganization to me. You could discuss medication changes with his doctor. Maybe a different medication would work better.

In the meantime, try a paper clip in that spiral notebook on the page where he should be at. Or folding down the edge of the next clean page (I like the paper clip better) Would his teachers e-mail his weekly homework assignments to you? Is there a school website that homework could be posted on? Could he have a “homework buddy” or is there a neighbor with a child in the school that you could call in the evenings to get the real scoop on the homework?

Why does the doctor want to wait three months? Did he just have his medication increased? While I’m not sure how much help a new doctor will really be, I don’t get the three months wait. Your son is having problems now.

there website is www.interactivemetronome.com.

I think the assistive listening device is really worth a try. Many kids who are ADD without the hyperactivity also have CAPD. Some do well the listening device.

Regarding occupational therapy, by all means ask about it. My understanding, though, is that OT therapy or sensory integration therapy get much better results with very young children and that after fourth or fifth grade, the progress is much slower.

The battle goes on. It’s nice to meet others who have been there, too.

Lisa