I have just started Brainskills with my 9 year old son about two and half weeks ago. He has slower processing, trouble staying on task, and following directions. By the schools definition he is language impaired and considered at risk for ADD. ( His reading/word attack skills are good. )
He receives 1/2 hr a week with a speech pathologist and 1/2 hr a day with the resource room teacher.
I was wondering if anyone has insight into what I have been experiencing lately. Since starting the program he started complaining about his eyes feeling strained etc. We brought him to a pediatric eye doctor and they said he has a convergence insuffiency. They gave us eye exercises to do and want to see him in a month. Also since starting his teacher has really been complaining about his attention span, she has to chase him for papers, he’s being forgetful, not on target, his grades are slipping, etc. She said this has gotten worse in the last few weeks. He wasnt very good in this way before but now it seems worse! I dont know if this is totally uncommon, if this is a coincedence, or if he is just totally stressed out with doing this on top of homework, etc.
I was reluctant to starting this during the school year but he has an identical twin with many of the same issues and will be working with him during the summer. I didnt feel I could work with both in the same time frame. I havent told the teachers I am doing this because I wanted to see what kind of feedback I would get. I dont see that he is being oppositional, he likes doing the Brainskills.
I also have a consultation with the pediatrician in a couple of weeks to go over the school reports regarding his attention. I dont know if he really has ADD or if some of the symptoms are a result of the learning issues. I am very reluctant to put him on meds..
Can anyone give advice? Thanks
Re: unusual things going on
Well the other possibility is that his eyes are strained from doing the program which is making him avoid other close work. If you are reluctant to try drugs, he might wait until you have the eyes working better and see if his attention improves.
I did PACE at the beginning of the school year and heard from my son’s teacher that he was just wiped out. So it could be a general fatigue issue as well.
Beth
If you are using a pediatric opthalmologist,
you might want to get a second opinion from a developmental optometrist. Developmental optometrists generally do a lot more in terms of vision therapy.
Also, the combination of convergence exercises and BrainSkills may be too much. If he was already complaining of eye fatigue from BrainSkills, adding convergence exercises could be overloading him. I would wait until vision therapy is finished before proceeding with BrainSkills.
Mary
I have been where you are with my own kids and ADD. I realized that I was ADD after they were diagnosed. Perhaps Brainskills is taxing his system but have you had any testing with Continuous performance tests to see what his attention span is like and the type of errors he is making?
just for the heck of it ask your son where he goes in his mind when he is at school and he can’t get anything done. Also the next time he is inattentive… ask him to tell you where he went with his thoughts…you may be very surprised..
Many times ADD is the underlying cause for the language disorder. If a child can’t control his wandering mind due to ADD, the chances for consistent learning and picking up language are severely impacted as they aren’t learning, they are just going through the motions. I see kids like this everyday in the high school I work at.
Check and see what the pediatrician thinks. I used to be very skeptical about meds myself until I observed how much they helped my kids. Meds under a Doctor’s supervision can be a very good thing…