Son with ADD

The right teacher can make a big difference in any child’s school life but sadly it doesn’t sound as if your son is with the right teacher. Can his placement be changed? If not for this year, you would certainly want to keep your ear to the ground and find the right teacher for him next year.

You can give this teacher or any other a list of strategies but even the best of teachers usually can’t change gears. If you’re very lucky you can get an impatient teacher to soften up a little bit on the child but much more than that doesn’t happen.

Schools like to encourage us to see them as places where the individual child is recognized and programmed for but how do you do that in the large classes most teachers are given?

To pursue good strategies, though, try reading Dr. Mel Levine’s Educational Care. The book is a little dry but it can offer good strategies for ADD.

Good luck.

there can be underlying problems that cause the symptoms of ADD. When this is the case, correcting the underlying problem eases the symptoms. A common cause that is often missed is a problem with central auditory processing (CAPD). To find out more about CAPD, check out the links at http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/

Incidentally, CAPD often causes difficulties learning to read as well as symptoms of ADD and problems with behavior and socialization. The only way to get a thorough evaluation is to go to an audiologist who specializes in CAPD evaluation. Regular audiologists do not have the training. A child can pass a regular hearing exam just fine and still have CAPD.

Mary

WHen a kiddo is having trouble with reading and writing, it’s completely normal for them to have trouble paying attention to reading and writing — and to school for that matter. And if there are problems keeping up with what people are saying, or making sense out of what people say when there is background noise… it’s also going to *look* like h’es not paying attention.

Of course, on the other hand, if a kiddo isn’t able to pay attention, then it’s highly likely he’ll have a bit of trouble learning.

Unfortunately, there are teachers who simply assume that they have been taught The Way To TEach Kids To REad, and if a kid is having trouble, well, it *can’t* be that they need to teach the kid differently, or get the kid special help in that area… no, must be a medical problem. Whew! Good thing the school doesn’t have to be responsible for it! If reading and writing are the only things he has attention problems with, then it’s probably not an attention problem, it’s probably a reading problem. (Only probably of course!)

Check out the ADD section of LD IN Depth… ADD can be overdiagnosed or underdiagnosed.

Christine, he may not need any medical treatment, however if there is true ADHD and it is moderate to severe, you may find that learning strategies can only help up to a point. This is from a teacher who 10 years ago, as a parent, did not believe in medication. I thought that “good teaching” would take care of “ADHD” any day. Anyone who insisted otherwise was not engaging in good teaching.

It was easy to hold this viewpoint from the outside looking in. I have changed, gradually, in my 10 year teaching. There are children for whom medication makes a vast difference. I have one fellow right now on my caseload that no one can keep organized, he loses everything, he is constantly zoned out, I remind him, call on him, etc. constantly in my resource room to keep him learning. He gets nothing done. His teacher now reports he is making self-deprecting statements, his self-esteem is sinking. How can you feel good about yourself when it takes a committee to keep you organized and on task and even then things fall through the cracks? Naturally we suggested that the parent make an appointment with their doctor, but they haven’t and I have the sense they won’t. They will hear about his self-esteem, however at the conference next week.

Hi,

In regards to remediating a child with learning differences they need to be able to focus. If you can’t get them to attend you can not remediate them. That is a plain and simple truth. I remember feeling like you do, I was AGAINST medication, I thought it was overprescribed, didn’t apply to my kids and certainly their problems learning and focusing had nothing to do with me and my own problems with parenting and staying focused. It took me YEARS to figure out that I too had ADHD on top of auditory processing disorders…and sadly I learned this through the struggles my children had with learning. They were put on medication about 18 months ago and it has helped tremendously. Yes, we still have to stay on top of their organizational skills and help them with one on one tutoring, eliminating distractions, keeping them on task. They are finally successful, my son made honor roll and my daughter was just mainstremed this year and is doing well in school instead of feeling depressed and overwhelmed and failing. Medication can be a good thing, don’t discount trying it out.

There is a great book by Lingui Systems by Gail Richard, called The Source for Attention Deficit Disorder. I have learned a lot from this book. It has different sections on it for behavior strategies, what the medication does, what the symptoms are etc..