ADHD, immaturity, academic skills

[Gal220girl]

My daughter has been homeschooled for K and grade 1. She will be enrolling in the local public school for second grade. She does not yet have a diagnosis, although her psychologist who sees her for anxiety said she shows many signs of ADHD. We visited the school and the class she would be in and was told how they have diifferentiated literacy and math and how they teach to the child's level. I felt really positive about the school. Then they asked my daughter to come in for an end of the year math and reading assessment for 30 minutes. They said my daughter was solidly average because although she got almost every answer correct, she read and did math way too slow. She was very distractable and wigglley and Very very immature and we should consider First grade. Well, they were correct about everthing except her math and reading skills. She is reading second grade library books(she just read"Driven to Dristraction" on a library book. and she does addition with carrying into the ten's and hundreds and is teaching herself to multiply and is up to the sum of 15. I told them she would definitely be a Second Grader.We are contacting a Psychiatrist for another opinion. Her current psychologist wants to let her try the classroom with proactive support(seat with highly focused peers,clear stucture routine,ect.) My husband has switched to the She needs to be on something(drug). He is still very anti-special Ed. What sort of testing should I request? I plan to take in samples of her current school work. Any thoughts???

[Mayleng]

If you can afford it, have her evaluated by a Neuropsychologist who can diagnose ADHD and/or Learning Disabilities. If she is on the level academically that you are describing then you should not keep her at first grade, because she will be bored. She might even be GIfted, which has symptoms that mimic ADHD. Here is a link to an article about it. www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/add_adhd/eric522.html

Once the Neuropsych confirms if it is ADHD then you might want to consider Meds which will help her attention/focus, wigglyness. ADHD kids are 1/3 behind in maturity of their peers.

A good book to read is "taking charge of ADHD" by Dr. Russell Barkley. He also tells you what the school needs to do to accomodate ADDers.

You won't know what you are dealing with until you get a diagnosis from a Good Neuropsychologist.

[MomX2]

I can tell you this much. When I was in the 3rd grade my teacher sent me to a special class because she said I didn't understand multiplication. That same teacher also suggested to my parents that they hold me back a year. I was quickly sent back to my class with an explanation that I knew full well how to do math. My parents decided they didn't need to hold me back in school. Though I was never diagnosed with ADHD I remember my behavior and difficulties in gradeschool well. I remember I was often off-task because I was distracted. I also was never able to memorize multiplication tables which I suspect is a learning disability I have specific to numbers/math which I always knew I had but no teacher ever figured it out. That slowed me way down when doing both homework and math tests. I had to add everything up and because I was rushed due to time-limits I make many mistakes. Over the years I fell farther and farther behind in math because I couldn't keep up in speed even though I understand math quite well. In fact, I love the challenge that using math presents to me and in many ways it hurts that it was so stressful for me in school when it's something I really might have liked to do given the chance to learn.

I was also an above average English student but in the required speed reading courses I always fell behind the kids who didn't do as well as me grade wise. I understand what I read and, in fact, I love reading and will spend hours doing so. But the fact of the matter is that I can't read quite as fast as other people seem to be able too. Again, in the school environment with strict time limits that can be handicap that can lower a child's grades when they can't keep up. After school if it takes too much time to complete homework because of slower reading a child may not have time to complete their homework do to other activities and chores. My family forced me to compete in sports and by the time I got around to homework after sports events I often felt I didn't have the time to do the work.

My point here is that a child absolutely needs to have the opportunity to work on the level their intelligence is at. The school's continue to make the same mistakes. They think the child needs to work at a lower level. Actually what they probably need is less but more challenging work. They also need more interesting instruction. You know teacher's are relying more and more on tv and videos to teach kids in the classroom. My child is nearly bored to tears at school because he never gets to *do* anything.

[Gal220girl]

I totally understand. I am a 40 year old with a Master's Degree and Still have to add up many multiplication facts, I even have to add up simple addition like 7+4 = 7+3=10+1.. You are really correct about my daughter.

[MomX2]

I can't do a lot of simple addition or subtraction either which only makes multiplication harder. And by that I mean I can do it but I can't do it all in my mind. I need something visual to look and I have to write individual facts down when working on a complicated math problem. There are some things I figure up easily but not most problems. That's not to say I'm careless with math though. I used to get a lot of awards and raises with my teenage jobs for having perfect drawers and such. I was also told once, on the side, that I had the best grade in the accounting class I was in. I get so extremely frustrated because I have a near obsessive interest in science and I can't do a lot of the math associated with it. Or at least I've always been lead to believe I can't do it.