AAP Middle schoolers with ADHD

[Anonymous]

Any other parents of 2e kids here who can share your best practices? My son's largest issue is inattention and executive function. It manifests in ways like he can't figure out how to get the pass he needs to see his teacher during study hall or he doesn't fully complete the assignment because he didn't catch all the instructions. He is so far doing well in the material, but the organizational parts will be his demise.

[Anonymous]

You have to help him stay organized.

It is harder in middle school because there are different teachers every hour and they don’t communicate with parents unless you initiate.

Does he remember he has homework and in which subject? If he can remember that consistently, I would then ask him to pull up the assignment instructions and look over his work to make sure he is meeting all the criteria in the instructions.

[Anonymous]

Same situation for my daughter. I had her put a large post-it on the front of her binder each day, and jot down a list of to-dos in each class. Kid requested teacher to glance at the list each day as she was leaving class. Teachers were happy to help in this manner, esp if initiated by the student. Then have her check-off at home: both classwork and homework. My kid often didn't finish classwork in class but was able to complete at home if she knew what to do. Also, you may have to request from some teachers to have their daily (or weekly) agenda updated in Schoology, if anything to "allow my student to be accountable for his own work". In our experience it got better throuh 7th and the list was no longer needed in 8th. Now we are figuring out strategies for 9th, which has been a huge transition.

[Anonymous]

Omg....I just finished helping my 7th grader with an algebra project due tomorrow that she was assigned last week. Finished at 10pm. She forgot she had it and wasn't sure when it was due. It was the first time I'd seen it. We had a good talk afterwards about her executive functioning skills (or lack thereof) and how we need to start figuring this out. I hear a lot of "I forgot" and "I just couldn't figure out how to get started" and "I was distracted." She is only recently diagnosed with ADD and only based on my feedback. Her teachers gave glowing reviews in elementary and saw no signs of ADD. But there was no homework. No need to study. No independent organization skills necessary. Now all these shortcomings are starting to pop up. Teachers won't see it because I'm involved and helpful to my child teaching her all these EF skills. But she's starting to get overwhelmed.

Our current plan is daily agenda book checks by me plus a set homework time and location at home. Curious to see what others are doing to help.

[Anonymous]

Why are your kids in AAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are your kids in AAP?

NP. Because they were admitted. Because they had high NNAT, Cogat and GBRS. And when DC was evaluated in 6th grade, we found that DC has a high WISC and ADHD.

OP, DC is in 8th grade AAP and we have a scheduled homework time, from 7-7:30 or 8, to go through binders and Schoology and check that assignments are completed and submitted. Sometimes DC has lots of schoolwork, sometimes none.

We've tried an agenda and writing assignments on a post it or loose paper. So far, haven't found anything that works yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are your kids in AAP?

I'm the op. Because my son has an extremely high iq and is extremely bright.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg....I just finished helping my 7th grader with an algebra project due tomorrow that she was assigned last week. Finished at 10pm. She forgot she had it and wasn't sure when it was due. It was the first time I'd seen it. We had a good talk afterwards about her executive functioning skills (or lack thereof) and how we need to start figuring this out. I hear a lot of "I forgot" and "I just couldn't figure out how to get started" and "I was distracted." She is only recently diagnosed with ADD and only based on my feedback. Her teachers gave glowing reviews in elementary and saw no signs of ADD. But there was no homework. No need to study. No independent organization skills necessary. Now all these shortcomings are starting to pop up. Teachers won't see it because I'm involved and helpful to my child teaching her all these EF skills. But she's starting to get overwhelmed.

Our current plan is daily agenda book checks by me plus a set homework time and location at home. Curious to see what others are doing to help.

Op. This is why we skipped algebra. Work is all easy for now and he'll use this year to improve his EF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg....I just finished helping my 7th grader with an algebra project due tomorrow that she was assigned last week. Finished at 10pm. She forgot she had it and wasn't sure when it was due. It was the first time I'd seen it. We had a good talk afterwards about her executive functioning skills (or lack thereof) and how we need to start figuring this out. I hear a lot of "I forgot" and "I just couldn't figure out how to get started" and "I was distracted." She is only recently diagnosed with ADD and only based on my feedback. Her teachers gave glowing reviews in elementary and saw no signs of ADD. But there was no homework. No need to study. No independent organization skills necessary. Now all these shortcomings are starting to pop up. Teachers won't see it because I'm involved and helpful to my child teaching her all these EF skills. But she's starting to get overwhelmed.

Our current plan is daily agenda book checks by me plus a set homework time and location at home. Curious to see what others are doing to help.

Op. This is why we skipped algebra. Work is all easy for now and he'll use this year to improve his EF.

Skipped like held back a year in math? Is he enjoying the math class he's stuck in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are your kids in AAP?

NP. Because they were admitted. Because they had high NNAT, Cogat and GBRS. And when DC was evaluated in 6th grade, we found that DC has a high WISC and ADHD.

OP, DC is in 8th grade AAP and we have a scheduled homework time, from 7-7:30 or 8, to go through binders and Schoology and check that assignments are completed and submitted. Sometimes DC has lots of schoolwork, sometimes none.

We've tried an agenda and writing assignments on a post it or loose paper. So far, haven't found anything that works yet.

Do it immediately when they get home from school, before they get tired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg....I just finished helping my 7th grader with an algebra project due tomorrow that she was assigned last week. Finished at 10pm. She forgot she had it and wasn't sure when it was due. It was the first time I'd seen it. We had a good talk afterwards about her executive functioning skills (or lack thereof) and how we need to start figuring this out. I hear a lot of "I forgot" and "I just couldn't figure out how to get started" and "I was distracted." She is only recently diagnosed with ADD and only based on my feedback. Her teachers gave glowing reviews in elementary and saw no signs of ADD. But there was no homework. No need to study. No independent organization skills necessary. Now all these shortcomings are starting to pop up. Teachers won't see it because I'm involved and helpful to my child teaching her all these EF skills. But she's starting to get overwhelmed.

Our current plan is daily agenda book checks by me plus a set homework time and location at home. Curious to see what others are doing to help.

What's an algebra project?

[Anonymous]

My son didn't take this but I think there's a class AVID for help with that.

Basically people have different strengths and weaknesses. Your kid gets the material - so that's not what they need to work on. They need to work on the other stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have to help him stay organized.

It is harder in middle school because there are different teachers every hour and they don’t communicate with parents unless you initiate.

Does he remember he has homework and in which subject? If he can remember that consistently, I would then ask him to pull up the assignment instructions and look over his work to make sure he is meeting all the criteria in the instructions.

My tip is that starting in middle school you should not be communicating with the teachers - you should be coaching the kid on how to handle this all on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg....I just finished helping my 7th grader with an algebra project due tomorrow that she was assigned last week. Finished at 10pm. She forgot she had it and wasn't sure when it was due. It was the first time I'd seen it. We had a good talk afterwards about her executive functioning skills (or lack thereof) and how we need to start figuring this out. I hear a lot of "I forgot" and "I just couldn't figure out how to get started" and "I was distracted." She is only recently diagnosed with ADD and only based on my feedback. Her teachers gave glowing reviews in elementary and saw no signs of ADD. But there was no homework. No need to study. No independent organization skills necessary. Now all these shortcomings are starting to pop up. Teachers won't see it because I'm involved and helpful to my child teaching her all these EF skills. But she's starting to get overwhelmed.

Our current plan is daily agenda book checks by me plus a set homework time and location at home. Curious to see what others are doing to help.

Op. This is why we skipped algebra. Work is all easy for now and he'll use this year to improve his EF.

Skipped like held back a year in math? Is he enjoying the math class he's stuck in?

He's still learning eighth grade math in seventh grade. He just didn't take algebra. He'll take it in 8th grade. Many don't take algebra until 9th.

[Anonymous]

Looking ahead to high school, do not overload him with a class schedule that it too difficult in it's entirety. Yes, he may be capable of an advanced level class in each subject but that doesn't mean he should take them. Not all of them. Taking too many, it's likely too much. I've seen too many parents with 2e students load them with AP classes, become very frustrated at their low gpa, and then believe their student isn't really for college. The student would have been fine with a more balanced schedule and would have done better with college admissions.