What 504 accommodations for a middle schooler who plays games on Ipad during school?

[Anonymous]

My middle schooler has been diagnosed with ADHD and autism. During school, he rushes through school work and then plays games or reads unrelated things on his Ipad. He is not medicated. We tried a variety of meds years ago without success. Has anyone found anything that helps with this?

[Anonymous]

Why does he have an iPad at school?

[Anonymous]

Perhaps it could say that when he is done with his work, his ipad must be put away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does he have an iPad at school?

It's provided by the school - they do their school work on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps it could say that when he is done with his work, his ipad must be put away.

This is good, thank you!

[Anonymous]

Middle school teacher here. Here are the accommodations I most commonly see in this situation:

Teacher check-ins.
Remind student to take their time.
Check work for completion and accuracy.
Let student choose between several teacher-approved activities if they finish early.
Teacher holds on to tech device when not being actively used in class.

Sometimes tech time is put into accommodations as a reward if the work has been completed to the teacher’s satisfaction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle school teacher here. Here are the accommodations I most commonly see in this situation:

Teacher check-ins.
Remind student to take their time.
Check work for completion and accuracy.
Let student choose between several teacher-approved activities if they finish early.
Teacher holds on to tech device when not being actively used in class.

Sometimes tech time is put into accommodations as a reward if the work has been completed to the teacher’s satisfaction.

Thank you! This is really helpful.

[Anonymous]

We had this problem with our kid in late elementary. He's now in a different school with a different setup, so I can't say we solved it exactly.

I do think that this is a common issue and that schools need to work on making sure the activities they can do after finishing their work are not more interesting than the work itself.

Teacher-approved activities afterwards is a good idea, as one PP said. The challenge is that even some of the games are often teacher-approved. For example, my kid would happily play online math games that were pretty easy for him but much more fun than working hard on whatever assignment was in front of him.

I think you may need to troubleshoot with individual teachers to get this right, and it will be hard because they will have different teachers for each subject. It might be more useful to focus on the quality of the work or having the "check work" part written in. Probably all the kids do this, so it might not make sense to try to totally get rid of the behavior.

[Anonymous]

Can't IEP your way out of a teacher refusing to do their job. Need to be persuasive.

[Anonymous]

Kid could have paper work instead of ipad work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kid could have paper work instead of ipad work.

This can sometimes work, but not all computer work can be done on paper. You could phrase the accommodation as, “When possible, provide paper copies of assignments.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had this problem with our kid in late elementary. He's now in a different school with a different setup, so I can't say we solved it exactly.

I do think that this is a common issue and that schools need to work on making sure the activities they can do after finishing their work are not more interesting than the work itself.

Teacher-approved activities afterwards is a good idea, as one PP said. The challenge is that even some of the games are often teacher-approved. For example, my kid would happily play online math games that were pretty easy for him but much more fun than working hard on whatever assignment was in front of him.

I think you may need to troubleshoot with individual teachers to get this right, and it will be hard because they will have different teachers for each subject. It might be more useful to focus on the quality of the work or having the "check work" part written in. Probably all the kids do this, so it might not make sense to try to totally get rid of the behavior.

Fair point. If the kid is rushing they shouldn’t have an incentive to speed through their work. The accommodation might read, “If student finishes work early, teacher will provide an activity that is not on the iPad.” (Could be silent reading, correcting their work on paper, making flash cards for a test, organizing their notebook, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle school teacher here. Here are the accommodations I most commonly see in this situation:

Teacher check-ins.
Remind student to take their time.
Check work for completion and accuracy.
Let student choose between several teacher-approved activities if they finish early.
Teacher holds on to tech device when not being actively used in class.

Sometimes tech time is put into accommodations as a reward if the work has been completed to the teacher’s satisfaction.

Thank you! This is really helpful.

For this to work there has to be parents who will enforce it. “Teacher holds on to tech device when not being actively used in class.” Students will argue or not give up their device because other students aren’t having to give up their devices. The teacher can’t spend half the class arguing with the student to hand over his or her device. Administrators don’t approve of applying consequences like detention or being sent to the office. So there isn’t much a teacher can do.

You as a parent should look at on the history of the device and be ready and able to enforce a consequence if the teacher says your child was playing games or you find evidence of that.

[Anonymous]

Send your child to a school without computers. Seriously. Waldorf, traditional. Get out of the public school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle school teacher here. Here are the accommodations I most commonly see in this situation:

Teacher check-ins.
Remind student to take their time.
Check work for completion and accuracy.
Let student choose between several teacher-approved activities if they finish early.
Teacher holds on to tech device when not being actively used in class.

Sometimes tech time is put into accommodations as a reward if the work has been completed to the teacher’s satisfaction.

Thank you! This is really helpful.

For this to work there has to be parents who will enforce it. “Teacher holds on to tech device when not being actively used in class.” Students will argue or not give up their device because other students aren’t having to give up their devices. The teacher can’t spend half the class arguing with the student to hand over his or her device. Administrators don’t approve of applying consequences like detention or being sent to the office. So there isn’t much a teacher can do.

You as a parent should look at on the history of the device and be ready and able to enforce a consequence if the teacher says your child was playing games or you find evidence of that.

In my experience, it takes parents and teachers working together- which can be harder than it sounds. We will always follow up with losing screen time at home if my kid is playing in his iPad at school or doesn’t complete work satisfactorily. It works, as long as we know to impose the consequence.