Middle school/high school parents of GT/LD/ADHD kids - Share your success stories!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has quite severe dyslexia and dysgraphia and ADHD. He is in HS. He has a ton of accommodations to be successful. Teacher notes, extended time on assessments, calculator, scribe and reader on assessments, priority seating, drawing not required- uses computer, has about half a dozen programs on his computer that help (eg Kurzweil, Co-writer), electronic textbooks (this has been the hardest to get in a timely manner- start early), no foreign language.....

Middle school was the worst of the three (ES,MS,HS) in terms of understanding his needs and the legal ramifications of not providing for them. HS has been great.

He also has just a few outside activities, so he has enough time for homework and relaxation. He took his first AP last year and scored a 5. He is take three this year- all science/math. Next year he will take 3 or 4. He gets almost all A's.

OP: That's so glad to hear, PP. And, so glad your son is doing well. That is very inspiring! And, also thank you for sharing your specific accommodations as well. Do you feel that these accommodations were key to his success? Or do you feel that as some of the other PPs stated that maturity along the way helped as well? I'm also curious if you do outside tutoring for writing, executive functioning, etc.? Also, it sounds like your son did well with just a 504 plan? Is that the case? Or do you have an IEP as well?

Thanks, all who have responded so far!

He has had an IEP since 2nd grade and will have one until graduation. We did an outside reading/writing tutor from 2nd grade to mid-7th grade. Maturity has something to do with it and he has the persistence gene from his father that helps, but he would be lost without the accommodations. They are key. His anxiety and OCD tendencies are also helpful right now- that is a balancing act- to keep them at bay.

The outside reading tutor was 2 -3 times per week all year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has quite severe dyslexia and dysgraphia and ADHD. He is in HS. He has a ton of accommodations to be successful. Teacher notes, extended time on assessments, calculator, scribe and reader on assessments, priority seating, drawing not required- uses computer, has about half a dozen programs on his computer that help (eg Kurzweil, Co-writer), electronic textbooks (this has been the hardest to get in a timely manner- start early), no foreign language.....

Middle school was the worst of the three (ES,MS,HS) in terms of understanding his needs and the legal ramifications of not providing for them. HS has been great.

He also has just a few outside activities, so he has enough time for homework and relaxation. He took his first AP last year and scored a 5. He is take three this year- all science/math. Next year he will take 3 or 4. He gets almost all A's.

OP: That's so glad to hear, PP. And, so glad your son is doing well. That is very inspiring! And, also thank you for sharing your specific accommodations as well. Do you feel that these accommodations were key to his success? Or do you feel that as some of the other PPs stated that maturity along the way helped as well? I'm also curious if you do outside tutoring for writing, executive functioning, etc.? Also, it sounds like your son did well with just a 504 plan? Is that the case? Or do you have an IEP as well?

Thanks, all who have responded so far!

He has had an IEP since 2nd grade and will have one until graduation. We did an outside reading/writing tutor from 2nd grade to mid-7th grade. Maturity has something to do with it and he has the persistence gene from his father that helps, but he would be lost without the accommodations. They are key. His anxiety and OCD tendencies are also helpful right now- that is a balancing act- to keep them at bay.

The outside reading tutor was 2 -3 times per week all year.

Wow, I'm impressed that you did all this and got him that much accommodation - I know so many kids who struggle yet their parents cannot see or cannot financially justify the extra tutoring, or haven't managed to negotiate successfully with the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has quite severe dyslexia and dysgraphia and ADHD. He is in HS. He has a ton of accommodations to be successful. Teacher notes, extended time on assessments, calculator, scribe and reader on assessments, priority seating, drawing not required- uses computer, has about half a dozen programs on his computer that help (eg Kurzweil, Co-writer), electronic textbooks (this has been the hardest to get in a timely manner- start early), no foreign language.....

Middle school was the worst of the three (ES,MS,HS) in terms of understanding his needs and the legal ramifications of not providing for them. HS has been great.

He also has just a few outside activities, so he has enough time for homework and relaxation. He took his first AP last year and scored a 5. He is take three this year- all science/math. Next year he will take 3 or 4. He gets almost all A's.

OP: That's so glad to hear, PP. And, so glad your son is doing well. That is very inspiring! And, also thank you for sharing your specific accommodations as well. Do you feel that these accommodations were key to his success? Or do you feel that as some of the other PPs stated that maturity along the way helped as well? I'm also curious if you do outside tutoring for writing, executive functioning, etc.? Also, it sounds like your son did well with just a 504 plan? Is that the case? Or do you have an IEP as well?

Thanks, all who have responded so far!

He has had an IEP since 2nd grade and will have one until graduation. We did an outside reading/writing tutor from 2nd grade to mid-7th grade. Maturity has something to do with it and he has the persistence gene from his father that helps, but he would be lost without the accommodations. They are key. His anxiety and OCD tendencies are also helpful right now- that is a balancing act- to keep them at bay.

The outside reading tutor was 2 -3 times per week all year.

Wow, I'm impressed that you did all this and got him that much accommodation - I know so many kids who struggle yet their parents cannot see or cannot financially justify the extra tutoring, or haven't managed to negotiate successfully with the schools.

Thank you, the extra tutoring was far less than private school tuition and we did slice and dice the budget some to do it, but our income is also sufficient so that is a plus too. It helps that DH and I are naturally frugal people. It has been a long hard slog and I have some PTS as a result, so we have not emerged unscathed. DC is quite a remarkable kid. His strengths equal or exceed his challenges. The length and breadth of his accommodations are a result of having both severe/profound dyslexia and severe/profound dysgraphia. It compounds things.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, the extra tutoring was far less than private school tuition and we did slice and dice the budget some to do it, but our income is also sufficient so that is a plus too. It helps that DH and I are naturally frugal people. It has been a long hard slog and I have some PTS as a result, so we have not emerged unscathed. DC is quite a remarkable kid. His strengths equal or exceed his challenges. The length and breadth of his accommodations are a result of having both severe/profound dyslexia and severe/profound dysgraphia. It compounds things.


Thanks for sharing.

Where did you get your dysgraphia tutor and can you recommend him or her? Also, where did DC end up for high school and why were things so much better there?

[Anonymous]

GT/LD/ADHD 2e success story - still a work in progress.

My son has a very unique strength in math. We saw it initially in elementary school when he could figure out how to solve his older sibling's Algebra homework. He is now in middle school but taking math at a high school because the middle school has run out of classes for him.

This contrasts with his reading ability. He is a very slow reader and has difficulties with his fluency. He was labeled as having a Specific Reading Disability. He also has ADHD which compounds some of his reading problems. He looses focus when he reads because it is so challenging to him and the combination greatly interferes with his comprehension.

With maturity and teaching support, he is becoming more organized and finally buying in to the concept of maintaining an assignment book as well as keeping his notebook organized. He is striving to make sure he has no missed assignments so he can be a better student in all subjects. Study routines that he used to resist and think unnecessary are finally becoming habits that are aiding in his independence and success. He is getting off on the right foot this year and he has an A for effort. We will see how things progress but having him buy into the importance of being organized and the value of turning all assignments on time has been a major improvement this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Thank you, the extra tutoring was far less than private school tuition and we did slice and dice the budget some to do it, but our income is also sufficient so that is a plus too. It helps that DH and I are naturally frugal people. It has been a long hard slog and I have some PTS as a result, so we have not emerged unscathed. DC is quite a remarkable kid. His strengths equal or exceed his challenges. The length and breadth of his accommodations are a result of having both severe/profound dyslexia and severe/profound dysgraphia. It compounds things.


Thanks for sharing.

Where did you get your dysgraphia tutor and can you recommend him or her? Also, where did DC end up for high school and why were things so much better there?


She wasn't specifically a "dysgraphia" tutor. She was a reading teacher who also tutoring him in writing- helping him with graphic organizers and how to get from all of his ideas in his head to writing a paragraph, then essay. I would reccommend her, highly, but she doesn't tutor. SHe works in a public school as a reading specialist and DC was her only private client. It was a special case kind of thing.

DC is at our local HS. Things are much better than the local middle school because they "get" DC and have been proactive and supportive. MS was a clusterfxck. The admin there does not get it. The head of special ed gets it, but her first day was also DC's first day and she got steam rollered by the Principal and a few teachers (who came around during the year), we were caught in her learning curve. His "case manager" also didn't get 2E and the reading teacher was the most unqualified teacher I have ever met and was demoted the next year. The highly recommended advocate we hired and the pyrimid person were not able to leave thier previous baggage at the door and were a disaster. Luckily, we found someone from Gatehouse who came in and did some education of the teachers and adminstration and gave a backbone to the Special Ed chair. The Gatehouse person was our savior. She came to our IEP meeting stating everything we were saying and then listened to her.

[Anonymous]

OP what middle school will your child be attending? My son was put into a special organizational class each morning at Julius West. It helped ease the transition into middle school. It's a small group of kids that get specialized help on any or all classes, as needed. The teacher was in contact with us and his other teachers on a daily basis. Once things calmed down, my son worked hard so that he didn't have to be in the class the second half of the year. The class was an absolute life saver in regards to the transition.