Managing 2e kid (ADHD+highly intelligent) in MCPS high school
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Anonymous
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It sounds like he shouldn't be an engineer if math isn't his thing.. A lot of young people don't really know what's involved in a career.
He won't get great support at an mcps high school and you should be.prepared for that. Honors classes are really on-grade level in MCPS- so these may be safe for him to do. I would not do any AP classes in 9th grade. I have a gifted, neurotypical son and the executive functioning demands are significant-- AP history was a fair amount of work for him. I have a bright ADHD child and I put her in somewhat lower classes than her ability and she is shining- it allows us to have the bandwidth to work on her weaker skills and her executive functioning. |
Anonymous
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OP again. I hear what you are saying about Math and how if that is not his thing, then he should not hope to study engineering. The tricky part of this is that he has an incredible visual-spatial ability, strong understanding of systems, and loves learning about how things work. He has been doing robotics and coding since 2nd grade and excelled. And he has always been one of those 'builder' kids who just adores taking stuff apart and then putting it back together.
Engineering is his only interest honestly. Sigh. The reason Math has not been his thing so far is that he has poor working memory and lower-level math seems to tax his dyslexia pretty highly. It requires a lot of rote recall of math facts. And it also requires things to be done in a specific order. There is no visual component and limited creative problem solving. I was hoping this would get better as he got to higher-level math which seems more creative and spatial. DS scores very high on fluid reasoning, visual spatial index, and verbal intelligence. He has poor working memory and processing speed. Could his math struggles possibly get better as he gets older allowing him to achieve his engineering dream? |
Anonymous
Possibly. It’s worth trying. Higher level math and physics are more abstract. Maybe that will work to his advantage. For lower level math, he should build in a ton a practice and consider getting him a tutor. Encourage him to be flexible and see how it goes |
Anonymous
I agree with the above poster. Get accommodations set up, and get him a tutor. My engineering-oriented 2E son liked math up to algebra (but because of inattentive errors didn't excel), but ended up absolutely loving calculus. He does much better in calculus than he did in algebra - he says it comes easier to him conceptually. If your son continues to struggle in math but loves engineering, some colleges have "engineering technology" majors that are more applied (with less math) than regular mechanical or electrical engineering programs. |
Anonymous
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Thanks for this! The tip about an Engineering Technology degree is a good one. I have just looked into this and it seems a good option if he struggles with the higher level math (although hoping that will be easier).
We are going to get him set up with accommodations. Would a 504 or an IEP be more beneficial for this type of kid? |
Anonymous
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i am confused. Is he "highly gifted" per your subject line and contention that he is comparable to the 1 or 2 top smartest kids in any given class?
Or is he a kid who's borderline between taking general level vs honors level courses in 9th grade? In our school, the smart kids (and kids of tiger parents) all take AP in 9th, and the other "ordinary" kids on college track take honors. There's nothing wrong with taking general non-honors classes, but I'd be surprised a "highly gifted", among the top 5% of students kind of kid is even contemplating general classes? Maybe i'm missing something? |
Anonymous
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His in the top 5% for overall intelligence but bottom 20% for processing speed. This means he is barely making it through for General Ed classes on organization……..but needs the intellectual stimulation and advanced learning of honors or AP. It’s a tricky situation.
I said he was highly intelligent, not highly gifted. |
Anonymous
It depends on if he needs "specialized instruction" (for an IEP) vs just needing accommodations (for a 504). You'd probably want to talk with the school to figure out which one best fits his needs. For example, my 2E son had an IEP up through middle school (because the curriculum had to be modified with shorter or alternate assignments), but by the end of middle school he didn't need the modifications and so we switched to a 504 for high school. |
Anonymous
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My oldest has severe inattentive ADHD and abysmal processing speed, with dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and mild autism. He has a GAI slightly below 130, and a processing speed that's so low it's shocking (at the 4th percentile). So not technically gifted, but the discrepancy between his cognitive skills and his working memory/processing speed is so wide, the psychologist who tested him told us she had never seen anything like it. It's posed a ton of problems because his working memory and processing speed cannot match his critical thinking, at all. In practice, he comes across as alternatively dumb and brilliant when you live with him.
He graduated from the Walter Johnson APEX program a few years ago (when it was slightly different and more selective), and spent most of his middle and high school years with an IEP, double time, and a calculator and keyboard accommodation. He had double time for his ACT and his AP exams as well. He was able to do a dozen APs, mostly in the Humanities, which was his forte, and is in a Humanities major at a T50 institution, with merit aid. |
Anonymous
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I have a similar profile to your son, OP. I am dyslexic with very poor working memory, and after I learned to read the way it impacted me most was math. It isn’t just the ability to memorize and recall things like formulas, but the ability to hold information in working memory and manipulate it. That’s often needed for math and physics. I ended up with an advanced degree that required graduate level statistics and epidemiology classes, and they were HARD. Super interesting, I liked them, but hard.
I am also a tinkerer. I used to take apart phones and clocks when I was a kid, and now I build stuff in my free time. Let your kid keep his options open, but also make sure he knows that lots of careers he doesn’t even know exist will be open to him. He doesn’t need to decide now, or in two years, or even ever, really. I just made a total career change at 50. If he wants to be an engineer but can’t handle the math yet, he can do something else now and do the engineering later, if he still wants to. And meanwhile - get that boy into a shop. Wood shop, metal working, textiles, whatever. I am a woman and the smell of pine shavings is one of my favorite things. All our bookshelves and garden structures are handmade. When I am stressed I design and build something. I don’t build for a living, but it is still a meaningful part of my life. |
Anonymous
You may not understand why, but it is the LAW. Schools are required to accommodate for disabilities, and that includes accommodation for advanced classes because they are part of what is offered in the general curriculum. If a student otherwise qualifies (by having a high IQ or being grade levels ahead in reading or whatever), then they can sign up for any AP or advanced class offered at school and get the accommodations necessary. Also, a kid with a disability in "executive function" is not going to be able to teach himself executive function on his own spare time in class. If he could do that, then he could do that in his spare time at home and he wouldn't have an executive dysfunction, which is a product of brain chemistry and networks rather than some kind of motivational failing. That you would even suggest this shows how ignorant you are about disabilities. I have had two 2E kids with accommodations. One was enrolled at a public magnet and had a medical injury after a year at the magnet. That DC needed extensive accommodation after the medical injury and the magnet refused and tried to kick or push her out. We got an attorney and also wrote a letter to the superintendent, because the law says that accommodation must be offered. There is a DOE letter on this - that kids can't be forced to give up higher classes because they have a 504 or IEP. She stayed at the magnet with accommodations, was accommodated through HS and went to college and is working on her second grad degree. Throughout her undergrad and grad years she has regularly won academic prizes or first in class for her work. 2nd DC had an SLD in writing and reading but had a high IQ, particularly in math. He had these from a young age. He had an IEP in school for writing and ADHD with accommodations like extra time and copy of class notes, calculator, computer for writing, etc. With these accommodations he was able to take the hardest AP Science and Math classes, get perfect scores on the ACT in Science and Math and go to and graduate from college in a health profession. He is also now thinking about grad school. Without these accommodations, I think he may not have graduated from HS. Disability law is not ridiculous nor is it about "parental pride". Disability law exists to ensure that people with disabilities have the same access to opportunity that non-disabled persons have because we, as a society, want to ensure that disabled students can get the education they need to become functioning, taxpaying citizens. |
Anonymous
Ignore this poster. OP, my ASD/ADHD son attended WJ. We were very happy with the school. He took a mix of self-contained, regular, honors, and AP courses, depending on his strengths and not-so strengths. Unfortunately his awesome Academic Support Center counselor has since retired, but I recall her and the IEP team very good to work with on appropriate course selection. Since each semester is a new schedule that is somewhat independent of the other, so there was also opportunity to shift up from a self-contained to regular or honors course from fall to spring semesters. He took advantage of the resource class offered each semester in his schedule (I know some kids avoid that) and it was helpful to have an end of day class where one could review their planner for all assignments, organize the week, and where needed and included in the IEP, finish a test or exam with the allotted extra time (e.g., a page or two of the test might have been withheld for later completion). Best of luck and ignore those who will put you down! |
Anonymous
No one is asking you to understand. Fortunately federal laws are in place to remedy this and you are not in charge. Bye! |
Anonymous
Wrong. You truly have an axe to grind against parents with SN kids who are bright. Please get some help. |
Anonymous
Low tone. Harder to write and use the computer at the same speed. A+ brain. C- processing speed. And given all of your lack of understanding I am guessing far smarter than you are and not as thick. |