What supports & challenges does your ADHD child face in school? (Not special ed)

[Anonymous]

Aside from the special ed staff, can anyone share how their ADHD child copes with "regular" teaching staff and expectations? Have you found any techniques that teachers use that are helpful or conversely, NOT helpful? On the NOT helpful side, I'll share that we have had many teachers imply that our kid is not serious, is playing around, etc, and expressing astonishment that he could forget to turn in assignments, misunderstand directions, etc. If it were not for the disorganization, our kid would be mainly an "A" student, but the dings for missed assignments drag his grades down. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

So teachers ignore official diagnosis, and do not work with your family to accomodate ADHD child? In what grade is your child?
This is what my child will face in a year or two... Please provide more detailes so we can learn from your experience.
Thanks.

[Anonymous]

My ADHD son is in middle school. Throughout the years, the services and accommodations have changed as his needs changed - this mostly relates to growing up and the higher expectations, not that he ever grew out of the ADHD.

I have never had anyone downplay or treat his condition as anything but serious. He would not survive without the services and accommodations. Here are some of what I can remember.

Elementary:

- preferential seating (least distracting, which was often by the teacher, but not always)
- pull outs for reading and math (he was not behind, but needed the small group/individual instruction because he could not tolerate the classroom)
- he was permitted to do his work sitting, standing, walking around, laying on the floor, etc.
- during carpet time, he was placed in the back so he could roll around instead of sitting
- special cushion on his chair
- frequent breaks
- he was given special projects by the resource teacher (like organize her books)
- extra time on activities
- no homework
- extra time for testing
- modified assignments (he would be given less work than the rest of the class, but if he didn't finish, he did lose recess)
- the school taught him to pack his backpack with what he needed to complete his homework

Middle School:

- preferential seating
- extra time for testing and assignments
- keyboarding instead of writing tests and assignments
- no homework
- case management to monitor grades
- assistance and monitoring his planner
- if he is having a rough day, he will be assigned to "co-teach" the class, which means he does the writing for the teacher and other such tasks
- small classes (no more than 17 kids)
- all classes are co-taught (subject matter teacher and paraeducator or special ed teacher)

[Anonymous]

Wow you got no homework? I am having so much trouble with my ADHD 3rd grader and homework this year. We are having a screening meeting tomorrow to try to get our 504 upgraded to an IEP. I never even though about asking for no homework.

[Anonymous]

mine has never had accommodations. never needed them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow you got no homework? I am having so much trouble with my ADHD 3rd grader and homework this year. We are having a screening meeting tomorrow to try to get our 504 upgraded to an IEP. I never even though about asking for no homework.

Yes, but my son doesn't know it and the only times I have ever allowed him to not complete his homework were due to illness, which I think happened only a few times ever. I don't like this accommodation, but the school does not want to eliminate it from the IEP. There are a lot of important life skills that I taught my son through homework. Also, my son works above grade level so he didn't need the homework for reinforcement of the skills taught in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My ADHD son is in middle school. Throughout the years, the services and accommodations have changed as his needs changed - this mostly relates to growing up and the higher expectations, not that he ever grew out of the ADHD.

I have never had anyone downplay or treat his condition as anything but serious. He would not survive without the services and accommodations. Here are some of what I can remember.

Elementary:

- preferential seating (least distracting, which was often by the teacher, but not always)
- pull outs for reading and math (he was not behind, but needed the small group/individual instruction because he could not tolerate the classroom)
- he was permitted to do his work sitting, standing, walking around, laying on the floor, etc.
- during carpet time, he was placed in the back so he could roll around instead of sitting
- special cushion on his chair
- frequent breaks
- he was given special projects by the resource teacher (like organize her books)
- extra time on activities
- no homework
- extra time for testing
- modified assignments (he would be given less work than the rest of the class, but if he didn't finish, he did lose recess)
- the school taught him to pack his backpack with what he needed to complete his homework

Middle School:

- preferential seating
- extra time for testing and assignments
- keyboarding instead of writing tests and assignments
- no homework
- case management to monitor grades
- assistance and monitoring his planner
- if he is having a rough day, he will be assigned to "co-teach" the class, which means he does the writing for the teacher and other such tasks
- small classes (no more than 17 kids)
- all classes are co-taught (subject matter teacher and paraeducator or special ed teacher)

12:55, this is OP. Thank you. So WRT homework, does this mean that if he does it at home with you, but forgets to hand it in, there is no follow-up because officially he has a "no HW" accommodation? This is where my child is struggling - getting the completed assignment to the teacher. At wit's end! Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Mom of elementary school ADHD 2nd grader

-preferential seating
-pull out for Language Arts
-sensory breaks
-extra time on testing
-a visual schedule
-homework assignments were written for him on a separate piece of paper, since he would often be too slow to write everything down

[Anonymous]

12:55, this is OP. Thank you. So WRT homework, does this mean that if he does it at home with you, but forgets to hand it in, there is no follow-up because officially he has a "no HW" accommodation? This is where my child is struggling - getting the completed assignment to the teacher. At wit's end! Thank you

In ES, every morning, the resource teacher would tape a checklist to his desk. He would go into the class before everyone else and when it was quiet, he would complete the morning checklist and then get a book a read. One of the things on the checklist was turn in homework. At home, I also used checklists for things like morning routine. I would hand him a clipboard and pen every morning. So, the checklist idea was really ingrained for him. We also had a few years of managing his backpack (experimenting with folders and binders, etc.). So, by middle school, he started making his own check lists that he kept in the front of his binder. When he arrived at each class, he looks at the checklist.

One other thing I did. When he forgot to turn in the work, I gave him one extra day to do it. If he forgot again, I would have him type the work into an e-mail to the teacher and send it that way. It was not meant to be punishment but more to get him to understand that it is mandatory to do the work and turn it in. If he wasn't successful in the normal way, then we had to find alternatives. We came up with this together (well, I did and then sort of pushed him into thinking of it).

I'm in a really sweet place right now with my son, but writng this reminds me how long and hard it was to get here. I hope some of this helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

12:55, this is OP. Thank you. So WRT homework, does this mean that if he does it at home with you, but forgets to hand it in, there is no follow-up because officially he has a "no HW" accommodation? This is where my child is struggling - getting the completed assignment to the teacher. At wit's end! Thank you

In ES, every morning, the resource teacher would tape a checklist to his desk. He would go into the class before everyone else and when it was quiet, he would complete the morning checklist and then get a book a read. One of the things on the checklist was turn in homework. At home, I also used checklists for things like morning routine. I would hand him a clipboard and pen every morning. So, the checklist idea was really ingrained for him. We also had a few years of managing his backpack (experimenting with folders and binders, etc.). So, by middle school, he started making his own check lists that he kept in the front of his binder. When he arrived at each class, he looks at the checklist.

One other thing I did. When he forgot to turn in the work, I gave him one extra day to do it. If he forgot again, I would have him type the work into an e-mail to the teacher and send it that way. It was not meant to be punishment but more to get him to understand that it is mandatory to do the work and turn it in. If he wasn't successful in the normal way, then we had to find alternatives. We came up with this together (well, I did and then sort of pushed him into thinking of it).

I'm in a really sweet place right now with my son, but writng this reminds me how long and hard it was to get here. I hope some of this helps.

Thank you, PP. This is really helpful. And you sound like a great mom, by the way. Congrats on making it through the long slog....!

[Anonymous]

PPs - are these formal accommodations (504 or IEP). If so how difficult was in to get them?

[Anonymous]

Please realize that the spectrum of ADHD severity is so large that one parents experience has have little bearing on another's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PPs - are these formal accommodations (504 or IEP). If so how difficult was in to get them?

PP here. Some were formal (IEP) and some were not formal (teachers just implemented them). I never had any difficulty getting things for my son. Before school starts, I always meet with my son's teachers to talk about him and get the school year off to a good start. Then throughout the year, whenever a problem or concern comes up, we get together and brainstorm a solution. Usually I just do this with the classroom teacher and the IEP team doesn't get involved. It's funny though that once something got put into place for my son, they shared it with the next year's teacher so that it continued each year. I know many people feel otherwise, but school has been a very good experience for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PPs - are these formal accommodations (504 or IEP). If so how difficult was in to get them?

PP here. Some were formal (IEP) and some were not formal (teachers just implemented them). I never had any difficulty getting things for my son. Before school starts, I always meet with my son's teachers to talk about him and get the school year off to a good start. Then throughout the year, whenever a problem or concern comes up, we get together and brainstorm a solution. Usually I just do this with the classroom teacher and the IEP team doesn't get involved. It's funny though that once something got put into place for my son, they shared it with the next year's teacher so that it continued each year. I know many people feel otherwise, but school has been a very good experience for my kids.

op again - This is a great suggestion and I wish I had done that earlier. Unfortunately once I got the counselor involved, it seemed (at two different schools) to devolve into CYA-type meetings with staff, with no opportunity for informality.

[Anonymous]

What grade and what county? We had/ have the complete opposite, I have to say. By that I mean, once we suspected in first grade ( now in HS), we have only had support from every teacher! I know hard to believe as public school often gets a bad rap on here but for us it has been true.

One thing I found is that there are so many kids, with so many issues, that you really cannot expect a teacher to know as much as you will about your dc special needs. So much of adhd presents as a behavior problem when it is really cognitive/ exec functioing that you have to keep pushing that message or the the few staff who don't get it, will continue to say the things they are saying to you.
The MS and HS teachers have gone beyond what I have ever expected for our DS....like using dragon a dictation software, encouraging all work in google docs so if forgotten at home in cyberspace, meeting him at 7 am for extra help, encouraging him to take picture of the homeowrk board on his phone, calling us on weekends.

I wish you the best of luck because it is a long haul and you have to help so much/ be a constant advocate, and things still fall through the crack! Big hug.