Reply to Sixth Grade Blues

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "Sixth Grade Blues"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Have you shared your concerns with his teachers and counselor?  I always share with them observations at home.  Also, your DS may need to be in a school that offers him more support, which means you may have to look to private with smaller class sizes and individualized or differentiated learning for kids with learning differences.  The schools vary in terms of support from mild learning differences to multiple learning disabilities.[/quote]

OP here.  The new year has barely begun so, no, we're going to let the natural consequences flow.  We did note it in his agenda, which we're supposed to initial every night.  As for the broader question, our school system is offering him a lot of support - the problems are arising at home, with DS's refusal to follow some very basic procedures/steps.  Class size is not the issue at all - he's in a mix of self-contained, regular, and regular with added support classes.  In our experience in elementary school, where he had pull-out services with a small group of kids for some subjects, the smaller size and greater attention didn't make a bit of difference.  Instruction is already differentiated for him.

I guess what I'm getting at is that this seems to be a behavioral issue.  Whether his ADHD is morphing into ODD or whether it's the start of adolescent rebellion or whether there's some as-yet undiagnosed additional mental health condition (or possibly some combination of these), it seems to have nothing to do with unreasonable expectations.  We drafted some guidelines with him for what he needs to do.  The school has the same expectations, basically.  What he needs to do -- go through his agenda as a family and just prioritize and talk about things -- is very basic.  He's refusing to do it.

FWIW, we were considering private a year ago.  From visiting some of the privates that specialize in working with kids with LD's, they would have the same types of systems and expectations in place (here's your agenda, you need to write your assignments in it - we're going to make sure you do it, here are some organizing tools that we, you, and your parents will all work on together and that you need to go through at home).  What we're seeing makes us happy that we did not pursue private - the issue isn't the workload or unreasonable expectations; rather, it's resistance - very strong resistance - to following any sort of routine.  We've been working at this for years - sticker charts, signs listing things to do, etc.  He agrees to do them initially but very quickly refuses to adhere to them, despite consequences.

It's heartbreaking.  When he starts getting low grades for failure to complete work, maybe things will start to click...Or else, maybe military school is what he needs (said half-jokingly)[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics