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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am the Prior PP whose 6th grader has an IEP for these types of issues. This is the perfect year for your son to learn to follow directions. The key here is that you and the school need to support him with that.

[b] On tests, he should be circling or highlighting key words - even if that means he takes the test on paper rather than computer. For an assignment, the teacher, aide, (or you depending on the assignment) should go through the rubric with him and make sure he understands what to do. Before he turns in his work, he needs to go through the rubric again and check off all the items he completed. If he missed any, then he needs to complete them. These are all things that can be built into a 504 plan. [/b]

If he loses points on a test or assignment because he didn’t follow/understand the directions, then walk through with him where he went wrong and how to do it better next time.

This is part of what he needs to be learning in school. Some things are harder for certain kids to learn and that’s okay. Keep working on it. But, as you can see in this thread, it is important that he learn this skill.

-signed mom of a kid who got every math “estimation” question wrong for three years because he didn’t read carefully enough and didn’t estimate. [/quote]

OP here.

Yeah we're calling today to talk to his counselor about having his teachers reread his 504 plan, make sure that his testing accommodations are being implemented (according to him, they're not), and to add a goal of making him be better at following directions.[/quote]

What testing accommodations aren’t being implemented?  That seems like a better case to make than “I think he should get more points for getting it wrong.”[/quote]

ADHD and LD's here. One of my accommodations was to take the test in a different room where I could talk out loud to myself. This helped me to read the questions out loud, which slowed down my thought process and allowed me to more easily identify all the steps I needed to do. I then listed the steps and then answered the question. I was also allowed extra time on tests because this took longer. I went from C's to A's when we realized that this method helped me to not skip steps and complete the work as required.

The OP mentioned that one of the accommodations is that her son is suppose to sit in the front row and he is not sitting there. That would reduce distractions from other kids and could influence his ability to concentrate on his work and his tests. The OP mentioned that one of the accommodations is for the teacher to review the instructions with the child individually and that is not happening. Again, that is influencing his performance. These type of accommodations are there to help the child learn to do these steps on his own but it takes time and reinforcement. If the teacher is not following the accommodations, then the teacher is failing.

As for the border, I could care less that we think it is a silly requirement. It is a requirement. The kid did not do it, he should be docked. Instead of complaining that the requirement is stupid, the parent should be reminding the child that it was required and he didn't do it. He needs to complete the assignment as written.

There are plenty of jobs that require that a person follows instructions precisely. The steps might seem stupid to you but they are normally there for a reason. I won't bother telling you how painful it is to make briefings match the templates we have to use at work but we are dinged, as in the contract loses money, if we don't use the right font, formatting, markings, and citations. The number of people who screw these things up is pretty high. We have a Quality Control program in place to prevent the contract dings. The people who keep screwing things up, caught in QC, are put on probation and a decent number are fired.

So yeah, the border seems stupid to you and to me but my bosses at work think that the borders and their width and coloring are pretty darn important so I make sure I follow those instructions. I like my job. It has nothing to do with the words that I write, using the correct font and font size and with proper margins, but someone is actually measuring this stuff. Help your kid in college and in work by actually teaching him to follow the instructions, even when they are stupid. It is harder for a kid with ADHD, I get that, but don't blow off that something is stupid and should not hurt his grade. Instead, remind him to follow the instructions and do what he is told. [/quote]

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