Reply to How to motivate 6th grader who is disinterested in school and careless about his assignments?

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to "How to motivate 6th grader who is disinterested in school and careless about his assignments?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Thanks everyone. I will take your advice to heart, and I'm trying to get smarter about inattentive ADHD.

But I gotta say, I am pretty skeptical - and even more so about the idea of medicating him. I do believe that inattentive ADHD is real and really does do a number on some kids. I wish there had been more awareness when my brother was young; he really suffered in school (but is a happy successful adult fwiw.)

But my son isn't unfocused from what I can tell. He's disinterested and immature. I have no doubt I could get someone to diagnose him with something. But this really bothers me:

[quote]medication is a revelation for the kids and families of ADHD/ADD kids. Suddenly, kids are good at sports, have focus to be good at a musical instrument, and best of all are able to shine at schoolwork.[/quote] "

Please don't take offense at this comparison, but it sounds like performance enhancing drugs for athletes, or the high-achieving HS kids I read about who steal Ritalin to help them manage their homework. I'm really averse to going that route, even if it's not uncommon around here.

Like I said, I've got to get smarter about inattentive ADHD. If I can actually see symptoms in my son, I'd be more persuaded. But this idea that any kid who is floundering in school must by definition have a learning disability strikes me as deterministic. I've got a kid who can absorb incredible depths of trivia about Star Wars, but somehow his brain needs meds to punctuate properly? He can focus on legos but not on schoolwork?[/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