Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a 9th grader with IEP for Adhd and written expression LD. Has been doing well academically but struggles with foreign language. Currently, taking Spanish II but does not want to continue with foreign language next year. I'm working with her to find alternative elective but wonder if this will impact university admission. Any advise appreciated.

Studying foreign language is out of date. I applaud your child for knowing that it's a waste of time given the many ways we have to translate in real time. Let them take classes that interest them

LOL

Anonymous wrote:I have a 9th grader with IEP for Adhd and written expression LD. Has been doing well academically but struggles with foreign language. Currently, taking Spanish II but does not want to continue with foreign language next year. I'm working with her to find alternative elective but wonder if this will impact university admission. Any advise appreciated.

Studying foreign language is out of date. I applaud your child for knowing that it's a waste of time given the many ways we have to translate in real time. Let them take classes that interest them

Anonymous wrote:I have a 9th grader with IEP for Adhd and written expression LD. Has been doing well academically but struggles with foreign language. Currently, taking Spanish II but does not want to continue with foreign language next year. I'm working with her to find alternative elective but wonder if this will impact university admission. Any advise appreciated.

What universities are you targeting?

My dyslexic kid struggled so much with Spanish. He made it through 3a (and I think he really should have failed it) and quit. If I could go back I would have him do 1 and 2 in MS and then start again with 1 in HS. He might have bumped up his grades (which included a C) and gotten a better foundation. I regret all the time we spent on the vocab. He just could not learn the words. It was such a stressful time.

He had plenty of college options and never had to take Spanish or any other language again, thankfully.

ASL !!!

I myself have ADHD. I am 43 and was pulled from foreign languages and science which was detrimental when I did hit high School to not have any knowledge of any kind of science or biology. I felt really dumb! However, going to a Vo-Tech my related course took place of a foreign language. Fortunately for me! However, my oldest was able to complete Spanish and other course work on a 504. My youngest really struggles.. as much as we want our kids to do whatever one else is doing, we have to taper things down for them, especially if they're on an IEP with accommodations. My daughter failed her Spanish last year and the principal deleted the whole course.. but our kids are now 8th graders through seniors at our local high school (which I'm not a fan of anyway..) but they signed her up again for Spanish this year stating it's a requirement for 2 years of a foreign language to graduate! In the state that I live in Massachusetts, a child on an IEP can exempt themselves from a foreign language and take two electives in its place. However, my high school is trying to fight me tooth and nail. Being an adult that still struggles with my ADHD and how it affects me in life and advocating for my 's. Children I make it an essential part of my life to know what is mandated required and A law. Any child on an IEP that is struggling or having a hard time with keeping up with the other course loads should not be required to take a foreign language and have to fight tooth and nail to withdraw from a completely and be exempt! Not every child with ADHD is the same! We are all different just like the spectrum. Some of us are high functioning in certain areas and low functioning in others! We're all different, makes and models, but our brains do not compute the way a neurotypical person responds to education. Just having that one extra course can throw everything else into a loop! Trying to mandate extra homework while just trying to modify the other course. Loads all to have something that looks good on paper for a high school. Seems completely and useless to me.. however, I do find that it would be lovely to know another language. My brain just was not going to let me and the only thing I did take interest in was Latin. The dead language LMFAO either way, advocate by knowing what is best for your kid. Take advice. Try to find a happy medium but never let people push you and your child stating something a requirement when you know that is there are other alternatives and options to help alleviate that stress and prep them for college and adult life. That's going to be stressful enough itself LOL 🤘🍻

I don't think anyone was saying that teachers didn't "observe all of the IEP and 504 plan accommodations."

At least for us, with no ADHD but moderate dyslexia, what was required was to base our DSs IEP around his foreign language since it was his hardest subject.

This was not an easy sell, either to him or the school, but it was a few years back so..... It meant going back to many of the accommodations that he had in ES but had gotten away from in MS.

Eventually, when he got to level 4, he tried it but the rest of his junior schedule was hard enough that he gave up in the third week of September.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a French teacher, and my son has apraxia of speech. Your son should absolutely be able to continue with a foreign language!!! He needs the proper accommodations and modifications put into place! IEP teams frequently forget of putting the accommodations into the foreign language classroom as well. It drives me crazy!!!!!! Whatever accommodations he has for his other subjects need to be used in Spanish as well. (A scribe, oral vs written exams? Whatever works for your son).

Also, for the PP who's son has issues with Hebrew/Spanish/phonological disorder, something that can really help kids with speech disorders is seeing a SLP that can help in the target language. It can be mind bogglingly helpful! (It is for my son, too!!)

I teach Spanish at a school where we observe all of the IEP and 504 plan accommodations. That doesn't meant that the kids themselves love the struggle, though. So if your child isn't enjoying the Spanish classes, OP, I wouldn't make her suffer.

Our school offers ASL, which some kids really enjoy.

I am just not seeing what accommodations might help my dyslexic son who just could not remember the words. He has a hard enough time with English words. Similar but different spanish words were a nightmare. Perhaps immersion but that was just not happening. I am confident he will have a great English speaking future.

I'm a French teacher, and my son has apraxia of speech. Your son should absolutely be able to continue with a foreign language!!! He needs the proper accommodations and modifications put into place! IEP teams frequently forget of putting the accommodations into the foreign language classroom as well. It drives me crazy!!!!!! Whatever accommodations he has for his other subjects need to be used in Spanish as well. (A scribe, oral vs written exams? Whatever works for your son).

Also, for the PP who's son has issues with Hebrew/Spanish/phonological disorder, something that can really help kids with speech disorders is seeing a SLP that can help in the target language. It can be mind bogglingly helpful! (It is for my son, too!!)

I'm interested to see what others have to say. My DS is in 7th grade and he has a disorder of written expression and history of phonological disorder. He struggled through Hebrew lessons. Now he's struggling in Spanish. He can't speak the language at all and has a hard time with written work. The only area he does ok is vocab because it's memorization (as long as the teacher doesn't take off for spelling errors!). I've heard we can get an exemption from foreign language in high school. It will definitely bring down his GPA as I don't think he could pull higher than a C even with loads of supports. A friend recommended ASL to fulfill the requirement so we plan to explore this as well. I'm worried either option will limit his college choices.

I have read parent antidotes that Mandarian can be a better choice for adhd and language/speech issues

My child stopped after 3. We weighed the effects on his gpa,other grades,stress level. Yes it may affect the admissions but so be it. He will not apply to schools that will have more language required. Their loss. He focuses on his strengths. He was not learning anything in his language classes due to his llds.

I have a 9th grader with IEP for Adhd and written expression LD. Has been doing well academically but struggles with foreign language. Currently, taking Spanish II but does not want to continue with foreign language next year. I'm working with her to find alternative elective but wonder if this will impact university admission. Any advise appreciated.