Anonymous wrote:OP - just to reassure you, you are not alone this year. I am a HS teacher and I have a lot of students with this problem, and my own 15 year old has been slowly sinking all year. I attribute a lot of it to the developmental age of young teens and the fact that they have been working alone all year, rather than surrounded by peers and being monitored by an adult other than their parents.

In normal times, if I gave an explanation of a task in class and then set kids loose to work on it, about 1/4 would have been paying attention and gotten started. Then slowly there would be a ripple across the room or within groups of "oh, we are doing something" and "what are we doing?" and "how do we do this?" until there are just a handful of students not working. Then the teacher is circulating and can prompt students with "why haven't you started yet?" and address individual problems. When everyone is working on a thing, it is easier for students to keep working on the thing (because clearly, now is the time to do the thing.) They get positive social feedback from doing the same thing as everyone, they can get support from peers if they need it, and they can support others (boosting their own self-confidence).

This year, that whole process is broken. Kids are left on their own to provide their own executive functioning and positive feedback system. They can't glance around at peers and get a clue about something they need help with. They definitely don't want to call attention to themselves by asking an actual question of the teacher. Sometimes they actually do know what is going on, but they are doubting themselves and don't get feedback that they are on the right track, so they stop. Some students may have fallen into a negative feedback loop - where efforts in earlier quarters didn't pay off with top grades, so they doubt themselves and second guess themselves and don't turn in work, which makes worse grades, which makes them freeze even more. Adult brains think it is a simple problem to solve (just do the thing), but smushy teen brains which are trying to figure out who they are and which don't have fully functioning prefrontal cortexes yet, just can't do it on their own.

I think that things will get better for everyone next year, in person. But I also think that this year has exposed some anxiety and ADD/ADHD issues for some students that they may have been able to work around in normal times, but now they need more support to get back on track.

Anonymous wrote:No offense but you are just figuring out this now. A lot of blame has to be put on yourself

Anonymous wrote:OP - just to reassure you, you are not alone this year. I am a HS teacher and I have a lot of students with this problem, and my own 15 year old has been slowly sinking all year. I attribute a lot of it to the developmental age of young teens and the fact that they have been working alone all year, rather than surrounded by peers and being monitored by an adult other than their parents.

In normal times, if I gave an explanation of a task in class and then set kids loose to work on it, about 1/4 would have been paying attention and gotten started. Then slowly there would be a ripple across the room or within groups of "oh, we are doing something" and "what are we doing?" and "how do we do this?" until there are just a handful of students not working. Then the teacher is circulating and can prompt students with "why haven't you started yet?" and address individual problems. When everyone is working on a thing, it is easier for students to keep working on the thing (because clearly, now is the time to do the thing.) They get positive social feedback from doing the same thing as everyone, they can get support from peers if they need it, and they can support others (boosting their own self-confidence).

This year, that whole process is broken. Kids are left on their own to provide their own executive functioning and positive feedback system. They can't glance around at peers and get a clue about something they need help with. They definitely don't want to call attention to themselves by asking an actual question of the teacher. Sometimes they actually do know what is going on, but they are doubting themselves and don't get feedback that they are on the right track, so they stop. Some students may have fallen into a negative feedback loop - where efforts in earlier quarters didn't pay off with top grades, so they doubt themselves and second guess themselves and don't turn in work, which makes worse grades, which makes them freeze even more. Adult brains think it is a simple problem to solve (just do the thing), but smushy teen brains which are trying to figure out who they are and which don't have fully functioning prefrontal cortexes yet, just can't do it on their own.

I think that things will get better for everyone next year, in person. But I also think that this year has exposed some anxiety and ADD/ADHD issues for some students that they may have been able to work around in normal times, but now they need more support to get back on track.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to sit down with her now and help her make a plan to hand in work before the end of the year. Is this public school? If so, they will take late work without penalty. Not so much in private school. Sounds like she just started HS so did she not have this issue before now? Is it a lot of work? My DS has ADHD and the workload increased starting in 6th grade when he switched from public to private school. I had to help him learn how to prioritize his work. He had an EF tutor in 7th grade which helped too. I know Study Pro has EF classes. That might be something to work on this summer in addition to making an appointment for an evaluation. My DS went to Kennedy Krieger for his. Talk to the pediatrician first.

https://thestudypro.com/study-skills-coaching-2/

https://thestudypro.com/study-skills-course/

Our public schools do not accept late work without a penalty nor do they accept it from a previous quarter.

Anonymous wrote:You need to sit down with her now and help her make a plan to hand in work before the end of the year. Is this public school? If so, they will take late work without penalty. Not so much in private school. Sounds like she just started HS so did she not have this issue before now? Is it a lot of work? My DS has ADHD and the workload increased starting in 6th grade when he switched from public to private school. I had to help him learn how to prioritize his work. He had an EF tutor in 7th grade which helped too. I know Study Pro has EF classes. That might be something to work on this summer in addition to making an appointment for an evaluation. My DS went to Kennedy Krieger for his. Talk to the pediatrician first.

https://thestudypro.com/study-skills-coaching-2/

https://thestudypro.com/study-skills-course/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Executive functioning coach.

But if it has always been an issue, it sounds like undiagnosed ADHD.

Is an executive functioning coach a therapist?

Not quite. they're someone who helps people learn how hone their executive functioning skills, and for students who need this type of support it's focusing on things like prioritizing, organizing, time management, breaking down assignments into manageable chunks, learning how to prepare for quizzes/tests, plan ahead for longer term assignments. All life long skills that will also help beyond school. We are using one for our DD who will be entering 7th next year. OP, I'd suggest having your daughter evaluated for ADHD, but it sounds like she may benefit from executive functioning help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Executive functioning coach.

But if it has always been an issue, it sounds like undiagnosed ADHD.

Is an executive functioning coach a therapist?