Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if all the kids getting extra time on tests have to disclose this for college and/or does your high school mention on your application. My DC has been asking I look into this and I have always said no although DC could benefit as we manage some add issues. DC gets good grades but has to study a lot and is getting frustrated at so many kids with the extra time. My answer was always that this will catch up when applying for college but now am not so sure and wonder if I should go through the process for extra time to lessen stress.

Would he like to trade places with my child? He's autistic, had no friends, and everything (including tests) takes him twice the time as everyone else, so he has less time to relax or for fun activities. Because while your son is "frustrated" that my child gets extra time, my child is frustrated that he *needs* (not wants) extra time.

Please calm down, PP.

My DC tells me there ARE kids in school who do not appear to have any learning disabilities, don't struggle, yet somehow have a diagnosis of test anxiety or something like that, and they get extra time on tests and on the ACT/SAT.

Is this true? I don't know, but DC is fairly observant. DC knows what autism looks like, and these kids do not have autism or anything like it. They're just hyper-competitive, as are their parents.

Hate to reference Varsity Blues, but one of the most common abuses was getting a fake diagnosis resulting in extra time (of course, they then bribed the proctor for your special test and paid someone to take it for you...but it started with bribing the medical person first). Yes, there are medical professionals that can essentially be bribed, and I guarantee that families are "in the know" as to whom you should go see in order to get your diagnosis.

Again, just give everyone more time, and be done with it.

What does “give everyone extra time” actually mean? How is it “extra” time if everyone has it? Does it mean eliminate time limits? That would be fine, but hard for testing centers to manage.

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, it's a fact that some kids' parents basically buy them extra time (see PP a few posts up). This makes it hard for an outsider/other kids to know which are really genuine. Not fair to the kids who really need them.

You can't buy extra time unless you lie to medical professionals or those people are dishonest. Of course that happens. But it is not the norm.

Unfortunately, it's a fact that some kids' parents basically buy them extra time (see PP a few posts up). This makes it hard for an outsider/other kids to know which are really genuine. Not fair to the kids who really need them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if all the kids getting extra time on tests have to disclose this for college and/or does your high school mention on your application. My DC has been asking I look into this and I have always said no although DC could benefit as we manage some add issues. DC gets good grades but has to study a lot and is getting frustrated at so many kids with the extra time. My answer was always that this will catch up when applying for college but now am not so sure and wonder if I should go through the process for extra time to lessen stress.

Would he like to trade places with my child? He's autistic, had no friends, and everything (including tests) takes him twice the time as everyone else, so he has less time to relax or for fun activities. Because while your son is "frustrated" that my child gets extra time, my child is frustrated that he *needs* (not wants) extra time.

Please calm down, PP.

My DC tells me there ARE kids in school who do not appear to have any learning disabilities, don't struggle, yet somehow have a diagnosis of test anxiety or something like that, and they get extra time on tests and on the ACT/SAT.

Is this true? I don't know, but DC is fairly observant. DC knows what autism looks like, and these kids do not have autism or anything like it. They're just hyper-competitive, as are their parents.

Hate to reference Varsity Blues, but one of the most common abuses was getting a fake diagnosis resulting in extra time (of course, they then bribed the proctor for your special test and paid someone to take it for you...but it started with bribing the medical person first). Yes, there are medical professionals that can essentially be bribed, and I guarantee that families are "in the know" as to whom you should go see in order to get your diagnosis.

Again, just give everyone more time, and be done with it.

Haven't read all of the comments here yet but I was told that testing should be re-done at age 16 or older and then it is usually accepted by colleges.
Having my 10th grader, who has extra time for testing, re-tested at the end of the school year when he will already be 16. He will need new testing for ACT accommodations since his prior testing is 4 years old. And then hoping we can provide copies of this testing to his future college. College Board already approved extra time for SAT and AP exams, based on old testing and school accommodations plans.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if all the kids getting extra time on tests have to disclose this for college and/or does your high school mention on your application. My DC has been asking I look into this and I have always said no although DC could benefit as we manage some add issues. DC gets good grades but has to study a lot and is getting frustrated at so many kids with the extra time. My answer was always that this will catch up when applying for college but now am not so sure and wonder if I should go through the process for extra time to lessen stress.

My kid has a high IQ, but has a severe learning disability that makes life an incredible challenge for him. He also has to study a lot, probably more than your kid, actually. Extra time on tests is no fun, by the way. Some tests and days can be very long. So please, please keep teaching your kid to be "frustrated" by the learning disabled and hoping that they get theirs in the end, including being shut out from college. For now, that's not the case-my kid is going to Georgetown! You and your kid sound like real gems.

PP, congratulations on your kid's hard-earned admission and future success at Georgetown!!!

As to OP,
my student has had an IEP since 2nd grade, with documented "invisible" disabilities dating back to age 5. The College Board initially denied him extra time and small group testing accommodations, based on our school's initial submission. Probably since so many kids convince their parents to try to get them extra time. Fortunately, his appeal was granted weeks later. We provided historical documentation, confirmed via older and more recent evaluations. We listed doctors' practices and contacts, SLPs, and other providers of services over the years (none of this was tutoring by the way). Elementary, middle, and hs IEP excerpts. All of this was done to show that we were not seeking to be ONE OF THOSE "ALL THOSE KIDS" who get extra time, just in the nick of time, to game the system.

I am not sure what you mean when you say, this "will catch up" when one applies to college.
Colleges, just like real life jobs, operate under the federal ADA, which qualifies an eligible person for reasonable accommodations.

Anonymous wrote:

dvandivier wrote:Mom of ADHD/Anxious kid here again:
It's clear that the skeptics on here have a COMPLETE lack of knowledge about the disability that is ADHD (and its common co-morbitity that is usually either/or anxiety/depression). It's not a scam to get extra time. It's NOT an advantage to have ADHD. It's NOT suspect (to those of us who know and have hope for our kids) that college students start to develop prefrontal cortex (which for ADHD kids is a delayed process) in college and that, along with peer pressure, makes them both better and probably forces them into hiding about the condition. My son's psychiatrist (who prescribes the meds he detests but needs in order to function in class since he was 7) said that she wrote 105 withdrawal letters in 2021 alone for many of her patients who are exceptionally bright but who couldn't cut it in college as freshmen. This is what we're desperately afraid of for our son and why I am interested in this post. For those who think this is a scam, maybe it is for some, but for those of us who have suffered along with our kids their whole lives, this is serious stuff.

It isn’t so much thinking it’s a scam, it’s more concern that it’s unsustainable. There’s a fine line between reasonable accommodation and using a crutch. Workplaces are not going to be as accommodating. Deadlines are deadlines and if their disability doesn’t allow them to perform the duties, they won’t be protected.

Spare me your crocodile tears. You concern is that my child may get some perceived advantage over your little snowflake. That’s not going to happen.

People tend to choose careers in which they can be successful and cater to their strengths. Someone with severe ADHD will likely avoid a career with strict deadlines. I worked with a guy who was brilliant but had crazy severe ADHD. We all knew he would do mind blowing work for 2 weeks, then disappear down a rabbit hole for 2 weeks, then come back with something amazing. You had to manage deadlines with him, but his work was brilliant. I’d take him as an employee any day of the week over a neurotypical person who could meet the deadlines but could not pick up the patterns and nuances this guy could.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD has ADHD and gets extra time. Even with the extra time, she finds multiple test choices confusing and because she is very impulsive often misses key details and chooses wrong answers even though she knows the material. She rarely does well on standardized tests even though she is bright and does well in most subjects.

We do not foresee a future for her that involves standardized tests in the workplace or other assessments. She’s very good with visual/spatial and has great energy and people skills. We are very confident she will succeed professionally. She has already learned from part time jobs that showing up on time, doing what you’re asked, and being nice to people are skills she has that not everyone possesses.

My daughter has issues similar to yours. She has a language processing disorder and often can’t discern what the question is asking. Multiple choice tests are very hard for her. Yet she is very smart and has worked so hard for years, for absolutely each of her achievements. I am much more proud of her than I would be of a snarky straight A kid to whom everything has come easily.

I have one of these kids, too! She really needs the extra time to read (which is laborious for her) but gets exhausted so usually doesn’t do as well as she could with her knowledge base. Honestly, she is very smart but no threat to any of the gunners on here. But I have confidence she will be professionally successful. She has some great non-academic skills.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if all the kids getting extra time on tests have to disclose this for college and/or does your high school mention on your application. My DC has been asking I look into this and I have always said no although DC could benefit as we manage some add issues. DC gets good grades but has to study a lot and is getting frustrated at so many kids with the extra time. My answer was always that this will catch up when applying for college but now am not so sure and wonder if I should go through the process for extra time to lessen stress.

Would he like to trade places with my child? He's autistic, had no friends, and everything (including tests) takes him twice the time as everyone else, so he has less time to relax or for fun activities. Because while your son is "frustrated" that my child gets extra time, my child is frustrated that he *needs* (not wants) extra time.

Please calm down, PP.

My DC tells me there ARE kids in school who do not appear to have any learning disabilities, don't struggle, yet somehow have a diagnosis of test anxiety or something like that, and they get extra time on tests and on the ACT/SAT.

Is this true? I don't know, but DC is fairly observant. DC knows what autism looks like, and these kids do not have autism or anything like it. They're just hyper-competitive, as are their parents.

Wow! That’s pretty cool that your kid is a neuropsychologist without even going to college! Great for you to save money and he can skip all of the pesky degrees and board exams. Well done!

Extra time on tests for kids with ADHD and other diagnoses can often work against them: at best they can run out of focus stamina and zone out or start making unforced errors; or worse, they can feel terrible about themselves for not being able to bring it in, bring it home, and get it done, and get stuck in an anxiety spiral. ADHD kids will also sometimes rush either to pack everything in while they are focused on it or to get it over with because there is something else around that is of greater interest. (As fellow ADHD parents know, kids like this can have superhero-level laser focus on something they care about, even from a very young age.) Finding the middle ground is very hard. At the college level, sometimes it helps them to just take their tests and quizzes at the same time and the same pace as everyone else, not even for appearance' sake, but because they have nothing left to give in the extra time anyway. Plus, as general human logic suggests, it is also considered helpful in the education sphere (where you can find it called "modeling") to be surrounded by others who are engaging in the positive behaviors--like focused work--that you yourself are striving to emulate.

Are there people out there who may have "purchased" a diagnosis of ADHD or something like that because the customary accommodations are perceived as academically advantageous? Surely. And classmates have probably heard stories about it, too. Some of them might even be true. But if the environment and the accommodations are right, and the situation is properly supportive of a given kid, the kid has a very good chance of being quite successful, even highly successful, even excellent--and that is what accommodations are for. In the best-case scenario an accommodated kid may absolutely shine in they eyes of their classmates--because that is the kind of student they are really supposed to be, and the accommodations are a key part of making that possible. In other words, some of what looks to classmates like a scam may in fact actually be the good results of a lot of honest hard work by a team of family members, therapists, and teachers--and by the kid themselves. If things are going well, classmates probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Knowing that probably won't alleviate the sense of unfairness that observers might feel, but sometimes a bit of explanation might help.

Where I think we have room for growth in higher education is in transforming our understandings of accommodations into best practices for maximizing learning for everyone. I learned a lot about my own teaching, and about accommodating students generally (not just those with learning challenges), under pandemic lockdown that is going to affect what I do in the future, and I think many of my colleagues can say the same.

- College prof and ADHD parent

You people are just too ignorant. I give up

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if all the kids getting extra time on tests have to disclose this for college and/or does your high school mention on your application. My DC has been asking I look into this and I have always said no although DC could benefit as we manage some add issues. DC gets good grades but has to study a lot and is getting frustrated at so many kids with the extra time. My answer was always that this will catch up when applying for college but now am not so sure and wonder if I should go through the process for extra time to lessen stress.

Would he like to trade places with my child? He's autistic, had no friends, and everything (including tests) takes him twice the time as everyone else, so he has less time to relax or for fun activities. Because while your son is "frustrated" that my child gets extra time, my child is frustrated that he *needs* (not wants) extra time.

Please calm down, PP.

My DC tells me there ARE kids in school who do not appear to have any learning disabilities, don't struggle, yet somehow have a diagnosis of test anxiety or something like that, and they get extra time on tests and on the ACT/SAT.

Is this true? I don't know, but DC is fairly observant. DC knows what autism looks like, and these kids do not have autism or anything like it. They're just hyper-competitive, as are their parents.

Yes, it's true. There are plenty of kids getting extra time for test anxiety or other issues when they have no serious learning disabilities. People will say this isn't true, but it's true. My kid's friend is one of them. In the long run these kids are not going to be well-served by all of these accommodations because, at some point, they will have to deal with the real world.

Anonymous wrote:My DD has ADHD and gets extra time. Even with the extra time, she finds multiple test choices confusing and because she is very impulsive often misses key details and chooses wrong answers even though she knows the material. She rarely does well on standardized tests even though she is bright and does well in most subjects.

We do not foresee a future for her that involves standardized tests in the workplace or other assessments. She’s very good with visual/spatial and has great energy and people skills. We are very confident she will succeed professionally. She has already learned from part time jobs that showing up on time, doing what you’re asked, and being nice to people are skills she has that not everyone possesses.

My daughter has issues similar to yours. She has a language processing disorder and often can’t discern what the question is asking. Multiple choice tests are very hard for her. Yet she is very smart and has worked so hard for years, for absolutely each of her achievements. I am much more proud of her than I would be of a snarky straight A kid to whom everything has come easily.

Anonymous wrote:

dvandivier wrote:Mom of ADHD/Anxious kid here again:
It's clear that the skeptics on here have a COMPLETE lack of knowledge about the disability that is ADHD (and its common co-morbitity that is usually either/or anxiety/depression). It's not a scam to get extra time. It's NOT an advantage to have ADHD. It's NOT suspect (to those of us who know and have hope for our kids) that college students start to develop prefrontal cortex (which for ADHD kids is a delayed process) in college and that, along with peer pressure, makes them both better and probably forces them into hiding about the condition. My son's psychiatrist (who prescribes the meds he detests but needs in order to function in class since he was 7) said that she wrote 105 withdrawal letters in 2021 alone for many of her patients who are exceptionally bright but who couldn't cut it in college as freshmen. This is what we're desperately afraid of for our son and why I am interested in this post. For those who think this is a scam, maybe it is for some, but for those of us who have suffered along with our kids their whole lives, this is serious stuff.

It isn’t so much thinking it’s a scam, it’s more concern that it’s unsustainable. There’s a fine line between reasonable accommodation and using a crutch. Workplaces are not going to be as accommodating. Deadlines

are deadlines and if their disability doesn’t allow them to perform the duties, they won’t be protected.

I absolutely don’t believe that you are worried that these kids will struggle professionally. Your type of post never comes from a patent with such a child, it comes from the parents of kids who “resent” them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if all the kids getting extra time on tests have to disclose this for college and/or does your high school mention on your application. My DC has been asking I look into this and I have always said no although DC could benefit as we manage some add issues. DC gets good grades but has to study a lot and is getting frustrated at so many kids with the extra time. My answer was always that this will catch up when applying for college but now am not so sure and wonder if I should go through the process for extra time to lessen stress.

We found out DD has ADD just a few weeks ago. She complained bitterly about the kids with extra time on tests. She thinks they are cheating, faking it to get an ADD or LD diagnosis so they can get extra time.

She does have to work extra hard, probably too hard, which is why we had her tested, finally. Her case is mild, so she likely wouldn't even qualify for extra time, but it does seem unfair that so many kids get it.

Parents need to discuss learning disabilities with their children. They are not obvious to peers. In fact, the first clue is often a disconnect between how “smart” a kid is and how hard academic work might be for them.

Something is seriously wrong if kids resent peers with medically documented learning disabilities because they fear they are losing a college entry advantage. Really twisted.