Suggestions for Organizational Skills

[rhilliard]

My 9 year old son was diagnosed with ADD a little over a year ago. Since he began taking Adderall, my life has been so much better. I don't spend every night constantly fighting with my son over his homework. He's doing much better in terms of being able to focus on his homework, and I don't have to sit over him non-stop in order for him to finish it. He used to call me the "Homework ****" if that gives you any idea how bad thing were before he began taking his medication. However, we still have a horrible time keeping him organized. He is now in the 4th grade, and as most of you know, this is the time were all sorts of new things are thrown at a student. They have to be able to function much more independently and be much more responsible than in years past. We have gotten him organized as best we can. For instance, he has a folder for each subject and manages to keep the folders together in a binder. He actually does put the correct work in the correct folder. HOWEVER, when his teacher asks him for a specific homework paper, he won't look any further than the first sheet or two in the folder, and then tells her he can't find it. The worksheet he's looking for may be in the back of his folder, , but he won't look that far. I've tried to organize his folders a little better. I have him put homework on one side, and other things like study sheets, word lists, etc. on the other side, so maybe he won't have so much to look through in order to find what he needs. This doesn't seem to be helping though, because he's gotten three 0's this week, and when I go through the folder, low & behold, there's the homework just as it should be. His teacher is doing her best to be very accomodating. She lets him turns in things late, she has given him credit for those 0's since I found the work and showed it to her. But she has a classroom full of 25 other kids who need her attention too, and I can't expect her to hold my son's hand the whole day through. I can't quit my job to stay in class with him all day, and short of that, I don't know what else to do.

My second problem with him is, I cannot get him to write down his homework every day. I know for a fact that his teacher writes all of their assignments on the board, including any tests that are coming up shortly. She even passes out sheets specifically for each student to write down their homework on. My son just won't use them. He forgets to write it down. I tried photocopying the sheet onto a colored page (yellow instead of white) so that it would stand out from everything else in his notebook, thinking if he saw that, it might trigger him to remember. Not so. I am thinking I'm going to have to start taking my lunch hour every day to go to school at the end of the day so I can write everything down myself, and then make sure he brings everything he needs home. When I know that he has a test, I can help him study and he does very very well. Obviously, studyhing always helps whether someone is ADD or not. Problem is, I can't figure out how to help my son remember that he has a test, and then get him to bring home the necessary study materials. I received his mid-term Friday. He has two A's, one B & 2 Cs, one of which is borderline-almost a D. I know those lower grades could be brought up if I could just get some advanced notice of tests & such. His teacher has said if it comes down to it, she will copy her lesson plans for me every day, but I don't know if that would help or not, because my son would probably forget & leave them in his desk every day.

Any suggestions anyone can provide on how to deal with these issues would be greatly appreciated. Sorry the post was so long, but I get really emotionally about my kids, and sometimes I rattle on and on.

Thanks.

Rebecca

[This message has been edited by rhilliard (edited 09-14-2003).]

[DenverGal]

I know my sister had the same problem with her son. They only thing that worked was to get him a homework notebook. The teacher had to review it at the end of every day and sign that it was correct. Then my sister would sign it when he was done with everything. She did this in 5 and 6th grade, but by 7th grad he was able to do it on his own. He is now in 8th grade and doing very well. It's a big committement from the teachers, but they were the ones that suggested it and they did it for 2 or 3 other kids.

Hope that helps.

[Palms]

I am having the same problem with my son (see my post "School Accommodations for ADHD Kids). Check and see if your school has a website and if there is a homework link where teachers enter the homework assignments. If not, it might be a good suggestion you can bring up to the school principal. I would ask the teacher to "supervise" that the homework papers will end up in your child's backpack. It's only going to take a few seconds of their time at the end of class. Unfortunately my son's teacher is not that cooperative when I asked her for that same favor, but maybe your child's teacher has a heart for struggling kids.

[Sapphrina]

Palms, if I am not mistaken , from what I was told, every child who has a diagnosed disability has a right and the school that the child attends is SUPPOSED to help the child by LAW! Here in Round Rock, TX, just north of Austin, we have an ARD meeting every year for my step-daughter. ARD stand for Admission, Review and Dismiss, I believe. Anyway, there are meetings that the parents have w/the school officials, principal and/or vice-principal, teacher, any special ed teachers, etc. The meeting is for the school to tell you what THEY are gonna do to HELP YOUR CHILD. Either myself or my husband has attended every year for the last 4 yrs. When my step-daughter first came here in 1999, we attended several meetings until things were adjusted for HER. She had problems w/meds and had problems in class, an ARD meeting was called for and the issues were addressed. Right now, my husband has been to 2 meetings in the last month because she has been acting up and showing signs of regression which is taking away help from other students. She is gonna start group counseling w/the school counselor in 2 wks. They, the teachers have been very helpful w/her. She is legally blind, has a mild-form of CP, and was diagnosed w/ADD which may or may not be correct, but for now it is what we will accept until further counseling may find otherwise. She has a VI(visual impairment teacher), OM (Orientation&Mobility teacher), she is in Math resource as well as Language Arts Resource, has special ed PE, has Speech Therapy for stuttering and has come home w/tape recorder for lessons because of CP, she cant write for long periods so she will do homework on recorder, TSBVI(Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired) has seen to it that she has a monocular to see things up close in the classroom, dome magnifier for words on pages, she goes to TSBVI in the Summer for Camp for 3 wks and they teach her things about how to be independent and responsible as a blind person. She also has a tape recorder form the Texas Public Library which she gets books on tape which is free of charge. There is alot that child is entitled to, but not alot of people know about it. I was fortunate to have a wonderful neighbor and her first VI teacher who explained and helped w/all the issues.

[Sapphrina]

Palms, if I am not mistaken , from what I was told, every child who has a diagnosed disability has a right and the school that the child attends is SUPPOSED to help the child by LAW! Here in Round Rock, TX, just north of Austin, we have an ARD meeting every year for my step-daughter. ARD stand for Admission, Review and Dismiss, I believe. Anyway, there are meetings that the parents have w/the school officials, principal and/or vice-principal, teacher, any special ed teachers, etc. The meeting is for the school to tell you what THEY are gonna do to HELP YOUR CHILD. Either myself or my husband has attended every year for the last 4 yrs. When my step-daughter first came here in 1999, we attended several meetings until things were adjusted for HER. She had problems w/meds and had problems in class, an ARD meeting was called for and the issues were addressed. Right now, my husband has been to 2 meetings in the last month because she has been acting up and showing signs of regression which is taking away help from other students. She is gonna start group counseling w/the school counselor in 2 wks. They, the teachers have been very helpful w/her. She is legally blind, has a mild-form of CP, and was diagnosed w/ADD which may or may not be correct, but for now it is what we will accept until further counseling may find otherwise. She has a VI(visual impairment teacher), OM (Orientation&Mobility teacher), she is in Math resource as well as Language Arts Resource, has special ed PE, has Speech Therapy for stuttering and has come home w/tape recorder for lessons because of CP, she cant write for long periods so she will do homework on recorder, TSBVI(Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired) has seen to it that she has a monocular to see things up close in the classroom, dome magnifier for words on pages, she goes to TSBVI in the Summer for Camp for 3 wks and they teach her things about how to be independent and responsible as a blind person. She also has a tape recorder form the Texas Public Library which she gets books on tape which is free of charge. There is alot that child is entitled to, but not alot of people know about it. I was fortunate to have a wonderful neighbor and her first VI teacher who explained and helped w/all the issues.

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