Dear Desparate-

You are not alone. The slowness sounds like son who is 14 years old. I know it can be very tough and those long hours spent on one child is very tough on everyone, especially if you have other children . i think the best thing to do is take a look at the accomodations that are in place for your child. Does your child have extra time to complete assignments? Maybe they can shorten or modify the assignments to ease some of the burden on your family.

Hang in there because the life with an ADHD kid is like riding a roller coaster....It's fun, challenging, scary .

Quote

I just wrote a long reply and lost it! Hang in there I have two kids with Attention and time management problems give me some specfic situations and I will try and help you. I know what its like to spend hours and hours on homework that should only take minutes to do! Do you have a good support system? How does the teacher react to your child? How old is your child? Break the problems up and work on specifc ones at a time dont look at the whole picture its tooooo over whelming! You know your own child your gut feelings will tell you what to do. If I would of listened to the child psycholgist when my son was in first grade my kid would of been put in the LD class when that was the right place my kid went from almost failing first grade to all A,s and B,s in the second with the right teacher my child is on no meds we make sure of exercise, as much routine as we can, focus on accomplishments. it is a roller coaster ride for sure! The days are never the same but your child is worth every minute of it! write me with specific situattions and I will try and help Shell

Quote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sluggish_cognitive_tempo

This may not be the complete answer, however, from your description your daughter may be suffering from SCT. I found this description a couple of weeks ago and it does a much better job of describing my symptoms then garden variety ADD-PI. I hope this helps

Quote

Hi, I am currently looking for a parent perspective on raising a child with ADD. I worked with emotionally disturbed children in a group home for 7 years and loved every minute of it. I especially loved making break throughs with my ADD students. I left the field because of burn out, but continued to tutor to keep my love for teaching alive. I am currently going back to school for my masters in reading and am writing a paper on parents perspectivs on bringing up a child with ADD. When I worked with the children of hte group home, the parents were never involvled with their education. If any one would like to answer some questions on this page it would be a learning experience for me. I feel like I have learned so much already. I look forward to learning more. FYI I am currently supervisor in a medical companies customer service. I work with two adults with ADD and they are honestly two of my best workers.

Quote

Thank you so much everyone for your replies! And I really appreciate the Wikipedia link--it sounds like my daughter to a T! I KNEW there had to be something beyond ADD for this--some sort of processing disorder, etc. Unfortunately, we're not doing well with stimulants other than the Vyvanse improving her focus a bit. We had a light week HW wise this week, due to PSSAs (PA statewide tests), though some of them took her all day! We keep hanging on, and start wraparound services hopefully in a week, with the extra support that might turn this thing around. I will keep you posted, and read and respond in kind--thanks again!!

Quote

I'm a learning support teacher and I work with several children with ADHD. Has your child been evaluated for special education services? If not, I suggest that you request (in writing) that she be evaluated. When ADHD significantly impacts a child's education and the 504 plan is not enough, the child may be elgible for special education services under the "Other Health Impairments" category. If your child was evaluated a while back and was found not elgible, you may now appeal this decision with proof that the 504 plan is not effective.

When a child is found eligible for special education services, you become part of a team of "experts" that devise a plan together to meet your child's needs. You can call a meeting at anytime that you feel that the plan needs to be changed to accomodate your daughter's needs. The school psychologist would administer most of the assessments and can also make suggestions of strategies for you to use at home.

Good luck.

Quote

SUPER SLOW....I have been dealing with the same thing. I thought I was alone. We started the 504 plan and that does not seem to help. He is not on medicine for ADD, but my son, who is 9, is on medicine for seizures. Every night it is a struggle. It is fustrating him as well. He spends hours to do a few assignments that used to only take him 30 minutes. The worse is writing. When he does write, his teacher says he writes beautifully. But it takes him hours and sometimes days to write a paragraph. I don't know what to do myself. I feel bad for him because sometimes I fuss about it. But at the same time, I know it is out of his control. I am in tears at night.

Quote

Quote:

Mizbaze said: Hi Everyone:

I'm new to this and don't have time right now to pore through all previous postings to see if this issue has ever come up. My daughter was diagnosed with ADD with depression 3 years ago. She started Wellbutrin two years ago (after a prolonged struggle with my husband), and it was night and day. BUT...still had a hrad time remembering HW, staying, organized, etc. We'd get our act together just in time for summer vacation.

This year, 7th grade, has been THE worst academic year in our lives. Teachers have piled the HW on, but even with a 504 she can't keep up. On top of that, she's gotten even SLOWER than she normally was. Vyvanse and Adderall barely do anything, and we've tried everything else. Today, 9 math problems took an 1 1/4 hours. A simply essay, even with my assistance, can take 5 HOURS. We knock so many assignments out. It's reaching a point where her teachers will have only classwork to grade her on. I feel as much of a hostage to homework as she does.

We are currently waiting for "wraparound" services through Medical Assistance.

But this lack of speed is everywhere in her life. We have to wait for her on everything, and I feel like I work for NASA with my "T Minus" countdowns. To get her in bed in less than an hour, I have now started to sit outside the bathroom door. I can never get her in bed before 11 pm; she gets up at 6 am.

I'm so depressed I'm beyond crying. This is more than just ADD, but I'm afraid I'll never find out what.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Quote

I have two children with ADHD, ages 16 and 21. I work for at the high school where both my son now attends and my daughter has graduated from. I would highly suggest your daughter is put on an IEP - it is taken much more seriously than a 504 plan. It is also much more detailed in what accommodations the IEP team agrees upon for your daughter. Is there anyway that your child's teachers would let her show her knowledge verbally? My son can usually tell what he knows in an instant but ask him to put anything down on paper and it can take years! You need to ask the teachers to cut her workload way down - no child should spend that long doing homework. It sounds like your daughter has some real executive function problems (organization skills deficits, etc.) and you may want to look into a new therapy to correct executive function deficits currently being studied at leading universities around the world - Cogmed. Go to Cogmed.com. Just remember, every day is a new day!

Quote

Hi. My 11 year old son has ADHD and GAD - Generalized Anxiety Disorder. He currently takes Adderall 20 mg, Prozac 10 mg, and Remeron 15 mg. I absolutely HATE that he needs these medications but he is a different child since beginning this regimen. I highly recommend that you have your daughter evaluated by a Psychiatrist for a Pharmacolgical Consultation. I wasn't comfortable with having his Pediatrician handle the meds once we learned of the Anxiety DIsorder. His psychiatrist has been a huge help, so much so that I am also now her patient. I told her that I want to feel as good as he does! It sounds to me as if your daughter isn't "successfully medicated." If you decide to see the psychiatrist, I also recommend that you ask your pharmacy for a printout and list all the meds you have tried previously. It will keep you from repeating and is really good information for the Dr. to have The ADHD Book of Lists has some great ideas for teaching time management, including timing activities so that she may become more aware. Good luck to you.

Quote

Hi, I am a middle school teacher. A large percentage of my team has ADD or ADHD. Most, but not all have 504sor IEPs in place. Many parents have expressed concerns about the amount of homework that their children are getting and the length of time that it takes to complete. I hate to hear about evenings spent with students in tears and parents frustrated. That doesn't benefit anyone! Your child's teachers should be able to reduce and modify most assignments. They should also be able to give your child extra time to complete most assignments. There are a few things that have been pretty effective when it comes to homework. My teammate and I communicate with many parents on a daily basis vai the assignment notebook. We can note next to assignments which parts are essential; for example, it would be great to get problems 1-10 done, but if they seem to take a long time it is most important to do 2, 5, and 7. Parents can also write back and tell us how an assignment went, what progress was made and what questions their child might have. I have a parent who leaves post-it notes on her child's work telling her what questions to ask us in class in order to better understand an assignment. One young man on our team works best when his mother times him. She sets aside a block of time each night. When he finishes with his homework he can use what is left of the time block to do whatever he likes, usually video gaming. If he takes the entire time to do his assignments, no video games. She keeps a digital timer in front of him so that he can look up and see how much of his time block is left. He keeps challenging himself to work faster so that he can have more time for what he likes to do. Different things work for differnet kids. Your child's teachers may have some ideas of what might work for your child based on what he/she sees in class. Don't be afraid to let teachers know about homework struggles. Most of us want to do whatever we can to help!

Quote

my 7 year old recently completed the Cogmed program and the results are miraculous. He is so much better organized. He has gone from never having known where his shoes or coat was in 7 years to laying out his clothes ( including shoes) at the foot of the bed for school the next day without ever being asked to! We just got his first report card since completing the program and he improved in 14 out of 15 areas....very impressive. Did it fix his dyslexia? of course not, but it sure helped all areas of his ADD. Look into it!

Quote

Thanks again, everyone, for your responses. I’m exhausted while writing this because we’ve spent another night where executive functioning basically fell right through the floor again.

I’m rapidly refreshing my understanding of IEPs vs. 504s, since the school psychologist is just talking about officially updating the 504 this Friday--we’ve been orally “tweaking” it till now. The teachers are very aware of the problems we’re having although I’m not sure they appreciate HOW BAD it really is. I’ve gotten the “just take 30 minutes per assignment/now make it up in class” response. My husband and I are trying to tell the teachers that more often than not, spending 30 minutes on an assignment and getting it half-way done ARE mutually exclusive! I used to keep pretty frequent contact with her teachers but because so much is left undone now I’m too embarrassed to keep talking every day with them about it (and incredibly burnt out). I also don’t want to look like a “helicopter parent” who’s taking everyone to task for making her little angel’s life taxing (I’m being facetious).

Right now I’m afraid to tweak the meds until I can see whether wraparound services (an at-home therapist and behavioral specialist) do the trick or not. With her meds, we just tried raising the Wellbutrin but it’s seems like she got WORSE. My daughter’s cynicism has her seeing through most self-motivation tricks so I’m hoping the wraparound team can help with the various suggestions that have been made by school staff and on these boards here, so I’m not left in charge all the time of gaining compliance.

I just totally fear having a dropout on my hands. I have two grown 20-something nephews with ADD, who barely finished high school and seem to have nothing more ambitious than stocking shelves in the supermarket—all because of their horrible experiences with school.

Quote