Hello shuasmom,

Thanks for your post, and congratulations to your son for giving college a second try!

Here are some articles about college accommodations that you and your son might find helpful: ADHD and Extra Time for Testing, and Will This Be on the Test?

You two can also check out this story, The College Try: Helping ADHD Teens Succeed in College, and ADDitude's ADHD College Survival Guide for more back-to-college tips.

Best of luck to you and your son!

Heather

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Hi shuasmom!

I have ADHD and have a daughter with ADHD, although she is only 8 years old, so I haven't had to deal with college issues as a parent yet. However, I am a professor at Iowa State University, and so have dealt with them from an educator's point of view. The way our university handles things is to come up with an individual accommodation plan with each student, and then communicate that plan to the professors. So I suppose it would depend on what your son would find most helpful. My ADHD students usually have unlimited time to take exams, and some of them request that I e-mail the slides from the lectures to them so they don't have to take as many notes. I've had people tape my lectures, but I allow that of any students so I don't consider that an accommodation.

As far as pushing your son goes, again, I don't have the parent perspective on that yet, although I'm sure that's coming faster than I want it to! As a professor, though, I can tell you that the one thing I hate more than anything else is when parents try to get involved in my students' education at the college level. For one thing, in most states it is illegal for parents to discuss the students' records with professors without explicit permission from the students, due to privacy laws. But quite apart from that, I feel as a college-level educator that a big part of the college experience is for the students to learn to deal with being independent. So when I have a parent call asking to talk about their son or daughter's grades or performance, I tell them flat out that I will not speak to them; that I will speak only to their son or daughter. Some parents get very upset about this, especially if they are paying for their child's education, but I see it as both a legal right of the student and as part of their development into responsible adults. I see this as being especially true if the student has issues like ADHD. They will eventually have to learn to deal with it on their own in "the real world", so while it might be harder for them to do so, it's that much more important for parents to let go. Of course, I may find my own words to be challenging for myself to live by when my own daughter gets to that age. :)

The best of luck to you, and to your son!! Christine

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That's great that he is going back...it takes a lot of courage to go back to school after an unsuccessful attempt. First, make sure he knows what a great thing he is doing by returning.

I would immediately go to the doctor that diagnosed your son and see if the doctor will provide you with a copy (or perhaps this needs to be completed) of his psychological-educational evaluation. Most colleges/university's want this testing to be completed within the past three years. Any older and you run the risk of a college not utilizing the test and/or they may not give him as many accommodations as he currently needs (besides the federally mandated extended time and distraction reduced testing environments). If a psychological-educational evaluation has never been completed I would then ask the doctor if he can at least write a letter on your son's behalf stating that he has been diagnosed with AD/HD, the year he was diagnosed, medication (if warrented) and any other pertinent information regarding his diagnosis of AD/HD. The letter should surrfice for many colleges/univeristies to give at least basic ADA-AA accommodations.

Another bit of advice I can relay is to make sure your son is fully aware of his diagnosis. By this I mean that not only does he know that he has been diagnosed with AD/HD but that he has had a conversation with his doctor about how AD/HD affects him in every aspect of his life...specifically his education. The new ADA-AA law states that students not only have to provide a diagnosis but they also have to be able to articulate their needs to the colleges.

Finally, make sure your son takes the psychological-educational evaluation or doctors letter to the colleges Office of Diabilities or Learning Center. These are the people that can give your son the accommodations he needs. I would suggest that he meet with these people prior to the start of the semester (or at least a conversation via phone). If the college is not measuring up with the accommodations he needs to be "successful" he may be setting himself up for another tough year. That may mean that he should reconsider his options for different colleges that may actually offer the exact support services he needs. Stacey

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Thank you guys for your suggestions & comments. Thanks Stacey for the advice regarding the disability offices. We are meeting today with the Disability Counselor and I do have his evaluation. We had a new one done with a psychologist this summer . Christine, it was interesting to get a professors perspective. The fine line I am walking right now is how much & in what ways to be involved and supportive. It IS frustrating to be the one paying for everything but feeling like I'm the last one to know or even have the "right" to know what is going on. However, I do understand that my son does need to know how to deal with it in "the real world". That is my goal! I don't think he quite knows how to ask for the help or even know the help is available. I don't want to be a "helicopter-parent" and in most things I am not. But his education is a "costly" area to be left to chance.

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Congratulations to your son for getting back up on the horse.

My son just started college and is refusing to take the accommodations that he has been granted and needs. It's very frustrating since he states he wants to prove to himself that he can "do it himself." While I admire the desire and effort, I am very concerned that he will follow the course of your son and fail out. He has had few successes and I think the trauma would chase him away from school altogether. The director of the disabled students services told me it often takes entitled students a long time to make it into see them and ask for their accommodations. So I'm holding my breath and trying (not too successfully) to let him make his own mistakes. And hopefully he will find his way to asking for what he deserves (he has other disabilities in addition to ADHD,) and together will things near impossible for him without accommodations. I consider this process to be part of the learning experience and part of what we are so dearly paying for. It is an expensive gamble, I agree, but all students, disabled or not risk failure.

Accommodations that have been very helpful to my son are: getting copies of notes, tutoring (he learns mostly from discussion,) extended test time (in addition to ADHD he has a condition that causes fatigue,) use of a computer for all writing (he has severe disgraphia,) preferential seating (hearing impairment) and organizational support. Not that he doesn't need the other accommodations, but the best accommodation for him is PRAISE. He already feels super defective to begin with. All of his disabilities are invisible, and he is so bright, most people expect very high output from him.

In regards to the Livescribe, I think it is an excellent tool. We bought it for our son who used it when his other school wouldn't give him copies of notes. When he used it it was helpful, and had the cool factor. However, ultimately he didn't use it consistently, partly because he had to remember to charge it, bring it, etc. I think using it is better than recording a lecture because, if the student is able to write down even a list of key words (if they can't take notes like my son,) than the Livescribe makes it's audio recording search-able, and therefore much more usable. The notes are uploadable to a web interface (for retrieval and for sharing) and helps if your student has difficulty managing paper (like my son does!) This pen has huge potential, and of course is much lighter than carrying around a bulky laptop. If it's lost or stolen, at least it isn't the expensive laptop! I do recommend the Livescribe; but in honesty my son's motivation problem keeps him from using it consistently.

So the biggest barrier to my son getting and using his accommodations is an emotional one. He just wants to be the same as others and to prove to me that he isn't "as handicapped as I make him out to be..." I wish I could somehow undue the years myriad undiagnosed or wrongly diagnosed illnesses. But I cannot. Part of me thinks the process of labeling is way too damaging to the child. Despite enlightened, compassionate parents. I don't know what to do about that but to let him try and perhaps fail, and to love him anyhow. It kind of just sucks.

What kills me is that he won't even take the supports offered all students, like the school sponsored midterm review sessions (open to all students,) for example. If he saw himself as non-defective and didn't have so much to prove to himself, he'd probably welcome the support.

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This thing is Game Changing Model Number: 2Gb version "I am an Adult with ADHD. I use the Pulse Smartpen both at work and at school. It has been game changing. My greatest professional and academic weakness is my inability to keep track of and me my huge number of tasks, requirements and deadlines. Having searchable notes, the ability to replay meetings to verify expectations and catch all my "to do" items has already made the difference between muddling by and excelling.

I have a few professors that run a chaotic classroom. Consequently, I lose a lot of information as I try to maintain focus, redirect attention as they skip around and take notes. I have been permitted to record classes in the past but that's limiting. Being able to record a meeting or a class, be able to replay specific sections quickly and easily just by clicking my notes is wonderful.

After class or after a meeting, within minutes, my notes are already exported to my desktop.

But the best feature is being able to search for "tags" I leave in my notes like "HW" for homework or "Do" for a project task. I can finally "search" like I do my email or word processing documents. Too Amazing!!

I'm thinking about getting two of these for two ADHD teens I know to help them in school.

BTW, Teddie is incorrect that you can only connect your Pulse to one computer. I sync my pen to three different computers. This gives me three different copies of all my notes in case a hard drive crashes or a laptop is stolen.

It's WONDERFUL!"

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When you meet with the disability office coordinator your son/daughter should ask for extra time on the test, have exams read to him. Private room to take his exams. When he meets with his college teacher/professors he should talk to them before/after class to inform them of his disability and ask if he can have permission to tape the classes and also have a note taker and alos request a tutor throuhg the disability office.

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I have 3+ decades of experience with LD and most recently was a college Learning Specialist for 13 years at a community college.

While community college is considered "low cost, low risk", it may turn out to be just the opposite for students with LD/ADD. In general, community colleges offer nothing in the way of support for our students (I have one of my own).

I was the sole Learning Specialist (and part-time, at that) in a sea of 14,000+ students. So as you can imagine, I barely made a dent in my ability to help students. It was not always this way. When I started in 1993, I was able to see students 3x/week and get them through developmental and introductory courses. I noticed that they became more confident with help, and after several semesters of tutoring, they were "metacognitive" (aware of how they learned). At that point, I could let them go and tell them to come back as needed... or even to try the general tutoring lab for college students at-large.

I learned several lessons from this.

1) Tutoring is not demeaning - it is empowering!

2) Most freshmen straight out of Special Ed in HS need 3x/week of individualized help with a Learning Specialist to get off to a good start. Students who received 3 hours a week of help from me and received content tutoring, study skills help, time management strategies, etc. made it and transferred to 4-year school, sometimes with scholarships! Of course, the fact that they showed up for their appointments indicates that they were determined individuals to begin with. However, without this help, they would have drowned. That is why I left my position in 2006. I no longer could provide this kind of help, and I watched one student after another fail. These were students who were pleading for more appts. It was heartbreaking.

3) I decided that I could have the most influence by reaching students PROACTIVELY - in high school. I wrote a course, CONQUER COLLEGE WITH LD/ADD, that I teach locally and now online. It teaches students how to prepare for and succeed in the college system. As far as I know, it is the only course of its kind - it is broad in scope and deep in breadth.

You can find out more about my course by calling me at 215 620-2112. It starts running again online on Oct 7, 2009.

You may also join my free e-list at http://www.conquercollegewithld.com, join my free blog at http://www.conquercollegewithld.ning.com, or e-mail me at info@conquercollegewithld.com.

This is without a doubt the most gratifying work I have done my entire career!

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