Originally Posted by Kai
Wrong: I started obviously underachieving in 6th grade (though looking back, it's apparent that it started much earlier) and by 9th grade all things academic in my life were pretty much a disaster. I can see now that this was due in large part to undiagnosed dyslexia and ADHD. I wish they had not simply attributed my lack of achievement to laziness and had gotten me help with reading, math, and executive skills.

Ohhh... me too (no dyslexia though). My son has the ADHD dx and I'm pretty sure he got it from me. I was "the smartest kid in my grade" until about grade 9-10 and then at the end of grade 12 didn't made the honor roll for the first time. Oops. Nobody bothered to delve deeper into my slipping grades ("oh she'll be fine") and not all kids have the ability to ask for help or the awareness that it's even fixable. I'd bring books home to study but they stayed in my backpack because I had no idea where to even begin, so I didn't bother (I also fell into the trap of "whatever - I'll never fail so who cares"). As for parents... when your child is "smarter" than you, there's a tendency I think to assume that a) they know what they're doing, and b) you can't help them anyway.