Hi ABQMom - does your ds have developmental coordination disorder? Sorry I can't remember if you've mentioned it before. My ds12 has DCD and has many of the same issues with clumsiness, buttoning shirts, and is incredibly organizationally challenged (but doesn't have ADHD - we've been through that in minute detail and are very certain of it). Our ds gets really bored with kids reading aloud at school - he usually just goes ahead and reads the entire book, then has nothing else to do for days other than daydream. Somehow he manages to still hear whatever is being discussed... but I've often wished we could find him a humanities class which had no reading out loud, and where the kids all read fast enough they could read a book for 1-2 days then have the discussion then be done with it and move on...
Even though our ds has made good strides in organization skills this year (6th grade), I've found that as the year winds down it's becoming more of a challenge for him as the teachers are busy, I think maybe they're feeling the pressure of getting everything completed by year's end, and who knows what. It's also been a bit of a challenge for ds to morph back into his routine post-spring-break.
I wish I had an answer for your question re how to create positive experiences in school. For us, we had to change schools last year - finding a school with a relatively small number of students and a teaching staff that respect parent and student input as well as "getting it" re how ds' disability impacts him, combined with being willing to be flexible to accommodate his challenges.. that's all made a tremendous positive impact. Still there are many times that ds is discouraged and has way to much negativity to deal with related to his challenges. Last night was really tough here - so I dunno. We seem to hit times when things are going well, then boom! Stuff happens at school and the frustration hits again.
I think maybe I'll have some better advice later in the day (or week) when I've recovered from our yesterday
In the meantime, I'm interested in hearing what other parents have to say.
polarbear
ps - there was a large side benefit for *me* in switching schools - at our previous school we were running head-on into things like you mentioned above over and over again and I was constantly having to advocate advocate advocate.. the teachers are so much more willing to be understanding re challenges at his new school that it's opened up the opportunity for ds to do more of his own self-advocating (and be successful at it)... which has taken a *ton* of pressure and worry off of me.
