However, the fact that DS can do the digit span test forward really well but not backwards really well - sort-of adds more fuel to my not seeing the memory issues as being related to attention... He scored quite high on digit forward, abysmal on digist reversed. If this were due to attention, it would occur on both - no?
I don't know how this would play out for a child with ADHD, but fwiw, I am fairly certain there was a discrepancy in this on my ds' testing. I don't have it in front of me at the moment, so I'm just going from memory, but I do remember having the same question!
There are times when he is in creative mode and he needs to get a story out, he is spacey.
My ds looked "spacey" too (still does) when he needs to get something out in writing and can't. His 2nd grade teacher thought he was distracted and daydreaming, and that's why she thought he had ADHD. Even two years later when he was having an IEP eligibility eval at school, after we had his neuropsych report outlining his challenges with handwriting (but before we knew he had an expressive language disorder), the school psych tried to explain away the times he was sitting at his desk doing nothing as ADHD rather than what ds was telling us at home - he didn't have a clue what to do so he was just sitting there. He did eventually get distracted because no one was helping him and he didn't know what to do - but he didn't get distracted first, and distraction wasn't what was causing him not to be able to do his work.
The notes home are "DS has three jobs to do in the morning and he can't remember to do them, without reminder." And this is true - I have SEEN this myself and it is very annoying.
This is very true of my ds - more so when he was younger. In 4/5 grade he had *so* many missing homework assignments that I knew he'd completed, I saw them go into his backpack to go back to school, his classroom has a very obvious "homework in" basket, a very set routine, kids come in, put take their coats and backpacks off, put their homework in the basket, teacher gives "reward" for homework turned in etc... ds couldn't complete that loop. There were so many examples of things at home that we had to remind him to do over and over and over again even though they were the same things each day. It was so amazing to me when his younger sisters just seemed to automatically catch on and do those same things for themselves. When he started middle school I went into the building and helped him check his locker every day after school, went through what his homework was and what he needed to bring take home to do it to be sure it was really in his backpack etc. I don't know if these are things that are typical of ADHD, but I *do* know these are things that are very typical of dyspraxic children - they are symptoms of the challenges with developing automaticity. On a hopeful note, repeat repeat repeat and then repeat again - has worked for my ds over the years. Just not anywhere near as quickly as it does for nt kids.
The teacher has said herself - "If he could just remember the things he is suppose to do automatically throughout the day and keep his things organized, we'd be golden!"
This will get better as he gets older. And it's good that he's got an understanding teacher too. My ds still gets thrown off by changes in schedule, but as he's gotten older he's found some of his own work-arounds for keeping track of things like turning in homework, keeping track of what his homework will be each day and making sure he has everything he needs to do it. It's helped when he's been in classes where the teacher is consistent with routines.
Gotta run - I hope some of my rambling helped!
Best wishes,
polarbear
