Originally Posted by Nautigal
DS is in 7th grade (though 5th grade age) and it's still a miracle if he manages to write down homework assignments. He lost his sports picture check twice yesterday -- DH had to take it to him at practice, and then he misplaced it again before he managed to find it and turn it in. Expecting lecture notes from him would be akin to expecting him to flap his wings and fly home.

My twice-skipped DS had the same problem through 7th grade. Take heart: with him it started getting better in 8th grade and is now not a problem in 10th.

The Wikipedia has interesting information about why this problem occurs. Perhaps it's more about executive function:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia entry on Executive Function
When studying executive functions, a developmental framework is helpful because these abilities mature at different rates over time. Some abilities peak in late childhood or adolescence while others progress into early adulthood. The brain continues to mature and develop connections well into adulthood. ... executive functioning development corresponds to the neurophysiological developments of the growing brain; as the processing capacity of the frontal lobes and other interconnected regions increases the core executive functions emerge. As these functions are established, they continue to mature, sometimes in spurts, while other, more complex functions also develop, underscoring the different directions along which each component might develop.

However, similar to patterns in childhood development, executive functioning in preadolescents is limited because they do not reliably apply these executive functions across multiple contexts as a result of ongoing development of inhibitory control.