It seems like hope against hope, but seriously--if MY DS can do it, yours can, too. Mine doesn't even care about his grades or what people think.
(Not that we are by any means out of the woods, just he is really different now at almost 13 than he was last year. He entered obvious puberty in sixth grade.)
This is more of my uneducated conjecture about hormones, but DS here has changed a LOT. He is still very short but he has a little mustache (to which his breakfast clings, attractively), some acne, and his voice is changing. He has learned to use deodorant without being reminded. Along with these signs of impending maturity, his level of cooperation and buy-in has improved.
I also work with a lot of adolescents who have diagnoses and the boys frequently talk about how much "trouble" they used to be in at school, before they mellowed out.
I think there's a lot of reason to have hope.
