Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Dyslexic, ADHD, CAPD - any stories of hope?

I have written before about my gifted, out-of-the box 9 year old. He has been described as deeply dyslexic with a severe auditory processing disorder and severe inattention. Public school was very damaging, so I enrolled him in a private school for dyslexic children. I had such hope that he would be happy and do well; it is not working out as hoped and I am very disappointed.

Daily Academic Language Therapy has helped immensely. DS reads very well with accuracy and high fluency. His handwriting is vastly improved, and his cursive is decent.

The problem: the school has started complaining about his inattentiveness but offers no suggestions about what to do. DS drifts off in class, leaves work half-finished and needs multiple proddings and reminders. He moves in his seat excessively and complains that it hurts. DS says that the work is too easy. Many of the children struggle to read, and I suspect that the pace of the instruction is very slow, but there are at most 8 children in a class. If he can't function in such small classes, what can I do? I have an appointment to revisit medication for ADHD and am on-board to try medications and dearly hope it helps.

At home, I have a mostly clam and pleasant child who loves computer games, LEGOs, and having friends over. He is very social and good-natured, has a cutting wit and admires his older brother. I have read books about ADHD and while the chapter about inattention and distractability applies, little else in the book seems pertinent. He has never had tantrums, is not reckless and is not defiant.

Does DS sound familiar to any of you? It is hard for me to reconcile his classroom dysfunction with the child I can take to lectures about science to which he attends well and easily comprehends. One of his teachers asked if he could even sit and play video games! Yes! He can sit still at home and read for 2 hours. I really appreciate your advice.

A friend with a gifted dyslexic child enrolled him in the local school for dyslexics, which has an excellent reputation. She pulled him out fairly quickly, because he was basically too high functioning. The pace of the remedial classes was glacial.

She still hasn't found an environment that caters to his mix of 2E.

Think this could a half bad educational fit? Or that he could have outgrown the school, if he now reads very well?

He sounds pretty text book inattentive ADHD / gifted to me. The dyslexia sounds like it has been well remediated, medication often also helps with CAPD. I personally would be very willing to do anmedication trial. Well I AM doing a medication trial with my almost 10 year old gifted, dyslexic, CAPD, ADHD-I daughter when school goes back on Wednesday. We've given her doses over the holidays to see how it effects her at home, it will be interesting to see how it effects school.

But I do agree that your child might possibly have also outgrown their school if the pace is too slow.

Something to keep in mind is that inattentive ADHD is not about being unable to concentrate at all, but about being unable to control one's attention when needed. Sure he can do something that is instantly gratifying for hours (read, tv, computer games, interesting science lectures), that does not mean he is able to make himself practice handwriting, do math worksheets, sit through boring lessons at school, or do his taxes when he grows up.

Have you gotten an audiology exam to fully exclude an actual hearing loss? Not just the superficial hearing screening at the pediatrician's.
You can ask the school to get him an FM system. This is a microphone that the teacher wears- he can have a little speaker at his desk that amplifies the teacher's voice.
Or donate $1500 or so and have a Surround Sound put in. Again, the teacher wears a microphone, and it amplifies her/his voice in an overhead loudspeaker. My hearing impaired son has that, but it can help kids with CAPD.

Your son sounds very familiar to me!! I have the female version living in my house.

She is a model child, behaviour-wise. Everyone who encounters her gushes about how well-behaved, mannerly, sweet, kind, etc. etc, she is. Even with all of the problems she has in school (ADHD, dyslexia?, dysgraphia) she is compliant and always tries her best. If the teacher points out to her that she is not paying attention, she apologizes profusely and is crushed that she disappointed. In short, she is NOT your typical ADHD child. She is 'moderately' medicated, and this helps with the physical symptoms. She can now sit fairly still in her chair and she no longer scales and straddles our furniture at home. She talks a little more slowly and her parents no longer feel like they are running a constant 100 metre dash to keep up with her (it is more like a marathon now LOL). Part of her problem with inattention in school is that it is just a really bad fit for her. Her school and teacher are beyond fantastic. Ultimately, she is not a kid who will succeed in a school setting of any type. Her brain works differently and she can't do the work required in the time/manner required to be deemed 'complete' or to show that she understands concepts enough to be accelerated. When she does learn a new topic, she is excited and engaged (as much as she can be), but she still can't show them what she knows.

Right now, she is really struggling with the inattention bit. She has commented that she can't even pay attention when she is really, really trying and it is frustrating her even more than normal. So, while we did not want to try any more medication trials... we have opted to give it a go once more. The stimulant she takes is way under the recommended dose for her weight due to mood disturbances. As I said, it helps with her physical symptoms. We just added in a half-dose of Straterra this week. If it works, we may keep her on both... if not, we will try the straterra. Ultimately, our goal is to make HER happy. If she feels better, than we are happy. Just keep in mine, that if you opt for meds that it is not a quick fix. It DOES make things better, but it will not make the ADHD go away! DD has been on meds for 2 years now and we are STILL looking for the right combination.

Oh my goodness, we have the same child! I considered a school for dyslexic children for my DS10 (4th grade), but ultimately decided against it because of exactly what you are experiencing. He is in public school with an Orton-Gillingham tutor that works with him after school 3 days a week. The first semester of school was a struggle. We were trying to find the "just right dose" of medication for his ADHD and he was bored to tears in school. Since Christmas, we have found the right dose (hint: a little goes a long way in these highly sensitive kids) AND they have started curriculum compacting at school. He is truly a new child!

I am lucky to have a very understanding teacher who sees past his dyslexia and dysgraphia and all of the fidgeting that comes from the SPD. She helps remediate where needed, but she was also the one that suggested curriculum compacting for the 2nd semester. He is no longer bored and he feels smart because he gets to work ahead of the other students in class. It is so nice for him to be recognized for something other than all of his disabilities.

There is hope, but it is a long journey...one in which you never reach the end. I highly doubt that we won't have to continue to tweak things as time goes on, but it feels so good to finally have it right.

Just in case you want the details. We tried just about every ADHD medication there is. The last one was Daytrana (the patch). On every med, he had stomach aches and nausea or was a complete zombie. It turns out that even the starting dose was too high for him. He is on one-fourth of a 20mg patch now. He has no side effects and his personality is completely unaffected. I had a consult with Dr. Ed Amend the other day and he said it is quite common for kids like him to be highly sensitive to stimulants and it is not unusual that the starting dose is too high.

Hope this helps!

Thanks! The Dyslexia School moves too slowly and has below-grade level expectations. He has only been there a bit over a semester, but I know he has to change schools. We may go back to his public school and hire a tutor to help with his writing skills. Our public school has many gifted kids, but the school does nothing for them. They do not even offer accelerated math, and a compacted curiculum is not an option. The local gifted private school sounds marvelous, but my DS not have advanced acadmeic skills. Thanks for advice about a "little goes a long way" concerning medications. We have to get his inattention improved or staying in any school will prove difficult.

Have you met with the principal of the public school personally? I would go in armed with your son's test scores and a copy of the booklet "Understanding Your Twice-Exceptional Student" from the 2e-newsletter.com. Explain your situation and ask them what they would suggest. If they have no way to provide an appropriate education for you DS, then your choices are to 1)pursue legal action under FAPE, 2)Meet with private school and explain situation and see if they have ideas, 3)Homeschool. I've learned on this forum, that many families with twice-exceptional children have to turn to home schooling as the best option for educating their child.

We spent 4 years at the public school. We left after the school determined that DS was not eligible for the dyslexia program. We considered special education testing but determined that they did not have the personnel to help DS. That is why we chose the dyslexia school with ALTs on staff. DS' ALT has helped him and an hour a day of ALT has been great. But DS told me he does not read at school. The teachers read everything to the kids. I am considering homeschooling as well switching to another private school if DS' attention improves.

So, if your child can sit still and attend to a science lecture away from school, but can't sit still and attend to a lecture in class, you and the school need to look at what the differences are between those two environments, so you can figure out how to make classroom environment more like the lecture environment.

Let's start with the seating issue. The auditorium chairs that I've sat in are usually pretty comfortable, while school chairs typically are cheap, light and stackable, not particularly comfortable or ergonomic. Since your son complains about his chair, has anyone at the school thought to see if a different type of chair would work for him, or if his expressed discomfort is due to low muscle tone or some other genuine issue other than "inattention"? He is complaining that sitting in his chair hurts. If he hurts, that is going to make distractability a thousand times worse. Sometimes just having a gel cushion or a pillow for the seat or sitting on a ball instead of a chair, or having a chair that is the right size can really make a difference.

Is the classroom dim, calm, and quiet, except for the presenter's amplified voice, like a lecture hall, or are there bright lights and visual clutter, movement, and/or noises such as fans, air conditioners, echo-y surfaces, noise from the playground or hallways or music room, etc. that may be making it more difficult for him to attend to the material? If the environment itself is too distracting, having headphone speakers where the teacher's voice is amplified directly to his headset and the classroom noise is somewhat diminished, and having a screen or study carrel that helps block out some of the visual distractions, or even having permission to wear sunglasses inside may help a great deal with his ability to pay attention. Also look at the seating arrangements: sometimes teachers think it is "warm" or "friendly" to seat children in a circle, or even facing each other, when to some kids it can be "annoying " and "distracting".

Another important difference between a public science lecture and his classroom may be the instructional level of the material. It is worth noting that instruction at the academic challenge level and presented at the appropriate pace, so the material actually captures attention, reducing the effort required to maintain attention continuously, is considered a reasonable accommodation for ADD.

I hope this gives you some places to start. FWIW, I would try all of these other interventions before starting on meds.