My DS is a high school Junior and is now struggling to keep up with his GPA. He is a 2E with ADHD and Asperger. I see disparity between his regular school test score and other test score, for example, he can get almost perfect score in his SAT English reading and writing, but still gets B in his regular English tests. He could get a college level course and got A on it, while struggling to get even a B on the same course in his high school. I doubt this might have something to do with his working memory and his ADHD is apparently getting in the way. I'm thinking of medication for him but as a last resort. I'm also thinking of some tools to help him improve his brain function, such as apps from CogMed or Lumosity.

Are there anyone out there with similar experience? If so, would really appreciate if you can share your story.

Thanks!

When school grades are notably lower than the feedback, scores, or grades from other experiences, it may be worth looking into the parity and objectivity of the grading practices themselves.

Assignments in the English Language Arts (ELA) may especially be prone to SUBJECTIVE evaluation, rather than OBJECTIVE grading practices.

Here is an old thread with a roundup of various grading practices which some have reported experiencing - http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....245083/Grading_practices.html#Post245083

That said, it is possible that your child may need or benefit from special accommodations and learning strategies to compensate for any potential weakness(es). Wrightslaw can be a good source of information on testing, IEP, 504, and more. https://www.wrightslaw.com/

Understood.org can also be a good source of information, and includes articles such as https://www.understood.org/articles/en/the-new-thinking-about-adhd-and-executive-functioning

Although you may already be aware of everything in this post, this post is not wasted if it may help someone else who reads it.

Thank you so much Indigo for your insightful input!

FWIW, the research on braintraining apps is not encouraging. There's no indication of any harm from them, but also extremely limited support in the data for anything approaching transfer and generalization of any supposed gains to anything outside of the game. E.g., the original developers of CogMed found that they could improve number span with the tool (which trained users on number span), but that's all it did. It didn't even consistently improve similar tasks, like letter span. In the decade or so since, the data have not really improved, although there are more studies. When you read through the documentation provided by the publisher (owned by Pearson, btw), you'll note that, after lots of optimistic small studies are cited, many of the sections close, almost as an afterthought, with "there is one large study that did not find a significant effect," or similar. Their own research summary document even admits that some of the apparent benefits only accrue to students who do not have working memory deficits! I.e., it's only helpful if you don't need it.

This isn't to say that these types of tools might not be helpful to specific people, of course. But it's anecdotal at best, and might have some placebo-type effects that aren't really related to the actual intervention content. (Since double-blind wasn't typically part of the study design.) And I'm not knocking the placebo effect; its benefits can be useful and real.

So you can try it if it fits into your family situation. It's unlikely to hurt, and there's always the chance that it will help in some way, but I wouldn't lean too heavily on it. I would prefer to see interventions for executive functions that are embedded in the actual school-related tasks that require executive functions, so you don't have to wonder about transfer of skills.

For example, HOPS is a nice practical program, usually managed by a teacher, but also something you could try from the home direction. https://www.amazon.com/Improving-Childrens-Homework-Organization-Planning/dp/0932955509/
Take a look at the work of Sarah Ward:
https://www.efpractice.com/about-5-1
Or Peg Dawson:
https://www.smartbutscatteredkids.com/
Oh, and if you want to hire someone to do EF coaching, places like Beyond Book Smart have locations staffed by reputable professionals. They do a lot of work with 2e students:
https://www.beyondbooksmart.com/