We have a 9 yo boy in 3rd grade. We are starting to see issues with his school work and trying to figure out what's going on. Since 1st grade, I've always been told he's a day dreamer and doesn't finish his work. His issue is getting started; he sits at his desk and looks around the room instead of doing his work (he also misses verbal instructions). When doing assignments he doesn't like (book reports for example), he does the minimum to get by. Last week he decided to make it more interesting by teaching himself how to write in cursive left-handed. His teacher gets pretty frustrated with him. He's not talking or bothering other students, but he's getting behind. He's very smart and is a fast learner. He is an excelled math class and doing really well; his math teacher doesn't have any issues at all with him (he likes math) and she's also VERY structured in the classroom.
A little history on our son.... he's always been a bit odd/quirky. He is VERY obvervant; he watches things repeatedly and won't try something new until he has it mastered. Examples-- walking. He walked on his first birthday and then decided to go back to crawling. 3 months later we came home from daycare and he just started walking. He never fell. Perfect little walker. Then came coloring; he refused to color and would ask me to color for him for hours. First time he colored at age 3, he did it PERFECTLY between the lines. Drawing... he would ask me to draw things and would tell me "how". One day he drew a perfect spiderman. He's really really good at drawing and HIGHLY creative. He asked his Dad to take the training wheels off his bike and took off the first time, never fell. He refused to let me teach him how to tie his shoes. One day he came out of his bedroom with perfectly tied shoes. I never once saw his practice.
He is VERY picky about things and has some sensory issues. He always had issues with sock seams, doesn't like tags on his clothes or his stuffed animals. He is VERY particular about how his clothes fit; sleeves have to be perfect length, etc. He is also a very picky eater and food cannot touch.
On the behavioral side, he's very sweet but he challenges me almost daily. He is a master at arguing! He takes FOREVER to get going in the morning and often has "selective hearing". He almost always forgets to bring his books home to study and He's really disorganized with his school work. But what's weird is if I ask him to help me clean he is a master at organizing things and putting things away. His future wife is going to love his cleaning skills!
He recently got tested in the state gifted program and we are waiting on results. Based on what I've described, do you have any suggestions for other testing? ADD is a possibility but his attention issues are very isolated to school only and he has no problems completing his homework. Should I take to see a pediatric phsycologist? I am really concerned about his school work.
Any input you can provide would be helpful.
Thank you!!
