mom2one, one thing I'll add for you to consider, since you have a concern re dysgraphia - my ds' dysgraphia is related to Developmental Coordination Disorder, and organizational challenges are common for kids with DCD - so - just one more thing to add to your list of possibilities.
One positive thing to note though - it's not uncommon for kids who have organizational challenges to see huge leaps in org. ability as they go through puberty, and we've definitely noticed that with our ds. He's not entirely free of his organizational challenges at this point, but the combination of a *lot* of support from us (parents) combined with a bit of support at school combined with puberty all together really *really* helped.
I did speak to a mom at our school whose son has obvious focus and organization issues and the whilst he does not qualify for a 504 accommodation, he did get an aide to help him out for a couple of hours a day, and he was given an extra desk next to his to help organize all his stuff.
This would actually be really good to have, but I am not sure if this will be given if we ask for it
While this might be an ideal to shoot for, there are other ways you can provide this same type of support. If the school won't help you at all - do you pick up your ds at the end of the day? If you do, you could go into his classroom, review what he did that day, review what he has for homework, check to see that he has what he needs to do his homework (books etc) in his backpack, and you can help him straighten up his desk etc before he leaves. That probably sounds like micro-managing to parents who are reading and haven't had to parent a child with an organizational challenge, but I can tell you that hands-down, doing that for my ds over the course of about 6 months made a *huge* difference in his ability to keep track of his classwork and increased his self-confidence in being able to manage his work. He really didn't *want* me to do it, so we had a deal - I'd be there after school and we'd do it together for __ months, then if he was feeling he could handle it (and I agreed) I'd step back to only once a week, then after a few weeks of that being successful I'd pull back and only help if it was requested. It worked great - but otoh, my ds was a little bit older. I think it would have been a good idea for me to do this when he was your ds' age, but I don't know that it would have been possible to *not* help him with it for the full year.
If you work and can't pick him up, and you're able to pay for it, you could hire a college-age or high-school age child who is responsible to come in and do this for you (with your ds).
You can also ask the school to give your ds a checklist of specific organizational tasks he needs to do before he can leave his classroom each day (put away books, straighten desk, write down homework, etc).
Another thing to remember - if you're requesting a 504 plan, or even if you're just talking directly with the teacher and only the teacher - you can brainstorm while you're meeting. You may bring up one request, the teacher will nix it for whatever reason (be sure to ask what the reason is, because it might not be what you anticipate, and there might be a work-around that's clear as day to you and never occurred to the teacher) - then when the idea becomes a "we can't do", you ask what can be done, or you suggest a slightly different version of it based on the "why we can't do it'.
Do you see these organizational challenges at home as well?
Not really, unless it is a brand new task he has to learn. I literally have to break it up into very tiny task segments and make sure he understands and can do it. We do a fair bit of repetition together (this is so unlike math, where he gets it immediately) and then he is able to do it on his own. But he does have to work at it; it does not come easily to him.
This sounds a lot like dysgraphia to me - the lack of development of automaticity. Please know, you're going to hear only about dysgraphia from me because that's what I know… it could also be a number of other things. I just wanted to mention the dysgraphia side of it because that's something that is still on your mind. It fits. You'll often see that slowness of learning new routines, new tasks in dysgraphic kids - they sometimes need a lot more repetition than nt kids when it comes to learning new tasks and routines.
Moreover... how is his EF when he's at home and doing things that have nothing to do with school?
It is okay, for the most part. I tell him verbally what he is expected to do, and if it is a task he has done multiple times before, he does it. However, if it is a brand-new task, he has to be walked through all the steps, for a fair bit of time, till it becomes "almost routine".
Again this sounds typical of kids with dysgraphia/DCD. But also - typical of other types of challenges too. Just something to consider.
Your DS is daydreaming, due to boredom.
My child has actually told me he is thinking of other things (whatever his interests are), even though he knows he should not be thinking of other things. He says he can't help think of other things. This part worries me as well.
My dysgraphic ds appeared to daydream a *lot* in elementary school (sometimes later on too!). He's told me that he sometimes does daydream and starts thinking about other things - because he can't do what the teacher is expecting the students to do. For him, that challenge is written expression - he would not know what to write, and he did not ask for help, but instead would sit at his desk watching all the other students write. He would get stressed out, and when he got stressed out he started thinking about other things.
polarbear
