For my son, the jump from Kinder to 1st was a lot more sitting still quietly during lessons, waiting in lines, and transitions between scheduled activities and lessons. He was bored out of his mind, the cluster classroom and pullout where not near meeting his needs. The structured day plus boredom caused him to be getting into trouble for talking out of turn. The teacher said his behavior was "normal" and "typical", but his classmates didn't react that way. He was ostracized, bullied, and stressed to the point of becoming physically ill.
He has ADHD which was hiding his academic abilities - and his academic abilities were hampering identifying his ADHD. After getting those sorted out and getting him onto medication for the ADHD, he needed acceleration. He is homeschooled now, unmedicated, and radically accelerated. He works at a slower pace and with lighter courseload than is typically associated with his grade level.
He can't handle a structured day or structured classroom setting. However, he needs the structure of pace charts and clearly defined assignments. He absolutely flounders with reward/punishment structures and will break out some serious oppositional behavior in those contexts. Fluid daily routines and cognitive behavioral therapy rather than reward systems are necessary for him.
Whenever I see features of ADHD along with the child not receiving appropriate education, my momma bear hackles raise. I don't think I can overshare my son's before-after. ADHD medication was like taking a mask off. I had been very resistant to the idea of ADHD because I didn't understand what the disorder was. My son is **not** at all hyperactive and does not have short attention span, so I didn't think it applied.
Last edited by sanne; 04/28/17 07:08 PM. Reason: Clarified mixed-up sentence
