Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Very slow processing...?

Thank you. Supposedly she sat him down later and told him to just choose any insect, and he did write a decent paragraph or two. He seems to do well writing about topics that interest him, but not much gets done otherwise. Unfortunately it's not always going to be a choice.

I would look closely - is he able to write well about topics that interest him, or about topics that he knows something about (i.e., can he write about facts but has difficulty with creative or imaginary writing?)


A few thoughts for you blackcat - re the teacher saying the meds made a difference but you not noticing it at home. There could be quite a few reasons for that, but what I would watch for is - does the teacher see a marked improvement over time (not just for a few days), and also, how much of an improvement is really happening? There are college kids who buy ADHD meds specifically because they are stimulants and they feel like they help make them more efficient at studying - so it's possible (perhaps?) that he may be faster simply because of the meds, and not because it's really ADHD. Please know I'm not a dr - and I could be *entirely* wrong. But I would want to know if that's possible.


One reason that he may "be able to focus" better on the computerized testing is that the difference in performance really doesn't have anything to do with "focus" but is due to some other reason, such as dysgraphia, or the type of question or the format of the answer (multiple choice vs written out answers). I would just want to be extra sure that the "look" of not being focused is truly inability to focus rather than looking distracted due to inability to do the work due to a potential disability etc. I think your ds has DCD? If not, I'm sorry I mixed him up with someone else If he does, this happened to my ds all the time in elementary school - he looked terribly distracted and unfocused when he wasn't able to complete his work. He would even admit to getting distracted when he would sit and not get the help he needed - and he wasn't asking for help, he really didn't know what he needed.

polarbear

polarbear,
Thanks for the thoughts. I do think it could be a variety of things going on, like DCD or hypotonia and fatiguing after a certain amount of time (which wouldn't happen at home--it's not like I have him sit and do work for hours), just not wanting to write unless he's motivated by the topic or it makes sense to him, etc. I don't know about imaginary writing but he does do well with things like "If I lived 100 years ago I would..." Or "If I could go to space I would..." I haven't seen much come home from school that even involves creative writing at this point, they are mainly trying to get the kids to write topic sentences, details, etc. He is able to make up stories orally, and the more absurd/funny they are the better as far as he is concerned. He stood up and made up a story on the spot in front of everyone at a family reunion recently, complete with melodramatic voices, gestures, etc. I was really surprised by what I saw at school, I was like "What the...?" Teacher came over and said, see what I mean, he doesn't do anything. But when I had him write at home, he wrote about 80 words in 10 min. which doesn't seem bad for a first grader. I gave him a starter sentence and he made up the rest. We put him on a very low dose of ritalin just for the last few days of school (the doctor is monitoring all of this and prescribing before anyone here gets concerned...). I wanted to see if this teacher noticed any difference, and she said she did, and he looked the same as everyone else. She said his writing looked less awkward/messy as well. I've thought about whether we were just doing the college kid trick with him, and I thought that was mainly to keep college kids awake to study rather than dramatically improving speed or focus, but I really don't know. So the plan is to wait til the fall and hopefully the new teacher can help me figure this out. I'll probably start him out medicated and then take him off and see if the teacher sees a deterioration, and if there is one, how much of one. It would be interesting to not tell her when we take him off, then email her and ask "how is DS doing? Any changes?"