What causes this?

[Quiver0f10]

My 10 yo son has dylsexia as well as a seizure disorder and the Dr thinks he might also have absence seizures during the day. He was diagnosed with ADHD but I am not so sure I agree with that. I don't know what to call it but he has a very poor working memory. ( at one time he was diagnosed with apraxia but then another eval said no. I don't think he has this but figured I'd put this here)

 

What is frustrating is that some days he is able to do his school work without trouble and the next he struggles with everything. For instance, yesterday he seemed hyper all day, which is unusual for him, but he had a great day doing his school work. He did his MUS lesson just about independently and we started a new lesson in Barton's, which he got with no problems.

 

Today we did page 2 of his MUS lesson and he struggled throughout it. He was supposed to estimate to the hundreds and then find the exact answer. He couldn't remember how to estimate and even after I showed him again how to, he had trouble. For finding the exact answer he struggled with simple math such as 6+3. He does know this and the day before he did it fine. Tomorrow or the next day he will be back to "normal".

 

It is normal for him to need LOTS of help to pull things out of his memory such as what a verb or pronoun is, letter sounds, narrating a story back etc, but days like today are different altogether. He has these types of days often(3-4 times a month?) and it is maddening. What would cause this? He slept well, took his meds as normal and had an egg sandwhich for breakfast.

[Niffercoo]

I don't know what causes it, but I can tell you my son and daughter are the exact same way - the ones on the spectrum. My son also has a seizure disorder, so I know it's not the meds causing it because it was like this before.

 

I don't know what to do about it, and it's causing me lots of distress with my son especially. He's 13 and we consider him a 7th grader this year b/c he would have had to repeat Kindergarten had he stayed in school. But he's so far behind even 7th grade academically, because of all the days we have to basically start over again. He also does very well when I work one on one with him, so I'm starting to be very aware of how much I may be doing the thinking FOR him. When he was evaluated by the neuropsych, his IQ tested at low normal (83 I believe), and though the evaluator put in her report that she thinks his extremely slow processing speed contributed to the lower IQ, I do wonder sometimes.

 

As for my daughter, she has an incredibly active imagination and draws wonderful pictures, but she absolutely cannot narrate a story. And we've been working in MUS Alpha for 2 YEARS now and she still barely gets addition - subtraction is a mystery. I got her the Singapore 1A book just for a change and she does well when she can count the pictures, but when it's just numbers, she can't do it. But then some days she'll walk around the house reciting math facts from her head: 2+2 is 4, 5+5 is 10.

 

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I wanted to let you know you're not alone. And I'll be watching this thread for ideas!