What do you think this is?

[Mom0012]

My son has very good focus. He can work for hours at a time without taking a break. I say this just to point out that I don't see him as ADHD at all. But, he cannot do two things at one time. He had to interview a police officer for one of his Boy Scout merit badges and she asked him if he needed to take some notes. He said no, and I knew he would because I know there is no way he could listen to her and write at the same time.

 

How on earth is he going to take a college class where he needs to take notes? He does have trouble with writing, but I think it's more that he can't do two things at once. I could be wrong though, because I can't think of another example right now.

 

Ah, I just thought of something else. He is learning to combine like terms in math. He totally understands it, can explain it to me, does not forget how to do it, but he often gets the answers wrong. I'm seeing this with him more frequently in math with multi step problems as well. He knows what to do backwards and forwards, but he cannot help but trip up somewhere along the way even though he is concentrating and doing his best.

[PeterPan]

Probably working memory. You can't assume he's not adhd. Adhd kids *can* focus. Have you done evals? They'll sort out what is working memory, what is processing speed, etc. etc.

 

If you actually want to work on working memory, look at C8Kids (price is great) or try digit spans with a metronome.

[Heathermomster]

I may be confusing you with someone else. What age is your son? Does your DS have dysgraphia and struggle with typing? How are the typing lessons working out?

 

Look at the livescribe pen. He may require a note taker in class, or he may want to explore drawing mind maps for notes. With a diagnosis from a np, colleges will provide accommodations, so you'll need to speak to any colleges that he's interested in.

 

How far is he with math? DS does best combining like terms when the terms are symbols. I don't know how to explain it. It's easier for him to evaluate an expression like 2x+3x when the x is drawn like a heart or star.

[Mom0012]

I may be confusing you with someone else. What age is your son? Does your DS have dysgraphia and struggle with typing? How are the typing lessons working out?

 

Look at the livescribe pen. He may require a note taker in class, or he may want to explore drawing mind maps for notes. With a diagnosis from a np, colleges will provide accommodations, so you'll need to speak to any colleges that he's interested in.

 

How far is he with math? DS does best combining like terms when the terms are symbols. I don't know how to explain it. It's easier for him to evaluate an exp<b></b>ression like 2x+3x when the x is drawn like a heart or star.

 

Yes, my son is the one who can't type. I just spoke with Kathy Kuhl yesterday and she gave me a long list of options/therapies to try with him. He has a diagnosis of expressive language disorder, but after really thinking about things so much yesterday, I started to wonder if that was a symptom of a working memory problem rather than being the main issue. That thought was a real eye opener for me because it totally changes the way I see my son's issues.

 

He's doing pre-algebra. He scored in the 90th+ percentile on the IOWA last year, but he can't move onto algebra. I can just see that it won't work for him right now. Interesting about the symbols.

 

I will look at the pen. I need to have new evals done for him, but I wonder what the best time to do that is? I know colleges want the info to only be x amount of years old and I know it's got to be the right type of eval to even be considered.

[Mom0012]

Probably working memory. You can't assume he's not adhd. Adhd kids *can* focus. Have you done evals? They'll sort out what is working memory, what is processing speed, etc. etc.

 

If you actually want to work on working memory, look at C8Kids (price is great) or try digit spans with a metronome.

 

I understand about the hyper focusing ability in ADHD kid. We've had evals in the past, but it's been years. There is no way he is ADHD or even ADD. Working memory is just one part of ADHD, isn't it? When I google it, my son only has a few of the symptoms of working memory issues.

 

I spoke with Kathy Kuhl and she recommended Cogmed, which is what spurred my original question. She gave me lots of great suggestions, but they are all so expensive, I'm trying to weed through which one/s could possibly benefit him the most. I'll take a look at C8Kids, but I just read a discouraging article someone had posted awhile back about all these game type of software programs to help working memory. Money is an issue, but so is time since he's going into 8th grade. I'm hesitant to devote 40 minutes a day to something that may be a waste of time. We've done every therapy out there in the past, or so it seems, and some have helped tremendously and many have been a complete waste of time and money, so I'm on the fence about remediation vs. accommodation at this point. I have been reading that Intuniv (sp?) may has been shown to help with working memory. I'm not sure I'd try something like that at this point, but then again, maybe I would. And then I could also try the C8Kids or Cogmed. A lot of what I have read suggests the skills don't transfer and that I need to do things with him in the areas that he is having trouble to help them transfer. I'm thinking dictation might be something I could do to help him with his writing, but I haven't really thought of anything else yet.

 

But thanks for throwing out working memory because that's what I was thinking and it does make me think about things with him differently.

[Heathermomster]

For college accommodations, the testing needs to be done within three years by an NP. You'll need to confirm that with the college of interest.

 

For us, wm affects how I present information. It doesn't prevent him from learning, it just takes longer and teaching to his learning style makes a huge difference. We use math mnemonics a lot, and we work in shorter than average time spurts. You can't push these kids to work faster and expect them to retain info. I break the information down into small chunks. And they need review. Anyho..I'm planning on two years of algebra. He has maths disorder though, so may never move past algebra.

 

The book _ How the Brain Learns Mathematics_ by Sousa explains wm and how it affects math learning.