x-posted in learning at school forum

[Petie1104]

Help me out here mamas, I need advice.

DS gets all of his homework done properly, because I make sure he finishes it and that it is acceptable.  He's in 4th grade.  The problem is, the work he does at school is half hearted, not trying, and I'm getting tired of it.  For instance, yesterday he brought home a couple of papers that he had done at school.  One has is an 82 the other an 83. 

OK if it was really that he had difficulty with the work I could work with that, but NOPE, instead.....

The 82 got marked down because.....

he didn't bother to answer the entire back of one page, and it's not like he could have easily missed it as all the other pages have back sides to them and he answered all those..

He read, "John is going to catch forty winks"  this is an exercise on figurative language. His answer is that it means John was blinking really fast.  OK, so that might be an honest mistake as he has trouble with figurative language because he is so literal.  But none the less, it just seems kind of silly, and it wouldn't have bothered me had it not been for not BOTHERING TO COMPLETE the back of the sheet before it.

The 83 was marked down because

HE DIDN'T BOTHER TO WRITE HIS NAME ON HIS PAPER!!!  We have been over this a thousand times.  Yet he still, "forgets" to do it.  You don't know how many papers I get back daily with "NAME????"  written on them.  Oh and his teacher is getting frustrated too, I can tell, because it used to just be, "Name"  then, "NAME", then "NAME?"  Now, "NAME????"  So this is apparently bothering her too.  You can only remind someone so many times before you want to rip your hair out and run around screaming.

He had to write sentences with his spelling words, so he writes, "The commercial".  UMMMMMM WHAT!!!!????  Ok, so every other word, he wrote a complete sentence, but apparently got a quick case of writer's block on this one word??

The main reason is was marked down was for the name, but the lack of an actual sentence for one of the words also added to that.

OK, so these are 2 of the many many papers that come home like this.  All of them scream one thing. HE IS BEING LAZY IN CLASS!  I want to be able to think good thoughts about him.  I want to assume good intentions, but it has gotten to the point that this is my conclusion.  He tries it with homework here too, but I don't allow it.  He brought me a story he was supposed to write incorporating his spelling words.  It was 2 sentences, 1 incomplete sentence, 1 grouping of random words.  I literally looked at him and said, "Ok, look at your words and tell me a story".  It took no time at all for him to come up with a story using all of them.  I said, "Now, go write that down".  He started to cry saying it wasn't fair that he couldn't turn in the first one and that now he has to go write all that down and I'm a horrible mother for expecting him to do that blah blah blah.  I KNOW the boy hates writing.  He has Developmental Coordination Disorder and writing is difficult for him, I KNOW this, but that doesn't change the fact that he HAS to do it.  It also doesn't explain where on a multiple choice worksheet, he avoids half of one sheet when all he has to do is circle the right letter. 

HELP ME!!  before I lose my temper with him. 

[Emmeline II]

Reposting from Learning at School...

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My guess is that he isn't lazy, it's that he may have issues that you are not aware of or he doesn't have the right help for the ones he does have. Developmental Coordination Disorder is often co-morbid with Disorder of Written Expression and Expressive Language Disorder. I have also seen a few posts on the SNs board about children identified as lazy who later received a diagnosis of ADD/Inattentive. He should probably have at least a 504 and may qualify for an IEP.