Shy 7 yo having issues at school, teacher said if it continues she'll have to refer him for ADHD... - Page 2

[karne]

Originally Posted by FedUpMom 

Part of the problem is that kids (especially bright kids) expect the assignment to make sense.  They're completely stymied when they can't see the point.  In this case, there isn't really a point -- the teacher just wants the kids to write something for the sake of writing something. 

Well put.  I really do not understand the point of open ended writing assignments for early grade students, for the most part.  I can tell you, this process has just about sucked the life out of writing  for  my ds.  There are SO many more creative ways to ask kids to write if they are stuck then to wait out a kid staring at a paper for 20 minutes.

You're right about assignments making sense.  My ds would ask me WHY his teacher needed to know what was going on in his life every day (lol) by asking him to write in a journal.  There wasn't any logic to it.  

Just as an aside, I think this is why math works better for my kiddo--it's sequential, has rules to follow, and it's own "language".  It makes sense.

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by karne 

Well put.  I really do not understand the point of open ended writing assignments for early grade students, for the most part.  I can tell you, this process has just about sucked the life out of writing  for  my ds.  There are SO many more creative ways to ask kids to write if they are stuck then to wait out a kid staring at a paper for 20 minutes.

I HATED these assignments as a child .

[lauren]

One thing I wanted to toss in is that if a teacher is worried that someone might have an issue, she shouldn't be framing the question as though she  already knows the answer. The question should be more like "I wonder why your child is doing the things the things he is doing; let's do some testing to get some of our questions answered." There are many learning disabilities (I am not an expert on this) that could cause the type of reaction that your child had and ADHD is only one potential, not to mention that it could be no disability at all. She needs to proceed more cautiously.

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by lauren 

One thing I wanted to toss in is that if a teacher is worried that someone might have an issue, she shouldn't be framing the question as though she  already knows the answer. The question should be more like "I wonder why your child is doing the things the things he is doing; let's do some testing to get some of our questions answered." There are many learning disabilities (I am not an expert on this) that could cause the type of reaction that your child had and ADHD is only one potential, not to mention that it could be no disability at all. She needs to proceed more cautiously.

It's weird that she's making the testing sound like a threat--also, there isn't a "test"; she's probably referring the the Connor's scale which is a behavior survey that distinguishes hyperactive children from typical children; there is one called the Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scale that helps identify inattentives/impulsives, but based on the OP that doesn't seem to be the case either.

In our situation, my son's teacher/school in K said that they didn't consider ADHD before 2nd or 3rd grade and didn't do any testing despite his hyperactivity, inattentiveness, impulsivity, aggressiveness, and social skills deficits. Then they were all that stop light-discipline and behavior charts weren't working and started suspending him.