School and ADHD-Inattentive

Prepping for a 504 Review

It’s that time of year again. The weather’s heating up, and the end of the school year is in sight. For many schools, this is the time when the 504* or IEP is up for review. Seemingly obvious questions like “What worked?” and “What didn’t work?” need to be answered.

As a parent, it helps to have an arsenal of new ideas to try. New accommodations or modifications don’t have to be complicated. Here are some ideas that may jumpstart your child’s productivity and your own creativity:

Home to school:

1. Keep one copy of textbooks at home.
2. Mandate that the school use a homework planner – or the school website if that’s in use at your school.
3. Build in a weekly communication between each teacher and you. Email is probably easier for each of you.

In School:

1. Seat the student at the front of the class. In the front row, fewer distractions come between a student’s line of vision and the black board.
2. Give priority access to after-school tutoring sessions or learning programs.
3. Allow different tools to accomplish goals. For example, if copying the assignment from the blackboard is tedious, take a picture instead. (Many cell phones have camera apps.) If note taking is a challenge, tape the lecture, or use the Livescribe Smartpen
4. Have tests administered orally.
5. Allow typewritten assignments.
6. Cue a child to stay on task (This could be as simple as making eye contact. )
7. Limit a student’s copying assignments from the board.
8. Monitor student’s homework planner.
9. Allow exemption from notebook checks.
10. Assign an individual to daily help with organization.
11. Provide copies of homework assignments and notes.

Of course, our favorite list of resources is Focus Pocus – 100 Ways to Help Your Child Pay Attention. Take your copy to your 504 or IEP meeting. And if you and your child’s teachers have something we’ve left out – let us know! We’d love to hear from you.

*504 – what’s that? Before I had children, I thought 504 referred to a type of button-fly jeans. It wasn’t until Leslie was in 6th grade that I learned that a 504 refers to a law mandating that children with disabilities receive “accommodations” to help them learn, even if they don’t qualify for special education.

The 504 is for children with physical – non-learning disability disorders like ADHD, physical impairments, chronic illnesses such as asthma and sometimes for temporary conditions like broken limbs. To qualify, a student must have “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities…caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working.”*

*See Eric Digest

How to Help an ADHD Child with the SAT

Our last post gave you some important tips to help your ADHD child with the SAT. One of our readers emailed us additional insight and wisdom that she has gained from experience with HER daughter.

For those of you with younger children, don’t skip this! There is also an amazing piece of advice I’ve never heard that you need to start on NOW. We’ve changed up some of the facts, below to protect privacy, but we’ve been given permission to share the following…

Every year from 9th grade on my child took the PSAT—Preliminary SAT—to give her practice for the time in her Junior year of high school when she would take the SAT. It cost money, but it was well worth it. However, I just assumed the school would apply for special testing accommodations for my child since a 504 plan was in place.

My child had to take the SAT and ACT two times in her Junior year—the first time was without the special accomodations. Thankfully we had time to take the test again with them in place before her senior year started! Her scores were dramatically higher with the extra time and small testing group. My child prefers the ACT to the SAT as it is easier to understand what is being asked of her.

In addition to getting accommodations for these exams, if possible try to get your child some tutoring. This especially helped with the SAT where there is a formula involved with taking the test. For example, they taught my daughter that if you have a math problem involving numbers with lots of zeroes, most likely the answer will be the number with the most zeroes in it. The SAT seemed to be more about test-taking skills where ACT was more about what your child knows.

And when applying for college, be sure you present your child in a well rounded way. My child’s test scores and GPA were not as high as other students applying to her university of choice. However, she was accepted and they were not! I may never really know why this happened, but I can only assume it was because of her college resume and essay. In the resume we included every activity and award since Kindergarten. This showed her involvement in school and community activities and gave an inside look into her talents and strengths.

I received a tip when she was in preschool: start your child’s college resume now because when you sit down to write it in when applying for college, you won’t remember everything! That was the best advice I have ever received.

The essay is a good way for your child to tell them about their ADHD. My child wrote about ADHD and how she has learned to work with it and sees it as an advantage. My child took honors courses all thru high school and passed with Bs and a few As. This is ok because, and the explanation in her essay helped her.

So together, the essay and her resume gave the college admissions team a good look at who my child is so they could determine if the college load my child was asking for would work for them. They have to ask: Can this student handle the schedule and requirements for their intended major? Colleges are not looking to keep kids out; they want to accept every child they can.

Happily, my child has been accepted into a very intensive program in the medical field at a major state university. My child’s dreams are coming true, and her parents are sooooo proud of her!!!

Preparing for the SAT or ACT: A Guide for ADHD Students

The first time Joe had a College Board test – I think it was the PSAT – we didn’t know you needed to apply for testing accommodations. Joe went in expecting extra time, and he was unpleasantly surprised.

Today’s post is by Jenn Cohen, the self described ‘Chief Word Nerd’ of Jenn Cohen Tutoring. She has some invaluable tips to help you navigate the troubled waters of the SAT and the ACT. I wish I had read this a few years ago!

College admissions tests are a necessity for most college bound students, but just a mere mention of those three letters S-A-T can make kids (and parents) run for the hills. The urge to dash for the door may be even greater for ADHD students. Preparing for the test can be an overwhelming task, and applying for testing accommodations can be lengthy, expensive and unfortunately, unsuccessful.

Here are a few tips to get your college bound teen on the right track. Most importantly, don’t procrastinate! It’s tempting to stay in denial about the realities of test day, but starting early can make all the difference, especially for ADHD students. I encourage my tutoring clients to start prepping for the test a year before they plan to take the test. Yes, really.

As you already know, ADHD students need more time to complete school aassignments, and test prep is no different. To get in the same amount of practice tests and questions as typical students, ADHD students need to allow plenty of additional time. Ideally, ADHD students will start their SAT or ACT prep by the fall of their junior year at the latest. This allows time to not only get completely comfortable with the test, but it eliminates a lot of stress that comes with last minute cramming.

Another important reason to get an early start is to allow plenty of time to request test accommodations. A 504 plan/IEP may be sufficient to qualify for accommodations, but it may not. If your child is denied accommodations on the first request, you want to make sure you have enough time to gather and submit additional documentation. That may mean repeating any diagnostic testing. A good rule of thumb is that test results more than three years old should be updated. Talk to your child’s school counselor for more information about how to apply.

Before submitting your accommodations application, it’s important to develop an accommodations strategy, particularly if your student is opting for the SAT instead of the ACT. Extended time conditions on the SAT can be grueling at best, and counterproductive at worst. Carefully consider which accommodations will be most helpful, then request only those! I strongly encourage students to take a full-length practice test with accommodations to help determine which are necessary and which only make a long test even longer.

With that being said, the ACT is often a better choice for ADHD students. The accommodations available are more friendly to an ADHD student’s needs, and ACT, Inc. tends to be a bit more generous with awarding accommodations than the College Board. Read more about the ACT and ADHD.

As for the type of prep your student needs, the options are practically endless. However, ADHD students seem to have the most trouble with classroom preparation. That setting is distracting for typical students; for ADHD students, it can be a guarantee of getting little from the course. Better options are independent self-prep or working with a tutor. Tutors are ideal for ensuring accountability, working through tough questions and remediating skills that students may never have fully grasped in school.

The SAT and ACT don’t have to be a nightmare. With planning and an early start, college admissions tests are entirely manageable, if not fun! OK, I lied about that last part, but seriously, just think about the tests as speed bumps on your way to college. Every student who wants to go to college can get there.

Jenn Cohen is owner of Jenn Cohen Tutoring and President and Chief Word Nerd of Word-Nerd.com, an SAT vocabulary website. She specializes in tutoring ADHD students for SAT, PSAT and ACT. You can find her on Twitter @satprepforadhd and @SheldonWordNerd.

Adding the Big C to ADHD

To succeed, a child diagnosed with ADHD-inattentive needs the best of two worlds: home and school. Good communication between parents and teachers paves the way for a winning strategy for your child. Here are seven ways to improve two-way “reception”:

1. Meet early and agree on the frequency of meetings. Don’t wait until a problem presents itself. Be proactive and set up an appointment early in the year or semester to give the proverbial word to the wise. Think ahead about where your child is now and where you hope he is in 6 months. What are realistic goals? How can those goals be achieved? How often should you two meet?

2. Note this. The reality is that everyone’s time is limited, and we all need to be good stewards of scheduled time. If you’re considerate and write down the points you want covered in the meeting, you’re a few steps ahead of everyone else. You won’t be kicking yourself later for forgetting something important, and your child’s teacher will probably notice and appreciate your concise approach.

3. Sharing works two ways. You know your child’s history, tendencies, strengths and weaknesses like no other. While it’s true that you’re your child’s best advocate, don’t forget to listen. Your child’s teacher has insight into your child’s abilities and habits among others within a small group or classroom setting. She or he also may have the advantage of experience with other students with similar needs. What sorts of strategies have been successful in that experience?

4. How to initiate a running conversation. Between meetings, life marches on, and changes are constant. Ask the teacher what kind of communication works best for him or her. Does she email regularly? Would a home and school communication notebook be useful to him? What about the PAC-kit – the planner, agenda, calendar that worked for our boys. During our children’s middle school years, email was a terrific way to communicate. If something huge at home is happening — whether it’s a new baby sister on the way or a piano recital or a volleyball tournament — give the teacher a head’s up. If you need to change medications or stop medication for a time, share that information with your teacher as well.

5. Accentuate the positive. it’s tempting to only speak up when there’s a problem. When something is working, by all means, let the teacher know. We all could use more good news in our lives. Even when there is a problem or concern, the circumstances can be presented without casting blame. The last thing you want to do is force a defensive position from the person whose support you seek.

6. Be consistently consistent. Children and teens with ADHD respond well to structure and consistency. When parents and teachers can employ similar methods at home and school, the child’s successful efforts can be rewarded when specific short-term and long-term goals are met. Think about the appropriate rewards for both types of successes that will motivate.

7. Call in reinforcements. If communication with your child’s teacher does not prove fruitful and your best efforts fail, it’s time to solicit help at the school’s office. During Lesley’s 7th grade year, a new speech therapist was hired at our school. She ended up being our very best advocate, and her intervention made a world of difference. If you feel like your child’s needs are not being addressed, take your questions to the next level. A guidance counselor or an assistant principal may be your best support.

Back to School…and Reading Lists

Lesley and Mike have gone back to school, and each of them has a reading list that is longer than they would like. Lesley had a summer list, so she got a head start. Mike had his list this summer, too. But…well. Let’s not chalk everything up to being of the male persuasion…

Both Lesley and Mike are having to read classic titles that make me think of Mark Twain’s definition: “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” We’ve taken two effective approaches to slogging through these books.

First on the list is reading aloud. One of Lesley’s assignments was Siddhartha by Hermann Hess, a book offering insight into the spiritual journey of a young Nepalese man. Easily picked up from the local library, we realized that reading it proved more difficult. So we settled on reading aloud to our favorite 15 year old.

It ended up being a nice part of our day, either in the early afternoon or evening, as we were settling down. I would stop along the way and ask her questions to see if she was “with me” and not zoning out. That activity kept us both engaged. We applied some of Siddhartha’s soul-searching questions to our own beliefs – how are we similar? How are we different?

Finding Zen and the Art of Archery was a bit more challenging in our neck of the woods, but we discovered it at a larger chain book store in a larger nearby town. We managed to successfully procrastinate reading this one for various reasons until we were trapped in a van on the way to Olivia’s university. My husband was the driving force (both literally and figuratively) for the Nike-inspired decision to just do it. Thanks to his insistence and gracious chauffeuring, I started to read aloud again.

We took breaks and talked about what we were reading between passages. My husband gave us great compare and contrast questions to keep us focused. We stopped for soft serve ice cream, and before we knew it, we had finished this fairly short little book – and enjoyed it.

Reading aloud also works for non-ADHD children. Last winter, Olivia was really sick with an upper respiratory bug of some sort. She also had required reading – Jane Eyre – and a lot of time to read. Since she didn’t feel like it and seemed to welcome the idea, I read parts of the book to her. It was a few weeks into her semester that she remarked to me how grateful she was for that time. She felt that Jane Eyre would have been difficult to read in spurts, and that she had a much better understanding of it due to our reading it through in a few relaxed consecutive sittings.

Of course, reading aloud to our kids isn’t always possible – and shouldn’t be something they rely on 100%. That brings us to Mike. We’ll talk about how he is meeting his reading list challenge in our next post…

The Truth About Consequences

“Why don’t you just let him suffer the consequences?”

New teachers often ask me this question, knowing that consequences often shape good and bad behavior. Unfortunately, it isn’t always that easy. Natural consequences are a part of discipline, but they aren’t appropriate in every situation, nor are they right for every child. When it comes to schoolwork, consequences are pretty tricky.

The word discipline comes from the Latin word for ‘student’ or ‘learner’. Discipline should teach. It should result in a positive behavior change. Discipline may be temporarily uncomfortable, but the discomfort will only be a tool to bend (not break!) the child in the direction of academic success and eventual independence.

As I have parented my boys, I’ve always tried to make sure that whatever discipline I administered to my children resulted in a learning experience that may have been painful in the present, but would teach the child to decide to change behavior in the future. Although I don’t always live up to my lofty standards, I try to keep the following principles in mind while trying to develop the character and habits that will turn my guys into independent learners. Hopefully this will happen before they pursue their PHd’s.

CONSEQUENCES MUST TEACH. It’s a proven fact that you’re more likely to forget about homework if you don’t write it down. Just ask my boys. At midterm, two of them had very poor grades because of missing homework assignments. For one, the end of the world had come. Bad grades were an effective consequence, and he immediately began to do better. He learned from the experience, and his behavior changed. The other guy, by contrast, was only mildly concerned. Since poor grades were of little consequence, we introduced a little more discomfort to the situation. We began requiring him to get his planner signed daily by the two teachers whose homework he couldn’t seem to remember.

CONSEQUENCES SHOULD NOT JUST PUNISH. The intent of punishment is simply to make someone feel bad. Sometimes, feeling bad is appropriate. A child should learn to feel sorry when he doesn’t take care of responsibilities. Feeling bad about grades can result in a positive change. But these ‘bad’ feelings aren’t the goal of discipline. Which brings us back to the saga of the OTHER son… Unfortunately, getting your planner signed is neither cool nor convenient. But neither is walking home. When dear son forgets to have his planner signed, he has another consequence to deal with: he has to walk home from school. The long hike has helped him to be more willing to remember to do what he is supposed to do. Since we instituted the consequence, his English grade has come up from a D to (hold your breath so it won’t change) an A. And his biology grade is making its way out of failing territory. The object of the exercise (pun intended) is to change his behavior, not just to make him feel bad.

CONSEQUENCES SHOULD NOT MAKE THE SITUATION WORSE. Sometimes, consequences don’t teach anything. In contrast, they make the problem worse. A couple of teachers have recommended that I just let the boys fail a test or two. I’ve tried that route, and it has rarely worked. Letting a child fail a couple of tests means they haven’t learned the material, which can dig an academic hole with no hope of escape. A series of poor grades could convince a child he is ‘dumb’ and will never do better. It is especially important not to let a child fail in classes with cumulative content such as math, foreign languages, and sciences. If you’re going to try the ‘just let them fail’ route, let the failure be in spelling or vocabulary or another minor quiz.

THE CONSEQUENCES SHOULD NOT HUMILIATE. A teacher once had one of my children come to her desk and empty his hideously disorganized backpack in order to find a missing assignment. This woman might have gone ahead and placed a dunce hat on my child’s head. He found the lost paper, and the experience made him more careful, but he was humiliated in front of his peers. The lesson was learned at too high a price; my son never trusted that teacher again.

The truth is, consequences can be great parenting and teaching tools. But like any tools, they have to be used carefully. With love and with understanding, consequences can be a powerful influence in shaping your child’s character. And that’s a consequence you can live with!

Kayla: This post is from the archives, but recent events at our home made me decide to publish it again!