My daughter is 14 and is struggling with school. She has ADHD. She is constantly being reprimanded for not being prepared for her classes. She forgets to bring home assignments and the assignments that she does complete get lost before they get turned in. She is having her annual case conference, is there anything I can do to get her some REAL ORGANIZTIONAL HELP from the school? I am trying to teach her to be responsible and accountable but what can I ask the school to do?
Help with daughter who is struggling in school
How is her binder organized? What helps does she already have in her IEP?
Organization is a team effort at this age. Its hard to juggle all the teachers and get everyone on the same page. If you can put some good, consistant checks in place, that can really help. Planner signed by teacher and parent. Special folders for homework for each class. If the teachers have homework lists on their websites, check them often. Some schools have a homework “hotline” that you can call.
Re: Help with daughter who is struggling in school
But should she be reprimanded for being unprepared or getting 0’s for not turning assignments? We do check teacher websites for daily assignments, she does have a homework folder and a daily agenda but she seems to get things lost in the shuffle. I just want to make sure I am being reasonable with my concerns.
Help with daughter who is struggling in school
It is important for her to be responsible for turning her work in. This will happen in the real world and she won’t get accommodations for not being prepared for work. Even with ADHD she can learn skills to help her keep track of things and different ways to make sure she turns things in. Teachers can’t grade work that isn’t turned in and the natural consequence is that she gets 0. I know this might sound harsh but sometimes natural consequences can help us grow.
Does she have a specific folder for work to be turned in? That could be one thing that helps. My dd uses a separate folder for English work to be turned in so its always separate and easily found. Another trick she uses (for her math homework) is to always have it at the front of the binder. Its always on top so its the first thing she pulls out and turns in. Another thing you can do for written assignments is to email them to teachers.
You might want to consider having her work with an educational therapist. Someone who can help her with organziational skills and resources for dealing with her ADHD. My sister, who has ADHD, found this tremendously helpful.
((Hugs))
Re: Help with daughter who is struggling in school
Where would I find an educational therapist. Would the school offer this? My thought with the missing assignments is that she turn all her assingments into her Resource teacher or into homeroom, who then would be responsible for getting all her assignments to the appropriate teachers. Did you think that is too much to ask or unreasonable?
Help with daughter who is struggling in school
Schools don’t have educational therapists. You would probably have to look other places. One place that might have listings would be Wrightslaw’s Yellow Pages for Kids. They have listings of resources for each state that are quite extensive. http://www.yellowpagesforkids.com/
Homeroom would not be reasonable unless that is also the Resouce teacher. If she has a class with the Resource teacher that could be a good way to get the assignments to the other teachers provided that she can get them to the Resource Teacher.
Pls go to http://millermom.proboards107.com, we have parents there who can help you with some suggestions.