Aren't there any speech language pathologists in your area that have worked with APD?  It might be worth your time to do some online research and call a few that you might find.  You can explain your situation, and if they are decent people, they will at least steer you in the right direction on therapies. 

Every school my son has been in has pegged me as a problem parent, and I really don't care.  Noone is going to advocate for my son but me.  It's not like I can trust them to follow their own rules!  Do I care when these morons roll their eyes and give me those "oh no, not again" looks? I laugh at that.  We wanted our son held back in first grade, because we had moved from a less than adequate school system in MD to a more advanced school system in PA.  After the move, he started stuttering.  We had him tested and found he had something called "cluttering".  Well, he was worked with in the new school, had therapy for the disorder, and toward the end of the year we saw he wasn't understanding the work as much as he should.  When I talked to his teachers, his therapist, and the guidance counselor, they all agreed with me.  We called for a meeting about holding him back, and I let my husband do most of the talking.  But when the principal said "I've never seen an instance where holding back a child helps them", I stood up and said "if you don't agree to hold him back, I will go above your head and get it done!"  That shut her up, and he was held back.  So you get the idea about how much of a b***h I can be, lol!!!



Diana

inyego wrote:

Has anyone ever experienced their child FLYING through their school work?  Often causing careless errors?  My son is working on a unit in math that he completely understands.  Yet, he tears through and gets points taken off for missing careless little addition mistakes.  His teacher has tried talking to him about it, and we're blue in the face from it.  Yet, it still continues.  Its KILLING his math grade.

Sometimes I think there's a deliberate attempt to move quickly through his schoolwork so that he doesn't lose the ideas in his head (he has great long-term memory, but defecits in his working memory).  This has been a constant for him all through elementary school.

Anyone else see this in their child?  And, do you have a strategy or incentive plan to help the child recognize that he's doing it, and to slow down?  Our teacher is great, and is willing to work with us if we can just find that magic plan.   Help!

OMG, I am SOOO with you on this!  Our son does the same thing, trying to rush through schoolwork so he can get to his playing or TV watching, and making silly mistakes because of it.  All I've been able to do is make him do his homework in "steps", first... do the work.  Second, check each problem over, third, sit with Mom and go over every problem.  This only seems to happen in math for us, and he used to be called the "math king"!!! He gets blotchy red faced and starts to cry if we tell him that something needs to be done over.  Try having him put an X through a problem instead of erasing it, sometimes that helps.  I've also heard of people having their kids do homework sporatically instead of all at once to prevent "overload".  I think that depends on the age of the child though, we stress to Matthew that getting the homework done right after school is easier than waiting till after supper to do it.  I look over his agenda book to make sure he's got the homework that needs done, and have him get it all out after he has a snack.  Keep off all noisy distractions like TV's, and make sure to allot plenty of time for redoing/checking the work.  I think you might want to look into any afterschool things like study groups, that might give him the extra time and help he needs.  I just couldn't believe it when you posted this, I thought I was the only parent with this issue! 


Diana

I understand what you mean, it's a pain having to deal with these teachers, most of them have no idea how to deal with this condition.  But I'm lucky, one of his teachers actually has this condition, and most of the others are very open to how they can help him.  I've found one major and one minor teacher who are giving me problems, but since I"m more stubborn then they are, they are no match for me!  The biggest problem with APD is that no one thing is going to work with every kid, we have to spend time working and trying different things to see what'll help them individually.  Even those therapies will change over time.  Don't forget though, what you and I may think a timeline for "overloading" is, and how our kids feel, are 2 different things.  I think it's cumulative, even if we give them a break before they start the homework, I can see that spending so much time on the same things is almost too much.  It's a fine line between making sure their homework is done correctly, and giving their minds the time to process and destress from the day.  I have to keep reminding myself that my mind doesn't work like his, I can't make him think the same way I do or have the same patience level.  All you can do is keep working with him, and learn from the process.



Diana

Hi

have a look at these articles on the APDUK web site they may be of interest
Show Your Working
http://www.learningstyles.apduk.org/vslshowworking.htm
Right Tools for the Job
http://www.learningstyles.apduk.org/vslrighttools_1.htm
and
The Power of Visual Thinking 
http://www.learningstyles.apduk.org/powerofvt1.htm

best wishes

Graeme
dolfrog

I think it's important for parents like us to have a place where we can ask questions, get information, and sometimes vent our frustrations out with people who know what we're going through.  I can't count how many nights I cried and blamed myself for not knowing what was wrong with my son.  Now I can come here and know that there are other parents who know how I feel.




Diana

Gosh, Diana, I've had those horrible nights of crying and praying and looking for some answers/solutions. Nobody understands this journey with CAPD. I'm glad we can all ask each other questions and just get some understanding. We are all doing awesome! Just keep it up!