Please bear with me as I give you a little back-story for this post.
My youngest son (Codename: Alan) is ADHD. When his first grade teacher first mentioned the possibility, I admit I just smiled and nodded politely. At the time, I believed that too many kids were needlessly diagnosed as ADHD and medicated. Then, when his second grade teacher brought up the possibility, I thought maybe there might be something to it.
Fast-forward past his primary care physician and two different child psychologists and he’s officially diagnosed as ADHD. Between his doctor, a therapist, and his teachers and I working very closely with each other and Alan, he’s managed to overcome most of the issues with impulse control, focusing, and listening that made school so hard for him in the beginning.
But there’s one, big problem that remains: Homework.
Homework has been a constant struggle since the first “Learn your ABC’s” homework sheet came home. In the beginning, he just wouldn’t do it. He’d sit at the table for the entire night getting distracted by the wood grain in his chair, the crayon wrappers, the popcorn ceiling or anything else that snagged his eye. Nights usually ended with both of us crying and the homework barely done.
And if he did finish it, he’d forget to turn it in.
That hasn’t changed a whole lot. He gets his homework done without (many) tears and distractions, but more often than not, he won’t turn it in. I’ll get progress reports home that look like this:
Test Average: 103
Homework Average: 37
Through the years, we’ve come up with many tricks* to help him remember, on his own, to turn in his homework or complete tasks. Unfortunately, Alan is rather like the Borg. His personal homework shields adapt quickly to a new process. Once he’s assimilated that process, it stops working. I’m then back at square one, frantically trying to adjust the settings on my “remember to hand your homework in, dangit!” phaser to hit him with a new one.
His teachers, bless them, help me as much as they can. By virtue of their professions, they have more ideas in their bag of tricks than I do, which they freely pass along. Ultimately though, it’s my job to get Alan responsible enough to remember to do what he needs to do.
And already I’m seeing signs that the homework shields are once again adapting.
Look for future posts as I discuss new ideas and how well they worked.
*If anyone, parent or not, has any homework help ideas, I will gladly hear them! Feel free to pass along your wisdom in the comments.
Thank you!