My S, who is in high school, complains that it takes him way longer than other students to complete his homework. I’ve always known that he takes a lot of time, but I only recently discovered why. He takes extensive notes on all his readings. His notes could be almost as long as the reading itself. In addition to writing notes in a notebook he uses Post-It notes on the pages. He often rereads passages several times until he feels he has complete comprehension of every word, or goes back a few pages to make sure he gets the connections. He also uses a white board to outline his subjects and he develops 20-page study guides to prepare for tests. He’s in 10th grade, in all honors, an A-/B+ student in a very competitive public school.
He asked me if I think he has ADHD. Of course I can go down the road of getting him tested and spend a lot of money. But it just doesn’t ring true that he has it. Just my gut. So I did some googling and had an aha moment. Reading OCD. He has shown signs of mild OCD in other areas of his life, so this would fit a broader pattern.
Does anyone else have experience with this? If so, how did you address it? Through therapy for the broader OCD issue, or through a learning or study-skills specialist?
I’d suggest starting with standard ed-psych evaluation. Maybe this is OCD-related, but there may also be an underlying processing issue that has left him with the sense that he is not understanding the material as quickly as he should be and that has contributed to the OCD-type behavior.
Totally agree with @happymomof1 . Many bright students with processing issues don’t actually have to deal with it until the workload steps up, which is when it becomes apparent. If it were my child, I would at least want to rule out a diagnosis before I started advocating for a different approach /strategy. Especially with a student who was making that kind of an effort!
With that said, it could also be simpler and that he needs help learning to differentiate what is critical from what is merely explanatory. I recall one teacher who made a point of emphasizing close reading because he recognized that when his students got to college, they wouldn’t have time to read things more than once; he designed daily quizzes around extracting the right stuff the first time. Another allowed kids to bring one small index card to each test - it was up to them to decide what info they wanted on it. I mention these as it seems that it is a common issue for kids this age and at this point in their educational journey. The nature of the material and assessments is moving away from one that might have favored an excellent memorizer and regurgitator.
I would definitely talk with him about why he’s approaching his work this way. He may have his own insights.
I did. He said something to this effect: The teachers ask very picky questions, and anything from any sentence in the readings could end up being important on the test.
He gave as an example that his English test required him to identify the speaker of quotes from the literature’s dialogue – so he claimed that he has to memorize the dialogue. I explained to him that he doesn’t have to do that if he understands the plot lines and the characters, that he can surmise the speaker.
@brantly , sounds like you’re on top of it. ANd sounds like his teacher is out of the close reading model.
Could you make an appointment, which around us would probably entail a 6 month wait, with the idea that you can cancel if necessary? IN the interim, challenge him to identify what the teacher would ask. What dialogue represents a character? What lines turn the plot or exemplify style? It’s a version of the note card exercise, but it forces the student to focus, in one reading, on what is critical. He sounds motivated, so maybe it’s just helping him understand the most efficient means to the end.
FWIW, the teacher who did this at our school never had a student average over 60% in the first term, yet they were all in the 90s by the last. They would even work in groups, debating what this teacher would choose to put on the quiz.
I can get an appointment for private testing within a few weeks. The “free” testing that the school does has not worked out well for anyone I know. People I know who have gone through it tell me that the school gets it all wrong. One mom, for example, told me that the school tester said that her daughter is so impaired and so unintelligent that she needs to be in all remedial classes and she’d never go to college. Wrong. That kid now goes to Northwestern. (Turned out she had severe ADHD, which is now under control with meds.) So I don’t think we’ll be going the school-testing route. It would have to be private.
One tack I might take is this: Hire a specialist to tutor my son for more efficient study skills. During the tutoring, she might notice certain clues and be able to home in on what the problem is. Perhaps she’d get to know him well enough to rule out the need for certain tests in the battery. If she can identify the one or two tests he needs, maybe we can reduce the cost.
If your child may need accommodations for testing, school or college, they will require testing and results from an expert. Likely a tutor’s position won’t be sufficient. We had to get accommodations for our kids and it required letters from their MD. We did try tutors but the tutors had no idea how to help our kids and felt we were wasting our money on them. Hopefully you will have more luck with tutors than we did (our kids had chronic health problems, not any LDs).
In hs, one of mine studied some subjects or assignments this way and it didn’t help. For other reasons, she ended up with a counselor and was diagnosed as mildly obsessive (something I never did see in her, in other ways.)
What strikes me is that many kids don’t learn to “take notes.” When I was in lower and middle school, we were routinely taught how to outline reading, see the continuity, and come up with short phases or words that triggered the needed memories. Later, we were taught to then analyze positions. And from that came confidence. (We could let go of the urge to re-write it all.) So while this could be processing, it could also be lack of exposure to how this part of learning can work.
My child has regular OCD, and it can’t be helped by just tutors as he requires medication and used to need behavior therapy. However, this reading OCD sounds different and I hope it does not progress further.
@brantly, do you feel your son is unhappy or is it just making you nuts? If he’s okay and his grades are okay, maybe he needs to work it out himself. You probably have the best sense of whether he may benefit from professional intervention (which is what I thought from the original post) or whether this is simply part of the educational journey. He sounds lile the inverse of the kid who watches the teacher do the problems on the board in math class and thinks he’s got it, only to discover that doing some problems at home is the only way to be sure.
I wonder if reverse engineering some tests could help. Ask him to figure out why each question was there. Maybe it won’t seem like sheer pickiness. THE other thing you might do is get review books (spark notes, review for AP classes if relevant ) and compare what they think is essential to what he and his teacher do.
Just thinking that if there’s no compelling reason to test now, maybe he can try to see if he’s just going about it wrong. I would also ask if there are other things he’d like to do with his tI’m and if so, would it not be reasonable to figure out how to get his work done more efficiently.
@gardenstategal Thanks for your input. He is unhappy that he spends 80%-90% of his out-of-school time doing homework and studying for tests. But he truly thinks that this is the correct way to study. He doesn’t question it or think there’s a better way. He’s unhappy that it has to happen, but thinks there’s no way out. He is not happy with anything less than an A or A-. I have identified a learning specialist/tutor and will call tomorrow.
Reading OCD is OCD and I hope you seriously consider a therapist with experience in ERP (exposure and response prevention) therapy. A family member of mine had a very similar homework ritual, over time the OCD became overwhelming, a few months with a great therapist and alls well.
@fazevan I think you are right. He does have homework rituals. It affects the whole family because he wants everyone to be super quiet, which of course in a small house there is no place to go where he won’t hear any noise at all. He has to have things in a certain order too. But he IS able to do his HW in several different places. He switches among his room, the (finished) basement, the living room, and the deck when the weather is nice.
@brantly it’s heartbreaking because even though the OCD sufferer knows that their behavior is irrational, they can’t help it. Lots of good info on the International OCD Foundations website. sending you a pm.