<p>S is a junior in HS. He is doing well and has mostly taken advanced classes. He was just diagnosed with ADHD-Inattentive this year and has started on adderall which has made a difference for him. At this point S just takes his medication in the morning. Aside from mentioning the ADHD to a couple of his teachers we have not reported it to the school. S had already taught himself to use many compensatory strategies on his own and I think this is why his ADHD flew under the radar for so long. Among the recommendations from his psychological testing was that extra time for testing could be helpful. There are some tests that I know he would do better on if he had more time. I am, however, on the fence about if it is fair to request this accommodation. If this would make a difference between passing and failing I would request it for sure. At this point it is more often the difference between A's and B's. I expect that many would benefit from more time on tests with or without an ADHD diagnosis so we are trying to decide if its fair to ask for it. S has said that he doesn't want to ask for special help. S also did not do well on his PSAT and I know he would benefit from more time with that but I expect that at this point it is too late to request this accommodation. </p>
<p>Please share your thoughts about this especially for kids who have done well ( A's and B's) without accommodations. Is it possible to request accommodations for some tests but not all. He is at the greatest disadvantage when there is a lot of reading involved. I have a meeting with his GC this week and I'm trying to decide whether to discuss this or not.</p>
<p>In my opinion it would be unfair for him NOT to have extended time for this disability just as it would be unfair for a child with weak eyesight to forego glasses for a test because of the advantage they give. Even with extended time it took my daughter all of the given time to finish her ACT and SAT. Her PSAT was 206 without extended time and she left a LOT of it unfinished. Her SAT was 2250 with the time to finish sections. Focusing for those long tests was always exhausting and she would come home and sleep for the rest of the day! Extended time just allowed her to show what she knew. Her processing speed is in the 28th percentile and her ability in the 98th. She might have made A’s and B’s in her classes in high school without the medicine but she would not have been able to take the many high level classes in the same year because of the time it took her to finish her work each night even on the medicine. She made other sacrifices to finish work on weekends when others could relax or go out and will continue to do so because of her ADHD. My point is that this advantage that seems unfair needs to be seen in perspective because to do well these kids will always have to work so much harder in general. I highly encourage you to allow your child to take advantage of accommodations on school tests because the College Board will factor that heavily into their decision to allow your son to have extended time on their tests.</p>
<p>“S has said that he doesn’t want to ask for special help.”</p>
<p>To me, that’s a big factor.</p>
<p>How many times did he take the PSAT? What kind of preparation did he do?</p>
<p>“At this point it is more often the difference between A’s and B’s.”</p>
<p>Does he plan on asking for help or taking more medication in college? Because if his SAT scores are thanks to extra time, he will need that extra time for everything.</p>
<p>That would be my concern, personally. It would be different if he were much younger, say middle or high school, and this were just showing up and it was the difference between failing or basically losing any chances at college. Because I do think that to get a decent job you need to be able to learn the high-school material and get at the very least a two- or three-year technical degree. But that’s not what you’re talking about, unless I misunderstood.</p>
<p>It sounds like you’re talking about the difference between a fair college and a really great college, and in that case, if it was me, it would not be worth it. He will be having to ask for extra time for all of the challenging courses. So does he want to do that through college?</p>
<p>I hope he finds an answer he’s happy with. I do think for people that are easily distracted, being ultra-familiar with the question types confers a huge advantage. Maybe he should try intensive study with drills on question types before asking for extra time.</p>
<p>Thank you for both of your replies. I spoke to S about it again, his latest reply is he doesn’t care if I discuss this with the GC. (Our meeting is regarding an unrelated matter.) I think S believes he has a problem but is a little uncomfortable asking for help or accommodation, possibly because as it is his grades are higher than many of his friends. For years he exhibited inattentive traits but when we spoke to teachers they didn’t see a problem and we didn’t know enough to test him, we just assumed that squirming every which way when doing homework, frequent careless errors on tests, horrible disorganization and needing to call friends on a regular basis for assignments was just who he was. He was finally tested after taking an AP class and having a really hard time with it. It was a class with extensive reading and he could go a whole day trying to get through it without taking in much. At the end of soph year he asked me why he had never been tested and this is when we pursued it. Our family doctor initially brushed it off and S was willing to accept that. By that time I had done more reading and I felt that whatever decision was made more data was needed. Psychological testing told the story. He isn’t severely involved but his first response to adderal was that instead of catching himself drifting off in class he was amazed because he caught himself paying attention. His situation is such that on most tests he is fine. It is when there is a lot of reading he has problems. I raised the question because he had a final in his AP English class that involved a lot of reading and he said he barely finished and got a low C on it. This pulled his grade down several points. He really had no problems in math and science. Also, while the difference in SAT scores could make a difference between a great college and a good one, more than likely the difference would more influence the possibility for scholarship money and honors program eligibility at a state school. He doesn’t really have an interest in going to an uber competitive school. I am doubtful that we could even arrange for SAT accommodations at this point but I was thinking of asking the question. The main thing I think he would benefit from would be extra time on tests that involved a lot of reading such as the reading comprehension final he took this past semester.</p>
<p>As a parent of a high IQ, inattentive ADD son (10th grade), we constantly struggle with how to handle his academics and accomodations. We are coming off a bad 2 week stretch and going into term finals. </p>
<p>It is difficult for these naturally bright kids to request help. For my son, he sees it as a hand out favor, not a hand up accomodation. He waits into he is in a deep hole before getting assistance. I too am struggling with the issue of making a formal request for SAT/ACT. My son also has no dreams of an uber elite college, but I just hate to close the door for merit at some schools. </p>
<p>We would have to retest (last psych-ed was 4 years ago) and it is not covered by any insurance for us. Since you have recent evaluation in hand, I would immediately begin to request extended time from the college boards. </p>
<p>Is he taking Adderal XR? The XR has had little side effects for my son, but he does feel it wear off far before homework begins somedays.</p>
<p>Longhaul: It sounds like we are in similar situations. Does your S get any special accommodations at school? S2 is on Adderal XR. He is usually good about doing HW as soon as he gets home but often has EC’s so doesn’t always get home before meds wear off. I think his biggest problems are with time pressure, and in depth reading. He usually does longer reading assignments over the weekend and doesn’t have real time pressure for the other HW so that seems to go okay. In anycase he hasn’t complained. I think he is just happy to be able to have the help during class.</p>
<p>“He really had no problems in math and science.”</p>
<p>This is strange. Have you considered a different learning disability, not so much ADHD or ADD, but something having to do with short-term memory that affects reading and other memory-related tasks?</p>
<p>It’s important to address that now because that would affect him at work, too, when attending meetings, writing and processing memos, etc. It also would not be fixed by medication, though medication helps nearly everyone concentrate better, thus improving scores. What I mean is, if he’s on, say, Adderall, his scores should improve regardless of whether he has an ADD or ADHD diagnosis, because it improves scores for nearly everyone since nobody’s perfect. But if it’s not addressing an underlying issue, then that is a problem.</p>
<p>Has he seen a learning specialist as well as a psychologist? Short-term memory is very important in reading. Did he have a hard time learning to read?</p>
<p>Whatever it is, it sounds like he’s far from debilitated by it. Getting a C is tough but well within the range of normal, and nobody’s perfect in everything. Some people don’t pay attention well. So either way I’m sure he’ll do fine in the long run.</p>
<p>Let me clarify that when I said he has no math/science problem I meant that while on adderal he had no problems completing those tests. This year his science is physics, which is a lot of math and math is his strong subject. In spite of that, this semester prior to taking adderal he had a couple of tests that he had difficulty completing. Last year in chemistry he got a 52 on a final. This was a class that he was previously acing. When I spoke to his teacher about it she explained that she didn’t get it because he frequently demonstrated that he knew the material in class. So what I meant was that while on adderal I haven’t seen any problems with needing accommodation for time in his math and science class. The 73 wasn’t really the issue for me, it was more that he had difficulty completing the test. Perhaps the question I should be asking is to the teacher, to find out if this was a problem for many on this test. Overall the biggest issues that I have seen have been with reading. Prior to adderal I saw issues with testing across the board. The time issue also became apparant to me because I had always known he was a really strong math student but he generally came up with low A to mid B grades in math. Then for Algebra 2 he had a teacher who accommodated everyone’s time needs. He got 100 on almost every test (except the final that was timed and he got an 80). Although every student got the time benefit, his was one of only a few A’s in the class and it was the highest A earned. (Our school uses numerical grades). That was before we even considered ADHD. When I spoke to the doctor about medicating I thought it was more functional for S to be able to test with the rest of the class and take meds rather than to request time accommodations and avoid medicating. For the mostpart the adderall seems to have made the difference. The problem that seems to persist is with reading.</p>
<p>Actually for the psychological testing he did well on short term memory. The interesting thing about this was that it was one of the first things tested. S’s scores got worse as the testing continued over an interval of about 2 hours.</p>
<p>I see, I didn’t get it that his science was good post-Adderall. Short-term memory is a common problem that gets worse as reading gets more complicated and problems get too complicated to use “tricks” for so that’s why they test for it first. I assume eyesight has also been checked?</p>
<p>Math problems, even at the physics level, are usually more quickly solved if you know what you are doing, than even the most basic tests. So that would explain why a small dose could be helping in math, science, and other shorter-problem questions (you usually have at least ten questions on a test even in the advanced levels) vs. longer problems, like in reading and history where you might only have one or two questions for the whole test.</p>
<p>My son is in a small private school. He has had “unofficial” accommodations, we just officially put something into writing (so we have history if we need it for college). I STRONGLY encourage you to share the ADD with the school and get a written IEP/504 in place!</p>
<h1>Everyone who I’ve spoken with from college students to doctors have told me while the laws for college student accommodations make getting things more difficult, without a proven history pre-college it is impossible to get any accommodations. Please, do not let college be more difficult than necessary. Get things in writing NOW. The way I look at it is my kid will need something in college - It may just be a guarantee that he can get a standing appointment at the tutoring center for organization in studying or it may be just for scheduling (no day with 8 am class and a 8 pm class)/priority registration.- I want to be certain he has a shot of getting these things.</h1>
<p>My son’s classes are generally small (6-15) with no more than 2 rows of desks. Most teachers permit extended time on tests for all students. The school limits the number of tests a student can have in one day. He is provided with a set of books for home and a separate set at school. The school had a systems changes and no homework website available - that had a huge negative impact on him. Up and running now, but it made him realize how he must electronically track homework (He is a disaster with handwritten planners/notebooks). We just put into place a mid-quarter grade report be provided in all classes.</p>
<p>There is a classmate whose accom. include all reading on audio tape. He does not have ADD, but instead a vision tracking issue, although he has 20/20 eyesight. Took a full psych/ed to find that issue. He has great difficulty and spends much energy on focusing and then loses comprehension. His comprehension with the audio tapes is nearly 4 times higher than when reading. This kid is fine with small bits of reading - He can take a regular test - but finals (90 minute tests) and reading assignments over 10 pages really weigh him down. One final last year was given to him part oral (teacher read passages and essay question, student wrote the answer). SPECTRUM2 - You should consider requesting audio books and verbal tests as an accommodation. The student’s parent I mentioned above did have to contact the History text book company directly re audio book because she did not trust the school to do it; some English audio books the parent just bought herself on Amazon. The student also has chosen to avoid APUSH because of the intensity of the reading. </p>
<p>As I said, homework is an issue lately for my son. I’d like to get him an ADD coach, but finding one within our budget who works with high school kids is proving difficult. The strategies for college kids are different because it assumes the student has flexibility with scheduling classes. Elementary/middle school kids are assumed to complete homework 3-6 pm. The high school schedule is different than both of these and I have yet to find a coach who can appreciate a fixed, full schedule. I’m expanding my search to remote coaches (e-mail, calls) and looking at “life” coaches as well. All this is complicated with the fact my 15 yr old is not always accepting of help. Finding a personality match will be key. He responds better to someone who will treat him like an adult.</p>
<p>It is all a balancing act and some trial and error.</p>