My 7-year-old son has ADHD and an IEP in class at his school. He is very good in math, but when it comes too letter sounds, he cannot retain them so he can't read or write. How do I, as his mom, help him too remember from one day to the next? And why is it he can retain all the things to do with math and not reading? I am confused?

Vickie

My four-year-old son is considered twice exceptional. Academically, he is above age appropriate (reading at a third grade level) and shows a great interest in math (addition and subtraction). Socially, he has no trouble making friends but not great at keeping them. He is impulsive in his actions, which makes most children shy away from him.

He has a medical history of open heart surgery and was hospitalized for ten weeks at birth. He was recently diagnosed with ADHD, but his pediatrician and cardiologist disagree with this diagnosis. We struggle to find the right academic setting for him (his two previous schools say they are not for him and that he needs more structure and academic). It has also been suggested that we check him for Sensory Integration Dysfunction, which we are in the process of researching. Resources are available for LD and for gifted, but we struggle to find someone that can help us with both issues. Any suggestions?

Andrea

My daughter is in third grade now and still struggles to read at an early first grade level. Her cognitive skills are fine. If I read the work to her from school, she can answer the questions. Reading for her is a new struggle every day. It seems like she will recognize a word one minute and the next, have no idea what it is.

She struggles with school at all reading-based subjects. She is getting learning assistance, but her progress is extremely slow. Her self esteem is starting to suffer and she is beginning to refer to herself as stupid. I am so worried about her state of mind as she sits in class with children who can do the work and she simply can't read the words.

She is very gifted in drawing and is very perceptive in understanding emotions, she is simply unable to read. I have told the school I believe her to be dyslexic, but there is little information available as to practical solutions to help her learn and be diagnosed. Where can I get affordable help for her? What techniques can I use to help her? How can I get a diagnosis?

My son was diagnosed at the end of first grade with short term memory problems and some phonics problems after falling behind in reading. His school is working hard with him, but it is a struggle at home to get him to read.

As soon as we say its time to read for a few minutes he is annoyed (he is now in the third grade) and gets quickly frustrated even with our help. He also seems to start to yawn soon after starting to read, even though he goes to bed at 8:00 p.m. and gets up at 7:00 a.m.) We let him pick what he wants to read and take breaks, but it is still a struggle. Are there issues we and the school could have missed and are there any suggestions on how to make reading less of a struggle?

My daughter is in a Gifted and Talented program in our school corporation and is in the fourth grade. Since starting the program last year, we (along with her teachers) have noted a difficulty in spelling. She excels in everything, except reading aloud, retaining what she reads and spelling. Her state tests came back and confirmed she belongs in the gifted program. All her scores were well above average, especially Math. Her spelling score was in the 39th percentile, still in the average range but on the low end. It has also been noted, whenever she works on her own in class, she is not able to sit still (she rocks or shifts back and forth) and has even been seen to flex her hands so bad she is not able to type on a computer, hold a pencil or even write.

Whenever we look over our daughter's work, we have to ask her for clarification on several of her words because her words are not spelled anywhere close phonetically. Her teacher suggested that an evaluation be done to determine what kind of learning disability our daughter has. This teacher has been working with the gifted program for over ten years so we feel very confident in her opinion of the situation. We were told testing would not be granted because she does not have the scores or classroom grades to support her difficulties.

How is it that our daughter can read through her entire state tests, score well above average, do well in all her subjects and not be able to spell or restate what she just read? Is this a simple case of needing to learn phonics or could there be a disability that needs diagnosed? Your help and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Meredith

Throughout school, I have always tried to be a good student and would constantly put in a tremendous amount of effort to keep up with the material of my classes. I'm 20 years old and recently had to withdraw from my classes at University of Wisconsin-Madison due to my frustration with school. I've been put on medication for depression and General Anxiety Disorder although I'm not certain it is helping.

Ever since this has happened, I've been re-examining my past as a student from grade school all the way to high school. I would get good grades but I would have to put in many extra hours to keep up. It seems like I would memorize the information required of me through constant repetition, take the test on the information from the class, and then forget all the material after. I could never remember details from books and would constantly have to highlight almost every sentence and then return to it through repetition until what was read was ready to be spit back out on an exam.

My social life suffered because I always seemed to be studying and never found very much time to discover what actually interested me in life because my nose was hidden in a book.

Here are some of the problems I'm discovering about myself: inability to do mental math; difficulty understanding percentages, decimals, fractions, measuring, and financing; difficulty remembering numbers; difficulty retaining information that I've read; difficulty concentrating in a noisy environment; inability to understand abstract concepts; poor vocabulary; difficulty with writing and expression; difficulty reading maps and poor sense of direction; difficulty trying to navigate and remember directions/street signs while driving; and the list goes on. Is it possible that I may have an undiagnosed learning disability?

Emily Whitlock

My son and daughter both have IEPs for speech and reading and have received special services since age three. Neither spoke until age three-and-a-half. Both are behind in reading and are just learning to sound out words. Both have solid average to slightly above average intelligence, according to standardized tests. Both do fine with math.

Our son has been labeled LD for reading, though our daughter is not much better at reading. This summer they will work with a reading teacher who uses the Reading Reflex program. In addition, both seem to us developmentally immature. Repeating won't solve problems, but it might buy us some time for them to mature and become better readers. What are your thoughts?

Howard

I have a 9-year-old boy who gets good grades, is intelligent, great sense of humor, and well-mannered. For the past three years, I have been hearing that he is distracted easily in class, as in if he hears a tapping pencil, fire siren, or noise outside of his class, he gets distracted too easily, and doesn't focus on his work sometimes because he starts to talk in class at times.

I have been very patient, and tried explaining the importance of cooperating with his teacher and the school rules, but I'm getting very worried. Especially, now that his teacher thought it would be a good idea for me to sign a 504 form so he can concentrate or focus better because she believes he can get a top score. Only now after signing, the principal is saying he should see and talk to a school professional, and now I am very concerned and don't know what to do. I am up to my wit's with this situation. Please help. He understands his work in school. I am lost.

I have an 11-year-old son with ADD. A doctor has stated that there is research showing that a) kids can become addicted to violent video games and that b) gaming raises cortisol levels in people who play video games. A counselor says that ALL electronics can cause the above two situations. What is your take on this? What about active video games such as Dance Revolution or the wii games? How should a parent address this? Take them off all games, etc? Permanently or just take a break?... HELP!

Do you have any knowledge or experience in diagnosing the elderly (80+) with ADHD? What is the best way to differentiate between undiagnosed ADHD symptoms, which appear to have become more acute with age, and Alzheimer's disease in the elderly?

Our 16-year-old daughter was diagnosed in 3rd grade with a learning disability. Her full scale IQ is 105, with her verbal being 25 points higher then her performance scores. She uses a ritalin patch for ADD. Our frustration with her is that she often procrastinates to the point where she gets totally overwhelmed. Her work ethic is not good at all. She hates school and honestly could be doing much better.

One example of this: she has a 23% in her photography elective class. The teacher said she takes amazing photos, but never finishes her projects! Any suggestions? We are having to nag her constantly, and she often tells us her work is all caught up when it isn't.

My son is 14 years old and in the ninth grade. He was diagnosed with a language processing disorder in third grade. He struggles with completing assignments, and remembering to write his work down. Teachers in high school expect him to be able to self-advocate and ask for extended time on assignments if he can't finish them in class. He is not doing this as he has trouble asking questions of adults. To top it all off, he is also gifted, which frustrates teachers. They know he is smart and think that he could do the work if he wanted to. How can I help my son?

Heather

Is first grade too early to request an LD evaluation? My child is completely inept at reading and spelling. He writes letters backwards and struggles with some three letter words. He also has a speech issue that is currently being addressed.

My 6-year-old son is in first grade and is having difficulty learning his spelling words and math concepts. He has speech delays, difficulty processing and trouble following directions. He was in first steps and an early childhood program. He went through a battery of tests at age 2-and-a-half and was seen by a developmental specialist but has no specific diagnosis. He has behavioral problems and angry outbursts but is usually corrected with time out.

At school, his teacher says he has trouble focusing and staying on task. He laughs or smiles when corrected and pounds on his desk. On the bus, he changes seats while the bus is moving and sits on the back of the seat. His sleep is a concern.

He gets up in the early morning around 4:00-5:00 am and has ever since he was 18 months old. He had a sleep study and had his tonsils and adenoids taken out, but it didn't help. He has his own internal clock and he is up several hours before school starts, making him exhausted before his 8:30 pm bedtime. I wonder if testing him for attention deficit disorder would be helpful.

Terri

I have a three sons aged nine, six, and four. Our oldest was having difficulty keeping up with his class. Since kindergarten, he was always categorized as being a little behind. His teachers said it was due to our multi-language home environment.

His new fourth grade teacher is saying that he is reading at a second grade level and that there is a possibility he might be held back. Because of this, I started spending lot of time working on his reading, but as I was doing this, I noticed his younger brother, who is six years old, has better comprehension of the story and can respond faster and correctly to my questions. So many times he stared at me with a blank look because he didn't understand my questions and didn't know how to answer me.

I have a feeling my oldest son might have auditory processing disorder. He passed his school's hearing test. He is really a kind and gentle boy who can't seem to make friends even though he tries so hard. He can't seem to get the right words to express himself unlike his brothers. He wants to be accepted by his schoolmates and tries to join in their conversations, but it's either out of context or inappropiate, which is keeping him from making friends. This is really hurting his self esteem and is making him more aggressive towards his brothers.

How can I find out if I'm right or wrong about my feeling and how can I get the school's help? I'm learning that LD runs in the family; can my other boys have LD as well? I'm starting to notice that my six-year-old might have ADHD and my four-year-old has a speech problem. How can I get them evaluated if there is no sign of academic problems? I don't want to wait and have them be in the same position as their older brother. I am so grateful for your website because I know I'm not alone.

Janice

Is it possible for a child to be able to read at or slightly above grade level, but still have dyslexia? My nine-year-old son does fine in reading (he did have two years of Title 1 reading assistance), but has difficulty spelling and has handwriting that is often illegible.

I have a 4-year-old that I'm afraid might have dyslexia. The other day we came to a stop sign and spelled out the letters backwards, and it's happened a few times since then. Is this normal or should I do something about it?

Hello! My name is Rebecca Phipps, and I'm 14 years old, almost 15. I recently got accepted into this awesome new high school, West Florida. It's a difficult new school, and most people would just die to go there. I've always had a little bit of ADD, but because of the new stresses and other components, it's gotten worse. It's really embarrassing when I am talking to the teacher and I randomly forget what I was talking about.

My mom knows about this, and my brother has ADHD. I talked to my older sister about it and I tell her a lot of things I don't tell mom. The other day we were talking about my situation, and I want to talk to my doctor about getting the medicine for it. I figured there's not very much to lose. I was wondering if you had any suggestions about opening up a conversation with my mom about really considering talking to my pediatrician. Could you please help?

What do you think about cognitive skills training programs for improving attention, memory, auditory and visual processing, logic and reasoning? I recently heard great things about a program called "Learning RX" (that is the newer franchise name, the original, sister program is called "Pace").

It sounds fantastic and they published pre- and post-test scores that show an average of +3 years gain in cognitive skills that were below age level, using the Woodcock- Johnson lll cog. skills test. The speech-language pathologist who owns the Learning RX franchise near me told me that she has used many programs, including Lindamood-Bell and Fast Forword and this program gives phenomenal results in a much shorter time (six months) and across a broader range of skills. I'd love to know if this kind of training is recognized as valid by experts in the field of learning disorders. Thanks so much.

My son, who is now 15, has just been diagnosed with non-verbal learning disabilities (NVLD). He has been on an IEP since the age of three, due to speech apraxia, and later for LD, which affected his math, reading, and writing skills. He also has a diagnosis of ADHD and is on Concerta 54 mg a day.

I have read up on the NVLD and he does exhibit most of the signs of this disorder, as well as for his other diagnosis. My question is can he have learning disabilities that are both verbal and nonverbal and what can I do to help him? About two years ago, he made some very poor choices and as a result, charges were made against him. At this point, he is on probation, seeing a therapist and attending group sessions.

Due to his legal situation and his inability to understand the seriousness of his actions, my husband and I decided to homeschool him, basically out of fear that he may get into more trouble. We, however, are faced to with the dilemma of him not having any friends and don't know how to solve this situation either since he has never done well with making friends. I would appreciate any input or help you could give us. Our greatest fear is that he will never be able to fit into mainstream society and will end up getting into more and more trouble.