My son is 17 and a senior at a technical high school. He has diagnosed ADD and Central Auditory processing
difficulty. He has great problems with organization and Math.
He seems to be in denial that he needs help for these issues until he fails a course. He has always had a lot of support available at school from learning center and teachers (esp Math). All he has to do is avail himself of the extra help, yet he does not. He is oppositional and angry with me when I try to guide him to the extra help. He has always been this way with me, not just since becoming a teen.
Now he is facing a decision about college or technical school after graduation in June 2007. He is just plain nasty when I try to ask questions to help him find his way.
Has anyone else had a similar scenario in their family and if so do you have any words of advise for me
Thank you, Fran
I work with kids like your son on a daily basis. IT is tough. He needs to see the payoff for him. Right now he is just putting in his time. Does he take any medication for his ADHD? Meds helped my son dig himself out of his academic quagmire. HE had senioritis very badly. He just tanked on his grades and no matter how much I bugged him he just ignored me. Now that he is 20…he is regretting what he did and has matured and taken responsiblity for his actions.
I don’t have a definite answer but I know it is a tough road but with my son he needed to hit the bottom and take responsiblity for his successes and failures before he decided to do something about it.
So in other words, you are going to have to let go and let him fail…so he can LEARN from his mistakes. Sometimes we do a disservice to our kids when we are always cleaning up behind them…we enable their behavior.