(10-30-2010, 09:44 PM)Sila Wrote: I know a little boy who is about 10 years old now. His mother doesn't know where to go for help, so I'm going to ask for her.

First, a bit of background information. Low income family. Single mother parent of a 10 year old boy and a 4 year old girl. I've known the family since the boy was not even a year old now. He's already failed first and second grade, he barely scraped by in third grade, and now he's failing fourth. His teachers have noticed the problem, as far as I can see, but they dismiss the problem as just "needing help". He scraped by with a 2 in the math section of the FCAT (florida comprehension assessment test- aka state testing) and a 3 in reading. The "average" is a 4, highest possible is 6.

Now, from what I've noticed. He definitely DEFINITELY shows every sign of having ADHD and Dyslexia. If I sit down with him on my lap, with some music playing lightly in the background and a Popsicle stick with his book, he cannot focus still. The Popsicle stick is used to help him not get distracted by text that is below what he's reading. Instead of reading sentence by sentence, he reads letter by letter or word by word, but won't remember what he read after the sentence is done. He stumbles over simple words such as "the" and "ball", forgetting that he's seen them before and actually knows them.

He's demotivated very easily. He doesn't "get" something right off the bat, so he'll get 'lazy' with it. He'll roll around on the couch and lay down and sloppily write a word, or mumble a word from the book. I try to help him but he gets close to crying because he's so frustrated by it- I can relate, but I can't figure out how to help him permanently because I just fought my way through school with no help. I don't want that to happen- I want him to get help so he can pass.

He can't sit still, even when watching t.v. His feet are always moving, kicking, touching everything. He doesn't even realize he does it. Shopping with him and his sister is a nightmare. He runs up and down the store isles even if he's told to stay by me/his mom/whoever. I've had to make him put his hands behind his back as we walked down the store isle, but even that didn't last long. I can only assume he's a nightmare at home too, but his mom doesn't know what to do. His sister follows in his footsteps, and doesn't see that his behavior is "bad" so she does the same... Combine the two, and it's grounds for major headaches.

The poor kid is about to fail 4th grade, and get held back again. Someone told his mom that the school wouldn't evaluate him anymore because too many parents complained and stuff. I don't know if that's true. Any ideas, links, or things to bring up in school that can help him get the help he needs?

I would stongly suggest she have him evaluated by a PEDIATRIC DEVELOPMENTAL OPTOMETRIST. I was able to get my child an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) at his school under VISUAL PERCEPTION DISORDER and under that, we have added Occupational therapy, which he desperately needed. Now the SCHOOL provides these services at no cost to me, and my child also gets much needed accomodations such as preferred seating to minimize distractions, sensory breaks and much more. I am thrilled to get these services through the school, and he now gets 30 minutes of OT, and hour of vision therapy and a TA in his class for 30 minutes during art. This was well worth the cost of the initial exam and all the red tape I had to go through and he is getting help he really needs.