Suggestions for child with ADD

[Janphillips]

My oldest daughter was diagnosed with ADD last year and after many years of struggling with how long her school day goes we decided to try medication. We have been using HOD since she was 5 years old. The medication seemed to help with focus, but her days are still long. She is thorough and processes slower than average, which drags her school day out. We often have work carryover to the 5th day. The suggestions I have received outside of HOD on how to modify her schoolwork are time consuming and burdensome to me as I have three younger children whom I also homeschool. I would like to hear if anyone has suggestions that are simple, easy, and/or broad. She will be starting the World Geography guide for 9th grade and turning 15 in August. She has met Missions to Modern Marvels guide expectations this past year. I don’t think placement is an issue. She is not a morning person, so her school day usually goes from 9am-6pm, which includes an hour and a half break for lunch and a short walk. On top of this she usually has work to finish on the fifth day that she didn’t finish on days 1-4. This feels like too much to me, but I don’t know how to lighten the load for her. Any suggestions from parents who have experience with this issue or understand this issue? Are there any suggestions specifically for modifying the World Geography guide considering her ADD?

[christianmom]

Deleted for mis-reading her level. I thought she was just finishing WG instead of MTMM.

[Janphillips]

Thanks for your response. I want to clarify my daughter hasn’t started the World Geography guide yet. She took 7.5 hours on average plus a shorter day on day 5 for Missions to Modern Marvels, which the catalogue says will take 4.5-5 hours 4 days per week. She does read slowly. To help that I tried to keep an eye on her while schooling my younger children and if the reading dragged on, I stopped her and had her move on to the accompanying activity. I did that all last year, but her days still went very long. If someone has a suggestion to help a teenage slow reader I would like to hear that as well.

[Jaimejac]

Hi Jan,

I'm sorry to hear of your struggles. I'm not sure I'm going to be of much help as we are in the early stages of an ADHD diagnosis for my 7 yo son. But I am noticing he has a slower processing speed than his older brother and sister and am anticipating similar struggle in the future so I am curious if anyone else might jump in.

I recently asked a similar question here about my son and doing Beyond with accommodations. I didn't get any responses so I emailed into Julie and she helped me work out a schedule for him that would help with his high-energy but short attention span. What she suggested for us though, might not work for your girl in high school. That said, Julie might be able to help you in your particular situation if you email or call in to her.

One thing I have heard of that I'm wondering if you have tried is - could she listen to audiobooks and follow along in the book instead of reading them herself? I wonder if that would help speed things along.

Blessings as you navigate this journey. I hope you get some other responses here.

Jaime