how to respond to teachers negative comments

November 15, 2011

My dd has OCD and ADHD. She was diagnosed with ADHD in second grade. Started

Vyvanse in third grade and did really well for three years. The OCD was just

recently diagnosed and she starts her first Exposure therapy treatment today.

She has a really good doctor and I feel positive that we will make progress as

she wants to get better.

Here is my dilemma. She started taking Prozac at the early part of September

and it has helped significantly with her obsessions/compulsions. However, it

apparently counteracts her Vyvanse and she is a little more hyper and

inattentive than she is otherwise. At least, I think it's the Prozac causing

it. It could be that the Vyvanse has started losing its effectiveness anyway.

Or it could be that her teachers are less tolerant this year. I'm not sure what

it is, but I am getting a lot of complaints particularly from her science

teacher.

I also have to take her out of school two hours early every Tuesday to get her

to the clinic for therapy. Anyway, she is overall, not doing as well in school

this year. The science teacher has called me once about her talking, he has

noted it on her report card and she was not allowed to participate in jeans day

(they wear uniforms) because of the talking situation. She is also forgetting

to get papers signed which is negatively impacting her grades in her classes

where she actually would have probably made A's/B's. BTW, we do not have a 504

plan or an IEP and she is in the upper level classes.

My husband is a strict disciplinarian (he was a Marine) and he feels that I am

excusing her behavior too much and at some point she needs to be able to exert

some self-control. I just don't know. Her social studies teacher absolutely

embraces her enthusiasm and I just wish I could clone him. She does well in his

class. She always struggles in math, and she is not doing great, but her math

teacher seems to like her and has made good comments about her

conscientiousness.

I got really irritated though yesterday. I picked her up from Quiz Bowl

practice. The science teacher is the coach. She said he asked a question that

no one could answer, so she buzzed in and gave an answer. He told her that it

sounded like a " guess " to him and he was getting annoyed with her

over-enthusiasm.

That really " annoys " me. Am I over-reacting? How would you handle it? I have

tried to explain to him that we are seeing a therapist and trying to get

everything under control, but he doesn't seem to have a lot of patience.

Sorry for such a long post. My daughter gets her talking from me.

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