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[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

My son is 5 and was doing fine, just a little quirky. Then within a week of

starting Kindergarten we were getting notes home from his teacher. Mainly that

he often doesn't do schoolwork in the classroom, he just sits and fidgets, makes

noises, etc. Now she sends his schoolwork home, along with his homework, so we

have to fight with him all evening to get it done.

They weren't willing to do testing, so I arranged it myself, and his diagnoses

are ADHD, anxiety, and " Aspergers - tentative. " I sent the report to the school

and I'm waiting to hear back.

He used to like school but now doesn't, which is a shame, because he's bright

and academically inclined. He's on track academically. They seem to teach every

concept in Kindergarten by getting the kids to color something, cut it out, and

paste it onto something. I think his motor skills (plus a little perfectionism)

are making it really hard for him. Also he gets a bad mark for behavior pretty

much every day, for making noises, fidgeting, bumping other kids while lining up

in the hallway, etc. I'm not sure he cares any more about his behavior marks, I

think he just assumes he will get them.

I talked to an advocate yesterday, and hoping that she can get us more from the

school, because they've been like a brick wall so far. We're also hoping to find

a diet that works for him, although it might be tricky as he has food allergies

(plus he's a picky eater, of course). We're hoping to avoid medications as he's

very manageable at home (except for the schoolwork issue) and was doing fine in

preschool also - the only problem is at school.

More about us: my husband and I live in Tennessee. In addition to our son we

have two daughters age 3 and 4 who we adopted about 3 months ago, and a foster

daughter who is a toddler.

I'm looking forward to learning a lot from this group.