Learning Disability on top of ADHD

[Lavender58]

Hi, our 13 year old son is recently diagnosed with ADHD. We’re figuring out the meds which is helping him focus in class, but we’re now realizing he still has trouble understanding the concepts being taught and following instructions correctly. I suspect he might have a learning disability as well. He is extremely frustrated because he’s always a step behind the others in class and is increasingly stressed over tests which impacts his performance. Anyone else experience something similar? Any recommendations on what to do?

[BLC89]

Hello Lavender58,Learning differences are very common with ADHD. I suggest getting him evaluated for dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and or dyspraxia - all the "dys" stuff. Then you know what he is working with and can get support specific to him.

If you are in the states and at a public school they should be able to start the process with you.

Good luck and stay curious, everybody's ADHD is a bit different so get the right fit for him.

BLC89

Full disclosure: I am an ADHD Parent Coach. I have been married to ADHD for nearly 30 years and raised two kids who have ADHD.

[MomofADHDBoy6]

hello, yes! My boy is young but our first suspicion was a learning disability before we realized he also had ADHD. He was diagnosed with Dyslexia first then ADHD a few months later, which I guess is very common to have ADHD paired with dyslexia. For us our son had such a hard time in school he wasn’t retaining even his alphabet. We ended up getting him diagnosed with dyslexia and found a private tutor that specializes in that specific learning disability. It has helped so much! I think even though our boy is on meds and is also focusing better at school without that tutor he would still be struggling! But now just about 6 months in he is reading and getting 100% on all his spelling tests. How we suspected dyslexia specifically was I started taking notes on all the things he seemed to struggle with over a period of time and then researched the heck out of them and landed on that one. Good luck to you mama! I hope you find the answers you are looking for!

[Onthemove1971 in reply to MomofADHDBoy6]

Just curious, do you know about Bookshare?

[MomofADHDBoy6 in reply to Onthemove1971]

No I haven’t

[Onthemove1971 in reply to MomofADHDBoy6]

If your child has an IEP or 504 plan it is free. It is for anyone who has a "print disability" or vision impairment. Dyslexia qualifies as a print disability. It is an entire library of audio books to download and read.

Currently, they have over 1,242,173 titles.

There are free reading Apps. That allow their books be be customized for the reader.

This means your son could listen to books( anywhere), while visually looking at highlighted text.

You can also change the size of the text and style type.

You can also set a preferred sound of the reader voice (male vs female).

Here is their link:

bookshare.org/cms/

Reading is challenging, but Bookshare makes it much more accessible.

I do not work for Bookshare, but I have many years experience with the amazing organization.

If I can answer any question just send me a message. Signing up is very easy.

Best to you!

[MomofADHDBoy6 in reply to Onthemove1971]

Thank you for that helpful information!! I appreciate it

[Onthemove1971 in reply to MomofADHDBoy6]

This for textbooks, school books and personal. Hope you guys can use this resource.

[Aspen797]

As others noted, one good first step would be to request he be evaluated by the school. Under IDEA the school needs to evaluate all areas of suspected disability—whether diagnosed or not. The more specific you are about your concerns, the more specific they will need to be in assessing. Examples of how to request an evaluation and links to more information are here: parentcenterhub.org/evaluat.... If you are able to, it might be worth having a private assessment. A neuropsychologist assessment is the most thorough. If your son gets the content but it takes longer, he may have slow processing speed. There are accommodations that can make that less frustrating ( extra time on work/tests, being required to do only that necessary to show mastery, checking in before moving on in lesson, providing notes, etc).

[Aloysia]

I want to add another learning disability to look out for since you said he has trouble following instructions - Auditory Processing Disorder. This one will never be caught by the school assessment or by a normal doctor. Go to understood.org and search for it. Then read an article about the signs or watch a recorded webinar about it. If it seems like this might be a fit for your kid, then you have to find a specialty audiologist to assess this. A full hearing test in a closed booth is first (they will normally pass with flying colors because it is single sounds with no background noises). Then followed by the specialty tests in a closed hearing booth. My daughter has this and it took a long time for me to even find the name of this disability - she was diagnosed in 4th grade.

[Lavender58 in reply to Aloysia]

Thank you for sharing this! I will definitely research this! I’m learning a lot. This forum has been a great resource. Thanks again.