<p>You’re welcome, HMof1. I can’t help someone with a math disability or ADD, but I’ve had lots of experience with boys with “ATD” problems.</p>
<p>Well after a long talk with my son and his teacher I think that Mombot’s theory is looking good. He and his teacher both think that his problem is a combination of his insufficient atten to details and poor basic computational skills that he never learned properly in K-6. I think because he is so bright he overcompensated all this time and now he is finally hitting a wall. I do think that his teacher is perfect for him because she is making him finally slow down and pay attention. I don’t think any of his teacher’s to this day have ever done that. It is torture for him at the moment and he still hasn’t hit the high C range on his tests but both his teacher and my S think that he is improving slowly and over time he will succeed in math and his attention skills. My S said that for the first time in a long time he is feeling confident about math.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!! I will definitely post again when I need some more help. It’s so nice to know your not alone.</p>
<p>Oh yeah-- His teacher has offered to work with him everyday after school to go back and re-learn any of the skills he is not 100% proficient at. " Drill and Kill" as you say.</p>
<p>Ellemenope— Thanks for all of your help!! I too have a house full of ATD boys. I feel like I should write a book or something after all the research I have done on the subject.</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you mothers of ATD boys!</p>
<p>What’s “ATD” stand for? I think I am an “ATD” girl! I hit the same wall that the OP’s son did–kudos to you and his teacher for forming a plan to address his struggles now rather than let him avoid math and limit his future educational and career prospects.</p>
<p>“ATD” stands for attention to details…I guess I should of said a house full of inept ATD boys.</p>
<p>Wait, what? 580 M on the SAT is average for a junior in high school…Getting that in 7th grade is incredibly above average. And it is perfectly normal for a 9th grader to take Algebra I (I went to an upscale college prep school and all but 3 or 4 freshman took Alg I). If you consider these to be ‘horrible’ and signs of a learning disability, then quite frankly I’d be scared to know what your expectations for other subjects are.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to imply that my S was not meeting my expectations in some way, but to understand why a kid who got 580 in 7th grade would be failing alg. 1 in 9th. Something is just not right. He also got 680 CR and he does get good grades in English and History. I was worried that he might have some kind of a learning disability. At his high school… a top private school in CA most of the kids in his class are in Geometry this year with a few in Accelerated Geometry… a kind of math for the REALLY top math kids. Only a handful are in Alg. 1. He won’t reach calculus by 12th but I’m not too worried because he has no desire to major in engineering or any math thing. He will probably major in the classics or something along those lines. Hope this helps to clarify. I’m only trying to find a way to help my S succeed in math and feel good about himself.</p>
<p>Any ideas on how to improve processing speed? </p>
<p>D2 is in a similar situation, testing high in verbal, performance areas, super low in processing speed and memory. Did fine until 8th grade, then everything fell apart. Vision therapy helped alot (after six years of spending hours every night with math hw, pointing to each number, each step). I got Brain Age (Nintendo DS) recently and am looking at other brain games for memory. One advantage to Brain Age is they have memory and speed games related to arithmetic, and they’re very engaging.</p>