College Sophomore Accommodations

Applying to College Learning Differences and Challenges - LD, ADHD
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I agree that finding out from the school what is needed for “official” accommodations is a great start. If updated testing isn’t required, you might still consider it. Our (limited - focus group of one!) experience with neuropsych testing in college is that the strategies for dealing with issues were geared to adults – so college now but also for adult and professional life.

It sounds like your D had a good way of managing her work and calendar is high school, so maybe working - even briefly - with an EF coach could help her adapt what has worked in the past to what would work now. One of the biggest differences between high school and college is that high schools tend to break down assignments and testing into pieces that can be tackled daily. College work, otoh, can involve large chunks of reading (with no need to prove it’s been done) and fewer, but higher stakes, assessments, and the breaking down and confirming mastery are up to the student. High schools often reward students simply for demonstrating that they did the work whereas colleges typically want to see that you have understood and can apply the knowledge. A good coach (and going to office hours) might help your D transition her work style and goals. It could also help to take graded work to the prof and ask what she needed to do better. If she truly doesn’t know, that’d be valuable feedback!

This is tough! Also, your D might be well advised to think about balance in her schedule so that she has a few classes that really play to her strengths and help her confidence and that she just have one or 2 classes that will take extra effort. There’s nothing worse than putting so much time into the classes wherr you fear failing that you have no time left to make the effort to shine where you can.

Sorry for responding to more than just your question (a CC problem for sure!)

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And it’s good that she is a good self advocate, because even with accommodations granted by the disability office, she will have to self advocate for these to happen.

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I have a suggestion that has not come up yet- use a psychiatrist not a neuropsychologist.

ADHD is diagnosed by a psychiatrist (sometimes even a PCP but psychiatrist is better), using a questionnaire and interview. A neuropsych. may test for ability to focus and make comments on ADHD but it is diagnosed by a psychiatrist.

In a neuropsych. evaluation done before college, my kid had slow processing, executive functioning issues, and scores indicating a “learning disability” but we used a letter from a psychiatrist for accommodations because the accommodations for ADHD covered the rest.

In high schools, ADHD is under “medical” not special ed and gets a 504, not an IEP.

Anyway, I wrote a letter for the psychiatrist to sign, listing all the accommodations that research showed might be helpful and the psychiatrist was happy to sign (saved her trouble). This was enough for the Disabilities Office.

So I think you might be able to avoid paying for another neuropsych. evaluation by relying on the ADHD diagnosis and a psychiatrist letter.

I had three kids with various special needs and the Disabilities Office was rarely the resource that helped. They serve more as a filter to protect the curriculum in my view. Each school is different, but various professors, advisors and deans are most helpful when accommodations are needed or problems arise. (I know of at least one college that will test a student and provide accommodations themselves.) One of my kids has been both a professor and advisor and only affirms my perspective on who to count on for accommodations and help.

Landmark School can refer you to an executive function or ADHD coach. It can be pricey. Many schools have tutors, advisors and coaches and, as you mentioned, peer mentors. Any of these can be really helpful.

I was also going to suggest community college classes that satisfy requirements in subjects like math and science. Some schools have easy classes in these areas for humanities majors.

Finally, two of my kids had reduced courseloads. One while attending full time at a top school and one in a part-time “adult learner” program.

Not understanding the structure of a class, missing deadlines, misinterpreting instructions etc. were all issues for my youngest (the kid with ADHD etc.) and a coach provided by the school was really helpful along with taking 2-3 classes at aa time. She finished strong!

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Just a thought…if there won’t be sufficient time for your D to do testing and ask for accommodations before the start of the fall semester might she consider adjusting her fall schedule to comprise mainly of courses in her areas of strength. Hopefully with testing and any appropriate accommodations put in place by the spring semester she could then be in a better position to tackle some of the more challenging (to her) classes.

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Every year professors at my college get a reminder about the ADA and accommodation procedures and parameters. We even have a list of the types of accommodations we can expect to see. The law simply states we need to provide “reasonable” accommodations. As @beebee3 mentioned, that gets interpreted quite widely and sometimes professors only agree to extra time or a distraction-free testing environment. The law is clear that we do not need to modify our syllabus, assignments, or teaching in any manner that we think compromises the course or our pedagogy.

That said, the help you’re looking for is not covered under course accommodations. I agree with others that what you seem to need falls under an outside academic or EF coach. Even if you provide updated documentation, it’s unlikely a professor will be able (or willing) to help with that. In the case of my university, we actually have staff and tutors in the academic resources center that will meet with any student (regardless of their documented disability status) and help them with organization and study skills. If there is a student that doesn’t understand the assignment or class material, we would expect to see them in our office hours for help, but we do not get into the executive functioning challenges. That doesn’t fall under a course accommodation. Each year I have several first-year students like your daughter that need that support to help make the transition to college, and the resource center and tutors are wonderful. But you should know that those issues are not considered part of our classroom or course, so we would expect those concerns addressed elsewhere.

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Just a thought- once she goes through the Disability Services office and get everything set up, have her ask if she’ll need to have an appointment with them each year or each semester. At my son’s school the office is understaffed and it takes weeks to get an appointment and get accommodations set up. He didn’t realize that he needed to do it each semester (not annually) so he was stressed out this spring semester when mid-terms were approaching and he still didn’t have official accommodations for the term. Also, have her talk to her professors during office hours and ask for suggestions on how she can succeed and what her accommodations will look like in their class

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I wanted to update this thread because many of you were so helpful.

D23 felt like her freshman year struggles were not related to her learning issues and that extra time etc wouldn’t really help. So she didn’t want more testing.

Instead, D23 met regularly this semester with the academic success office who helped her mostly with managing timelines and understanding assignments. She pulled off two Bs and two B+s and we are very proud of her hard work. She also has a part time internship for the next semester.

It has helped that she has stayed healthy so far this year, she was constantly ill her freshman year, and has been exercising regularly.

Still nervous for her lab science and math class which she’s managed to put off until junior year but I think she feels like she has the tools now to figure it out.

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Excellent! Such good news!!

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