I need to get something that will help my 17 year old son with his studies, he does not have a reliable and consistent method of studying and needs to manage his time and method of study for each of his subjects. Another major problem is he forgets to do homework sometimes and other times he forgets to hand them in and other times he misplaces them, any links to where I can get help for this or can anyone here recommend anything please? Thanks.

Welcome, Mike!

I know a thread with a great list of things people do to help them study.

A routine would probably be good for him, because once he gets into the routine (for example) coming home, having a snack and then doing his homework he most likely won't forget :)

Part of the routine could also be:
His homework should be done in the same place, a place that's not too distracting.
As soon as the homework is done for each class, it goes straight into the backpack/bag, so it doesn't get forgotten at home or misplaced.

I also have post it notes everywhere to remind me to do things.

A timer works well for me to help manage studying. I'll study for 30 minutes, get a 15 minute break, resume studying for 30 minutes, etc.
This helps so I don't get too bored with studying and I get sufficient breaks.

A chart may help. Put it in the place he does homework. The chart can list each class, whether or not he has homework for it that day, if he did the homework or not and if the finished homework is in his backpack/bag.

Here's the link to studying tips:

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12764

Mike, I also have a 17 yo boy and you just described him to a tee. Anyway, I completely understand what you are going through. WE have tried the routine, and about to try it again. We now have him on Adderall XR, 20mg. We have tried to avoid meds, but have finally decided with this being his junior year, failed two classes, that we need to help him. New semester will start next week. One thing to add that you may want to do is, set up a file folder on the counter so when he is done with his homework, he places it in there and you can check over it. Then have him put it directly in his folder for each subject and in the back pack. We will be starting this also. Good luck.

Thanks for the responses you guys. Ok, first

@livinginchaos
Thanks for the link on the studying tips and also your recommendations, will go look at the link now and try to develop something for him so he can start working on it tonight.

@Sherigraph
So sorry to hear that anyone else has to go through what I have been going through with my boy for the past 12 years of his schooling, they say "misery loves company" but I truly wish this on NO ONE! He has been taking Strattera for a while now and this only helps him a little "in school" during classtime. I have cut the everyday ties from him becuase I was told by College Professors that if I don't do it now, then this fall when he is in College I shouldn't be surprised if he fails any or all of his classes seeing then that he will be on his own. Prior to this Last report card, he had maintained 84.5% but this last report card he got 83.7 so he did not do too bad on his own, the reason why his grade dropped was the usual complaint, "missing" homeworks.

The thing is, even if I were to check every day to see if he has placed his HW in his backpack, this will not help much because the HW dissapears somewehre between home and school so "he" has to come up with something else on his own.

Will keep you guys posted on how it goes, in the meantime if anyone has any inputs/advice/opinions I will be only too glad to listen to anything that might help, thanks.

Mike, one thing you could do, if possible is e-mail all his teachers and explain to them what is happening. Have them ask your son before he leaves the classroom, to hand them his assignment. If he says he doesn't have it, then they can contact you. It is alot of work, believe me, I totally understand. This has always been a struggle with our son. Just got worse as he got older. This year, he has his first girlfriend too. We really have to try and make a daily routine for them. We tried him on Strattera in 8th grade. It seemed to help at the beginning, then stopped. Tried again in 9th, did the same thing. I am sure hoping with Adderall, that it helps him. New semester next week. New beginning. I talked to an uncle of mine, and he said he was the same way in high school. Then went to college and figured out what HE wanted to do, got A's. I think it helps if it is something they are interested in they end up doing better. I wouldn't want to wish this on anyone either. It is alot of work.

Been there, done all of that Sherigraph. We are in different situations here, yours is a Junior and you are doing now what I have been doing for the past 11 years or so, meaning, staying in constant communication with his teahers [on a weekly basis]. Again, in order to prepare my son to handle College in 8 months from now, he has to develop and maintain proper study habits right now and on his own.


I do know for a fact that, like in the case of your Uncle, myself and my wife [we are both ADHD cases] that our son will eventually outgrow this, the question is "when"? We need him to outgrow this soon and not much later so until that happens, we have to prepare him as best as we can for College, this is our priority right now.

I understand. I know I should back off a bit, but for now, that isn't going to happen. We have also been working with him for what seems like forever. It is an every day struggle. Like you said, we still at least have another year to hopefully get him doing all this on his own. I am hoping by his senior year, I am not on him. I sure hope it all works out for your son. It will. It isn't that he will outgrow it, it is that he will have learned how to deal with it. As for my son and college, I think he may take a year off, work full time. Maybe take an evening class while working. Get his foot in the door, or even join the service. Good luck.

Whatever I do from here on in, maybe you try it on yours too? I will post and up date this thread so you will be able to follow everything, hopefully yours might be able to use something from this thread that might help him, remember he still has some time before College to get it together? Stay tuned.

I do know for a fact that, like in the case of your Uncle, myself and my wife [we are both ADHD cases] that our son will eventually outgrow this, the question is "when"? We need him to outgrow this soon and not much later so until that happens, we have to prepare him as best as we can for College, this is our priority right now.I wonder if college right off is necessarily the only, or even best, choice. I personally didn't go to college until I was 22 -- with 5 years in the military in between -- but I went from a 1.87 GPA in high school to a 3.96 GPA in college, and at a top uni at that... if I had gone straight into college, I will guarantee that I would have flunked out in short order.

Sometimes kids just aren't ready. ADHD is a "developmental disorder," and that means that it may take them longer to be ready for life's stages than their peers.

Yeah, I have heard the same drom a lot of other ADHD cases but I fear that if I only mention this as an option to my son that he will follow in my footsteps as I too was accepted into University and quit [not fail], after the first year in order to work intending on going back to school after a short while, it never happened! I am now 43 years old without a specialty so this is not an option for my son and it is not up to him, the good thing is he "wants" to go to College, he is a QB and is eagerly looking forward to College Football more than anything else. I "only":) have to get him to study properly.

Livinginchaos, thanks, I got quite a few good pointers from the link which I believe may help my son, they are, in order of importance:

1] Come to class prepared [so review the work the night before].

2] Start taping the classes [might as well start now to get into the habit for when in College].

3] Sit in Front [He has already been doing this in all of his classes].

4] Understand what you are studying until you can teach it to someone else.

5] Take practice tests and study more of what you got wrong.

6] Get together with a more studious and better organized student.

7] Get into study groups.

8] Read a chapter, ask yourself to recite everything back in your head, what you forget, go back and skim through it again and repeat this procedure until everything sticks.

9] When is class, write "outlines" and when you get home, expand them.

10] Writing things down might be a better way to remember.

11] Take a break every half hour to refocus or be able to concentrate better.

Now, I have to go set up a "time" schedule for each subject and using the guides above, let's see how this will go, will report back here.
p.s. I still need something to help with him remembering to hand in his homework and on time, any ideas?

I'm glad you got a lot out of that thread, Mike!

It will be great to hear how your son is doing with all this.

Hmm . . remembering to turn in homework.

What if he had a homework folder? Any homework to be turned in needs to go in that one folder. That folder accompanies him to all classes. He should be responsible for checking that folder each class to see if he needs to turn anything in.

Good luck to you and your son!!

Livinginchaos, I like that idea about the folder for only homework to be turned in. We were trying to figure out how to do that. We told him to put all his assignments he gets from class in one folder and when he gets home and is done with it, then we will put it in the correct folder for each class. Although I like the one folder better that goes to each class with him. Thank you. Also, one of the problems I have found with my son is, I ask him if something is done, he says yes, I ask him if it was turned in, he says yes. Then I find out it wasn't because I e-mailed the teacher. Just like this for instance. In English they had a service project to perform, which he did. Then they had to put it together and present to class. Had certain things they had to have done. Well, he never got it presented. Says when he got back to class after christmas break that there were still about 5 of them that didn't do it. She evidently told them to turn it all in and she would go over it. I still have him listed as it MISSING. I e-mailed her the other day, got a responce today. She says He hasn't said anything to her about the project. Ok, what I don't understand, why doesn't she get with him and find out what is up instead of just leaving it as missing? Without this grade, he is failing the class. So, I have explained to her about his being ADD and now on meds, and she is willing to work with us and with him to try and get things figured out. I will keep you posted.

I had tried the folder for HW but he would forget to take the folder to school and even when he did, he still wouldn't remember to hand in the HW. I had and still have the "lying" issues as Sherigraph mentioned with my son with regards to handing in HW and my sitaution is exactly as she describes hers. Regarding getting help from the school, the teachers said they would help but did not, I never got much help from the school even with my son being a 504 case, there were one ot two teachers in the past who delivered but for the most part the excuse always were that the Teachers were either too busy or forget to do what they promised so it still comes back to your child having to do it on his own.Sherigraph, I sincerely hope you get the help you need.

I haven't done the 504. You are right, once in awhile you find an awesome teacher and the rest, well, to busy or forget like you said. Last year his Geometry teacher was one of the good ones. She kept me up to date weekly, let me know if there was a class on ADD that I might be interested in, etc.... RARE. I know that they do need to do it on their own also, but I still need to give the boost as needed. My son, like yours I am sure, is a good kid. Doesn't cause much trouble, not into drugs/drinking, doesn't stay out much past curfew, unless he calls. I guess I am pretty lucky. Just need to stay on him for now.

Sherigraph, if I didn't know better I would swear we were talking about the very same kid. I don't really have any problems with mine except to get him to both read and study, everyone who knows him knows that he is very bright/intelligent but the laziness/forgetfullness is mainly what's holding him back. I was told by one social worker that it's mainly because his average is always above 80% that is the reason why the school will not help him as much as they will help another kid who is making "under" that or failing. So what does this translate into? For me? This means that as far as the school/system is concerned, forget about having kids reach their potential, as long as they do "ok", this is all that matters!

The above is what infuriates me, knowing that my son is easily capable of having an average of above 90% and that will only a little effort from the school, he could have achieved this. I am glad you see the need to "stay with your son for now", as parents of ADD kids who have such great potential, we CANNOT give up on them, I have to step back for the reasons explained earlier but I will be on top of his situation at all times especially when he's in College, I already told him that if I have to go sit with him during his classes, I will do it becuase come hell or highwater, he WILL graduate from College as long as I am alive, it is NOT up to him, he does not have a choice!

I realize that many parents will disagree with my methods but this is MY child involved here and I simply refuse to let him fail! Sorry for the caps. So yes Sherigraph, in my humble opinion, if you want to make sure he succeeds, YOU have to do the pushing and monitoring for if not you, then who?:)

I completely agree with you on the going to college. My son does want to go anyway, it isn't that he doesn't. We have also been told that he is very bright. I know he is smarter than his grades show. He reminds me so much of me at his age. I too struggled. I didn't fail, but I got by. It does sound like we are talking about the same kid. Amazing. When he has certain teachers, once he just gets behind or doesn't understand something, he almost certainly will quit. His Algebra II teacher is really good. This is his first year keeping a B average in math. Usually he will hold a D average or maybe a C here and there in it. She says he has alot of potential and she said he at times seems bored. He says that is because most of the kids in his class seem to NEED more help than him. I thought about putting him in Advanced Algebra, but since he has always struggled, I wasn't sure. I think he is in between them. I also agree that I think there are those parents who just give up and I can't do that. Even though at times I feel I want to just throw up my hands and give up. This morning I took him to school a littel early because I told him he had to go talk to his English teacher and find out what is up with his Service Project grade. He NEEDS that. I told him I want him to get her to write down his grade or that she at least received it and would get it graded. I hope.

ok, just for fun, let me jot down the "negative" things and other characteristics which I am trying to work on with my son:

1] Is very bright [This is usually the case with all or most ADHD people in general].

2] Does not live up to his potential.

3] Tend to want to quit or as my wife puts it "bury his head in the sand" whenever he don't understand something.

4] Will not fight everytime for something he needs or when something gets difficult he tends to try to hide or avoid.

5] Is lazy except for when something interests him.

6] Often distracted and gets bored easily in school.

7] Is not destructive in any shape or form, keeps away from trouble.

8] Is a great kid, popular among his friends/schoolmates and is well liked by his peers and anyone who knows him.

9] Tells lies concerning his school stuff.

10] Is a very hard and diligent worker if working with something he likes.

11] Depends on mommy and daddy to do a lot of things for him.

12] Is very oppositional when it comes to doing household chores or cleaning his room e.t.c.

Does the above or most of it sum up yours?

Most of the above does sum up my son exactly. The difference is this,

1) He isn't usually oppositional about doing household chores, as long as I write them down, he is ok with them. When he is asked to clean his room, it isn't always cleaned. At least not all things are picked up. I have tried not to worry to much with this, as long as dirty laundry and any dirty dish \ pop cans he may have gets brought up.

2)Depends on Mom and dad. Always. Partly our fault for allowing it. He is now finding out it is changing due to certain kids he has hung out with lately and had issues with vehicles. He is helping to pay for anything that needs repairing. Even though he says it isn't his fault. Well, part growing up is learning to be more responsible and taking responsibility of getting things fixed with your money. We just recently had to tell him he is no longer allowed to hang out with a certain kid. Hate to do that, but also don't want my son to go down the wrong path.

One thing he has started doing with us now is debating issues. Which is ok. He gives his point, we give ours.
Do we have clones or were our children seperated at birth. My son was born 7/25/88

Mine is Sept. 30, 88. Whenever I "force" mine to clean his desk/room which is usually every week, he does it kinda unwillingly but half-assed for sure. Weird thing is, he started working part-time as a Cashier since last summer at a McDonalds and whenever I ask his boss about his performance, only reply I get is "can't be any better" so I am wondering how can a kid who can't even clean his room without being forced to and who can't clean it properly be such an efficient employee?

The good thing I take from this is, that he is already showing signs from an early age that he will/should make it in the working world when he grows up, my point to you here is, that even though it looks grim right now, these kids usually turn out to be great and succesfull employees/adults/friends/family men just as long as we keep them on track!

My son started working part-time at Taco Johns last summer. He seemed to enjoy it for quite awhile. Then they started with new people. Fast food places have high turnovers anyway. He said they are all dorks. Yes, that is what he said. Anyway, I believe he worked there ok. Had an incidence where his boss called me. Ryan was scheduled to work to midnight. My son decided he didn't want to work that late, so he tried to find someone to take his spot, that didn't work and he told his boss that we needed a babysitter. I have a 6 yo and a 15 yo too. I told her Hmmmm, I didn't know that. Caught me off guard, and plus, he needs to be honest anyway. What happened for him to lose his job was, he gave me his schedule, I wrote it in my calendar. I wrote it wrong. He showed up at work to eat with his girlfriend and her mom. The boss saw him and told him he had 10 min. to come to work or be fired. He said he had to take them home he could be in by 30 min. or less. They didn't like that, so he quit. Needless to say, he has been job hunting again. He does have an interview at Pizza Hut today. My husband has been staying on top of things with him more now. I get to frustrated at times. I just don't want him to turn out like my dad, never consistant, to many wives, not in his kids lives, etc........ I don't see that happening because at least he has us.

So sorry to hear that Sherigraph so I guess I am very lucky with mine. Most of the parents I speak to who have similar issues with their kids tell me what I have told you, that ADHD kids usually turn out great, it takes a while and it takes some doing but it should work out all right. Myself, my wife and her brother and sister, we were ALL lousy students in High school and only started "serious" studying in College and we all have as good work histories as ou can find and solid family/social lives, the same is true for friends and relatives of imne who are also ADHD so the trend seems to suggest that we struggle in our younger years but outgrow it or something in our mature years which is why I have to have faith that mine will do ok later on.

Now this is unbelievable, same exact story with my dad!

I sure hope so. I believe in my son. Just needs some growing up to do. We didn't start him in school until he was six. That is why he is one grade lower than your son. He is at his job interview now, I HOPE>

What Uminchu had written in this thread earlier:

"I wonder if college right off is necessarily the only, or even best, choice. I personally didn't go to college until I was 22 -- with 5 years in the military in between -- but I went from a 1.87 GPA in high school to a 3.96 GPA in college, and at a top uni at that... if I had gone straight into college, I will guarantee that I would have flunked out in short order.

Sometimes kids just aren't ready. ADHD is a "developmental disorder," and that means that it may take them longer to be ready for life's stages than their peers."

This very true and is great advice but THE only reason why I cannot risk this is becuase I can't take a chance on what happened to me should happen to him, even though we ADD'ers have common traits, not everything is the same with us. In my son's case, if he's interested in something he will go after it but if anything happens that intereferes with the process and he has to take a detour from it, he almost surely will not come back to it and even if he does, his efforts will definitely not be the same so this is why I can't do or say anything to him that might deter him from going to College this year. Other than that, then yes, I would have suggested that he do something else until later on when he's more mature and ready to go to College.

You need to do what you feel is right for you guys Mike. If he knows what he wants, and will work at it, then go. My son might go to college right away, I really don't know yet. We just are thinking of his options. Next week starts the new semester, three same classes, and three new classes. The ones that are the same he is actually doing ok in. One, English, has been a little more struggle up at the end, but hopefully that is getting taken care of. So, out with the old, in with the new. Stay on top of things. It sure has been nice posting here with you, since we seem to have sons so much alike. With the exception of their grade.

This very true and is great advice but THE only reason why I cannot risk this is becuase I can't take a chance on what happened to me should happen to him, even though we ADD'ers have common traits, not everything is the same with us. In my son's case, if he's interested in something he will go after it but if anything happens that intereferes with the process and he has to take a detour from it, he almost surely will not come back to it and even if he does, his efforts will definitely not be the same...I can see your point. I was in a phd program and took "a year off" -- this was around 7 years ago, and I have no intentions of going back... But in my case, no regrets. I decided that the career path after that phd wasn't for me, and I make a lot more money now anyway.

In your son's case, it sounds like you are worried that he will take a few years off, then get married and have kids, and that will interfere with going back to college. That's a valid worry. I was married in college, and that didn't stop me from going, but my son was born while I was doing my phd, and that certainly was a factor in my quitting -- even though now I am glad I did.

I guess that risk balances against the risk of not getting through college as an 18 year-old, or not doing as well as he could have. But of course you know your son and your own history. In my case, right out of HS even going to the (third tier) local state college seemed like a lofty goal, given my HS grades. But after stewing in the military for 5 years, I got out, went to community college, and succeeded at transfering into Stanford... no way in Hades I would have managed that at 17. So my experiences will probably influence how I advise my own son. But I am hoping he won't need the military to get his act together. :)

See, that is what we are concerned about with our son. Not sure he is going to be ready right out of high school. Unless he starts becoming more motivate the rest of his junior then his senior year. I wasn't ready right out of high school, so I went into the Army Reserves. Then after being out 2 yrs, I did dental assistanting school.

I need to get something that will help my 17 year old son with his studies, he does not have a reliable and consistent method of studying and needs to manage his time and method of study for each of his subjects. Another major problem is he forgets to do homework sometimes and other times he forgets to hand them in and other times he misplaces them, any links to where I can get help for this or can anyone here recommend anything please? Thanks.
I'm in that boat with you, I find that I do not lack the motivation to study at night, I lack the means. Quite simply, my symptoms return as the night goes on, and I will start transposing numbers, interpreting things wrong, or flat out not understanding what I'm trying to do. I am thinking about paying for a prescription of adderall IR to take at night to increase my study time...

Adam, are you not on any meds for your ADD then? My son is doing better right now with his Adderall XR. He still isn't overly motivated, but he is smart. Which even if he doesn't seem to me to be spending alot of time on school work, that is fine, as long as I see grades are ok, and assignments are turned in.

Adam, are you not on any meds for your ADD then? My son is doing better right now with his Adderall XR. He still isn't overly motivated, but he is smart. Which even if he doesn't seem to me to be spending alot of time on school work, that is fine, as long as I see grades are ok, and assignments are turned in.
No, no, lol. I'm on Adderall XR 25mg (read: signature), but I take it at 5-6 AM, and I usually stop experiencing it's effects enough to work on homework around 6-7 PM. I have 2 siblings at my mothers (I live with my mother, full time) both below the age of 5, and my mother seems to think that I should bear the burden with her, so I can't always get my homework finished, or even started, by the time my Adderalls effects are wearing off...

I'm hoping to get an IR prescription to supplement myself with at the end of the day so I can work later...

I had read that at the signature, was just rechecking. Can they give you a stronger dose to make it last longer? I am guessing your mom is not married, so that is why she thinks you should be responsible to help with your siblings. My kids are 17 1/2, 15 and 6. I have never made my older two responsible for the youngest. That isn't to say I don't ask them to watch her once in awhile. If I ask them to babysit, rarely, they usually get paid. Good luck on getting something to help you in the evenings. So far, 20 mg seems to be ok for my son. Although, no way would I be able to get him up at 5 or 7 am. I am lucky to just drag his butt out at 7am.

Ever since my son started HS, I have been on his case to at LEAST get an average of OVER 85%, he has never done that mainly because of all of the missing homeworks which he did but never handed in, his averages were always around 82-83%, last report card he came close [84.6%] and last week we found out that FINALLY he crossed 85 and this is while he still had Track and comes home at around 8pm so maybe, Uminchu [and everyone else of course], maybe [hopefully] the "maturity" concept which we discussed here earlier is finally starting to kick in? If so, it would be great if this could happen by September!!:)

... last week we found out that FINALLY he crossed 85 and this is while he still had Track and comes home at around 8pm so maybe, Uminchu [and everyone else of course], maybe [hopefully] the "maturity" concept which we discussed here earlier is finally starting to kick in? If so, it would be great if this could happen by September!!:)Great news, Mike! Actually, I hadn't realized how well he had been doing. If the low 80s is still a B average, he would seem to be in pretty good shape to give college a shot. Cs and Ds I would be more worried about.

In one of my earlier posts I had mentioned that he has always maintained an average above 80 in HS [was a straight A student every year in Elementary] but he is very much capable of getting and maintaining an average anywhere in the 90's in HS if he would only apply himself and this is what is frustrating me, D's, he's never gotten in his life, got only a few C's in HS, also becuase he does NOT study, I have absolutely NO idea as to why he is making the Grades he's been getting, he's always been a "Test" kid, meaning he always does good, sometimes great on tests/exams and this is without any real preparation, I simply can't explain it but I always keep telling him that if he can make those grades with such little effort then imagine how far he can get if he puts in a decent effort, most people seem to think that either I am expecting too much or making a fuss over nothing! It's the "potential" that is there that's making me see this as a waste of talent.:mad:

In one of my earlier posts I had mentioned that he has always maintained an average above 80 in HS [was a straight A student every year in Elementary]...Who me, pay attention? :D

So yeah, working to potential requires something called motivation; and motivation to work toward a future (largely intangible) goal requires maturity. But if he can make it going through the motions until the old maturity kicks in, and without making him burn out and drop out after he's 18, then I would say that's a good thing.

Who me, pay attention? :D

and without making him burn out and drop out after he's 18, then I would say that's a good thing.That is THE only reason why I don't pressure him! I mainly eat away at "myself" and have lost most of the hair on my head in doing so :mad: I have already told him that when he is College, all I will want then is for him to simply pass his courses, I will not be concentrating on him getting A's mainly becuase when you get a Degree and go for a job, it won't matter much what GPA you would have had in College or am I wrong?

p.s. I will be signing off now for today, got to go help him with his College Essay so will reply to any answers tomorow, have a great night everyone!

That is THE only reason why I don't pressure him! Sounds like you have a pretty good grasp of it. :)

I will not be concentrating on him getting A's mainly becuase when you get a Degree and go for a job, it won't matter much what GPA you would have had in College or am I wrong?Sounds about right. I am self employed, so this might not apply for everyone, but I found that people were interested in my fancy college degree for about 2 years. After that, I can't recall ever being asked whether I have even graduated from college, let alone from which college or what my grades were.

But I will say that in those first two years or so, having the sheepskin opened doors that would have been closed to someone with my experience.

As for grades, I don't think many people care, about the only exception being graduate schools. Sure, some very few companies will ask for transcripts. And being able to tack on an "Honors" or one of those Cum Laude thingies probably wouldn't hurt when you're trying to get your foot in the door.

Thanks for the info, will keep it in mind. My son is not the serious study type, he doesn't read unless it's something that grabs his attention so I will leave it up to him if he decides to become an A or B student in College, he will have more than he can handle to deal with so as long as he passes his courses, this will be fine by me, I will relay that piece of info to him so he will know that getting top grades can be of help later on!

I have tried not to put the pressure on my son. It seems to make things worse. Then I am a nag, and he regresses. He is doing really well right now in this 3rd quarter. I have always asked for them doing the best they can. If getting a C meant they did their best, then hey, good job. He has usually been a C/some D's student. I think he got tired of trying cause he would say it doesn't help. Now with his Adderall, he is holding mostly A's right now. He really feels good about that too. I know he is smart, just has the inattentive ADD. Mike, your son will be ok. Sometimes I think that we as parents want so much for them to succeed, they get to a point of, not doing their best. They really have to want it, then watch out world, here they come. I see in my son right now more confidence because of how much better he is doing. NOw, If I could just get him to pick up his room better without being asked to. Oh well. Can't have it all at once I guess.

My son is also not the reading type. Hates it to be honest. I always thought it was because he was a poor reader, but actually when tested in school, he tested high. My daughter was my reader, but didn't test as high as him. If he does find something of interest, he will read, but for him, I think he thinks it is a waste of time. He reads only when he has to for school.

Yup, same deal, so I am truly glad that you are seeing that yours is very well capable of achieving his potential [maintaing A's], just needs whatever help that works.

Now I wish we would have done this sooner, but can't think that way. We did what we thought was right at the time. Didn't really want him to be on meds, but like a friend said to me, If he was diabetic, wouldn't you put him on insulin? Well, yes. So that takes care of ADD and Adderall. I think what we are most happy about, is seeing him seeming to be happier, and more talkative with us.