Quote From: tissuetechI am having quite a time with my 13 year old son. He failed 7th grade last year and is off to a poor start this year with 2 f's and 2 d's on his first report card of the year. "We" spent the first half of the year last year punished from all activities, and it really showed no results. The second half I decided to try reward for the good grades that he did make but that didn't help either. When the report cards came it was always bad. HELP!!!! He does seem to have somewhat of a concentration problem, and several of my friends and relatives suggest I have him evaluated for attention deficit disorder........any thoughts???
Do you have regular communication with his teachers? Does the first hint of a problem come when you see the report card? By then it's too late. Our school system sends out "midterm" progress reports when the marking period is supposedly half over, but even those arrive too late.
I have plenty of ideas of things to try, but first you have to figure out WHY he's failing. Is he just not doing the homework (because he's lazy)? Or maybe he missed something in a previous grade and he needs extra help getting caught up. He could be feeling overwhelmed and doesn't know where to start to get things turned around. What were his grades like before 7th grade? If he's been struggling for a long time, maybe he has an undiagnosed learning disability.
That why I think you should start by talking to his teachers. Request a face to face meeting. Find out what they think the problem is. If you're not satisfied with their answers, you can request that the school conduct a formal evaluation.
Also, ask your son what he thinks the problem is. And really listen to what he says. You might learn something valuable.
