W
Wonderful Family
Guest
difficult child is failing most of his classes and is in very real danger of failing 8th grade. He simply just doesn't do the work - both in school and out-of-school. He will do some on occassion; for example, 2 weeks ago I received a call from the prinicipal telling us how proud he was of difficult child for completing a huge assignment and how he was able to break it down to keep it manageable.
There appears to be no rhyme or reason for the issue and no consistency.
Punishment is meaningless, the few friends he hangs out with on rare occasions is not something to take away.
He's a pretty good kid for a difficult child overall, he doesn't sneak out, get into trouble, or cause problems for others - plus he's still afraid of the neighbors from incidents that happened 3+ years ago; he rarely leaves the house. He's unpleasant to live with, to say the least. But its generally just being nasty and rude; we're no longer talking explosions and raging.
And, in spite of everything, difficult child continues to have a good attitude at school and the teachers like him a lot.
IEP is in place, I did initially ask for placement at an alternative school when we registered him/started the IEP process again last Spring, but his testing is good and he has "proven" to the SD that he is capable. difficult child is currently in all co-taught classes and has a pretty good case manager.
difficult child says he isn't depressed; that he knows what it's like; that he just doesn't want to do the work.
Is it conceivable that a pretty good kid would actually make this choice without there being something else causing it? Of course, difficult child isn't talking.
This has been THE ongoing issue since kindergarten in everything.
I'm unsure how much intervention to put in place; letting him fail is a natural consequence, but too be honest, I don't know that this wouldn't be a disaster too. Most likely, we'll come-up with a few new ideas, but none of it solves or addresses the underlying problem (whatever the issue is). We don't want to enable him by giving too much intervention; and failing may be the "answer".
husband and I believe difficult child is doing better than we ever expected and is hanging in there behavior wise; many rough days, but still better than expected. We really thought we'd be picking up pieces by this point in time and visiting him at the phospital. He just had his "best birthday" since he was 1 and actually enjoyed himself, he's made a lot of headway. The overall improvements are why we struggle so much with trying to figure out the right way to handle this.
Any suggestions?
There appears to be no rhyme or reason for the issue and no consistency.
Punishment is meaningless, the few friends he hangs out with on rare occasions is not something to take away.
He's a pretty good kid for a difficult child overall, he doesn't sneak out, get into trouble, or cause problems for others - plus he's still afraid of the neighbors from incidents that happened 3+ years ago; he rarely leaves the house. He's unpleasant to live with, to say the least. But its generally just being nasty and rude; we're no longer talking explosions and raging.
And, in spite of everything, difficult child continues to have a good attitude at school and the teachers like him a lot.
IEP is in place, I did initially ask for placement at an alternative school when we registered him/started the IEP process again last Spring, but his testing is good and he has "proven" to the SD that he is capable. difficult child is currently in all co-taught classes and has a pretty good case manager.
difficult child says he isn't depressed; that he knows what it's like; that he just doesn't want to do the work.
Is it conceivable that a pretty good kid would actually make this choice without there being something else causing it? Of course, difficult child isn't talking.
This has been THE ongoing issue since kindergarten in everything.
I'm unsure how much intervention to put in place; letting him fail is a natural consequence, but too be honest, I don't know that this wouldn't be a disaster too. Most likely, we'll come-up with a few new ideas, but none of it solves or addresses the underlying problem (whatever the issue is). We don't want to enable him by giving too much intervention; and failing may be the "answer".
husband and I believe difficult child is doing better than we ever expected and is hanging in there behavior wise; many rough days, but still better than expected. We really thought we'd be picking up pieces by this point in time and visiting him at the phospital. He just had his "best birthday" since he was 1 and actually enjoyed himself, he's made a lot of headway. The overall improvements are why we struggle so much with trying to figure out the right way to handle this.
Any suggestions?
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