What do you do when your child won't try?

[2lplvr]

My son has had some assessments done with school and we will find out the results next week. I am fairly certain he is ADD. He looks at his work and is immediately overwhelmed and refuses to even try to accomplish things that he really does understand. I am sad for him and about to :gaah: :gaah: :gaah: for myself.

I am at the end of my rope and it is just the first day back :cry:

[FabTXMomma]

What I do with Connor:
The first thing I try is to break it down.
Even if it means having him only do one problem or read one line, and then take a five minute break.

Also, I try to do those things I KNOW he can do successfully at the beginning and end of each session that I'm working on homework with him. So that he doesn't start out struggling and so his last memory of doing homework isn't of struggling.

I also am sure to be clear about what my expectation is. If he doesn't understand how much work I'm expecting him to do, he gets overwhelmed and quits on me. If I explain to him beforehand, do this one, then take a break, and then you can come back and try another one, he's more willing to try. We have a visual schedule that shows him exactly how many worksheets he has to do or pages he has to read so he can SEE that he's getting through it and how much more he has to do to be finished.

And if your son is having this problem at school, he probably needs a 504 with some accomodations and modifications to help him not be overwhelmed there. You can research these through ADD support groups. I believe ADDA-SR may have a section on their web site about school work.

HTH

[Cadam]

Can you sit with him, give him uncluttered worksheets with few things on them. For math MUS is really good because the pages are very simple, and have no drawings or anything. Also I have only seen between 9 and 16 problems per page so it doesn't look so overwhelming.

Covering most of the page with a piece of plain paper might help. You have to cut down the emotion of being overwhelmed. As a kid what is the point of trying if you think you are sure to fail? Lots of encouragement for good effort once he does any at all.