I’m sorry that I don’t have an answer but I did want you to know that your not the only one dealing with this. I actually was laughing b/c my son does the same and it takes everything in me to not scream when he errases the WHOLE answer to add the decimal. I was told to get him a tutor for math so maybe this is a suggestion for you as well. It’s hard to find someone w/ patience b/c it takes a lot of patience to work with him. Just thought I should share b/c I thought it was only my son.

Well, let me add that my son (12 years) is EXACTLY the same….so this is good to know that it is now just me. 

And I will echo the other mom’s here as my 9 yr old son has similar struggles.  I would say it is less with math as it is with perfectionism.  Things for my son greatly improved this year with medication, but the past few years it was a daily struggle with homework.  There were days that I DID yell!  Not proud of it….but true. 

Do you have an IEP?  Or does he qualify for an aide to be with him for math class?  Either way, I guess my question is, if private tutoring is cost prohibitive, can you get him a tutor at the school?

Best of luck!

Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories. jmhaag, it sounds like your son is working very hard at math but facing some real frustrations because it’s just not clicking. It could be that his learning style is more visual or that he’s just overwhelmed by all the steps involved in solving a problem and that, by walking him through the problem, you’re helping him break the problem into manageable chunks.

Either way, it seems that he could use some classroom accommodations to help him visualize and break-up math problems better at school. Here are some additional ADHD-friendly math tricks that you might also discuss with his teacher.

Good luck!

My son is exactly the opposite, He is a whiz at math and is in the advanced courses . But none of that matters when it comes to his hw. They want him to show his work or they won’t accept it and he refuses because he says he doesn’t need to.(which is true but I think the teachers want to make sure he’s not cheating or doing the problems in the proper manner for later more difficult problems but he doesn’t care) on top of it the teacher believes that repetition is the key to learning something but my son gets it right away and so with the attention span of max 10 min.s he does maybe 10% and stops. There’s also graphing involved which he can do but to him is timeconsuming and what’s the point kind of thing. Consequently, although he aces all the tests and quzzes he got a D- in Algebra last semester.

So now we have enrolled him in an online accredited school which he is just starting, so he can go at his own pace although their is a limit of 1 year to complete a course! I certainly wouldn’t want him to take that long although he would if he could, because i’ll be the first to say he’s lazy as hell. So I don’t know how this is going to work for him but for someone struggling, it may give your son the extra time he needs to learn without having the pressure of staying up with everybody else, on top of it the online atmosphere is one where you can contact your teacher immediately by phone or email and they must reply in 24 hrs. It’s pretty cool. And some of their graduates have gone on to Yale, Dartmouth etc.

The program/curriculum is actually called K-12 and they have several different online communities both public (no cost) and private(low to high cost), for example we enrolled and it’s costing us 2000 + for the year, the famous Georgetown University in Washington DC also has an online program that costs 9000+ a year. Their are also online hybrid schools if yor lucky enough to have online saellite school near you. We have one in Honolulu, called the Myron B Thompson Academy, which was unfortunately full for the rest of this year, so we ended up enrolling in long distance but next year we are going to switch to the local online school. Now in that situation, they still do most of their studies
online, but they also have times when they have to go to the school building itself for certain experiments, tests, or field trips.

There are so many otions out there and theyve been perfecting this online schooling for years now and if Georgetown University is using the same curriculum, the k-12 program as these other online schools, then it must be pretty good although I’m sure Georgetown probably offers alot more electives and such.

Also, my son passed the SCAT test for John’s Hopkins University talent search which you can enter if you are above the 90 th percentile in at least one subject in your local ERB tests or whatever state tests your child takes. After you take the JHU’s SCAT tests, if you score high in a particular subject or subjects, you can take online courses at JHU at your school, in place of the particular subject, and still take your regular school courses, and I heard this year that JHU, too, have started an online highschool but it’s too expensive for us. My son did the SCAT test in fifth grade and scored in English and Math at an eight grade level.

Meanwhile, in public school he is getting d’s an c’s even though he is on a 504 plan. He has 30 kids in his class and none of his teachers are equipped to handle the ADD syle of learning. I just think that sometimes, depending on the public school our ADHD kids are getting lost through the cracks and since most of us can’t afford private school (my son thrived in private school but we can’t afford it anymore,so now he goes to public), the online schools are worth looking into, but you must do the research. By the way, next year when my son enrolls in our local online school, same K-12 curriculum, this particular school is FREE and it was recommended to us by his therapist because it has a good reputation, Don’t give up, it may be a change of scenery he needs, or like you said just a tutor , but their are alot of options out there and better to do something now than when highschool starts. Dylan is in the 8th grade which is why we changed now.

I hope this wasn’t too long but I tend to keep going when i get started     But I must tell you I don’t know how this online school is going to work for my child because he is very unmotivated about anything, and i was hesitant because he I think motivation is a strong factor when you have to be held accountable for yourself but at this point he can either stay where he’s getting d’s and c’s or try this.

My motto is Where there’s a will (whether it’s yours or your childs) There’s a way. But eventually, Dylan has to learn this for himself to survive in the real world.

My 11 yr old son is the opposite, he excels at Math but, is behind in reading. He says the same things “I’m stupid and annoying”. Then acts up, so he doesn’t have to read, he would rather clean toilets.  It’s easier put it off then let the others see that you’re having difficulty with it
If your son gets it when you sit with him, that may be what he needs, your helping him to focus on what he’s doing the specific math problem and not letting him sit there and stare at the 100 numbers and words on the page. I know that it was said in another post, but ask his teacher if there is an 8th grader that is good at math and can work with your son at lunch or after school for help . That wouldn’t cost you a dime.  Good luck!