[littlemissjess]

I'm in my sophmore year of high-school and ever since 3 years ago, I've been really close to failing classes, or just failing a grade overall, but somehow I've always managed to pass. But this year I failed History class by 1 point. I can't bring it up so now that leads to summer school. Grrr...

I never did any homework, because it all required reading. I can never keep attention to anything. I never notice it though. My boyfriend tries to help me, and my mom joked once that I had ADD, and my parents wanted to test me but they figured if I had ADD it would have been noticed when I was young.

Sometimes if people ask me things I say"What?" even when I knew what they said just cause I never understood it. I do that often. Or I'll repeat the question back to the person just so I can think of what the question means. I always got laughed at for making dumb comments, or I often say things then don't realize what I said because I didn't even think.

I don't want to blow off the 2 more years of my time in high-school with bad grades. If I have a problem, I want it to be fixed. I don't want my future down the drain just because of a problem that I never had fixed.

[LMo]

I don't know, Jess, but between you and the other post you just made in Depression, you sound like a terrific young woman!

My husband wasn't diagnosed with ADD until he was 31, so it's still worth the evaluation. Medication and ADD coaching have made a world of difference in his ability to move forward. He was really 'stuck' educationally and career-wise until he got some treatment.

You seem unusually mature with a good head on your shoulders.

Regardless of whether it ends up being ADD or behavioral, the fact that you are concerned and willing to do something to help yourself makes me really confident that you will have a successful future. You've already done a big portion of the hard work by making up your mind to find ways to succeed despite your learning differences.

I don't know if your parents can spring for it, but my former stepson was diagnosed with ADD when he was in 8th grade, and his parents sent him to a school for kids with learning disabilities -- but in a good way. There were kids with dyslexia, ADD, and some other conditions, but what was great about the school is that the classroom sizes were very small, and the teachers were well-educated in various teaching methods and learning styles, so they could adapt how they conveyed the information to each student and had different ways of evaluating progress than just standardized testing.

I'm here if you ever want to talk. You really sound cool.

[parsifal]

Hiya :-)

You might want to check out the criteria listed on this page:

http://gradda.home.isp-direct.com/sp94addu.html

What do you think?