Rocket Math Blues

Katie is feeling really down on herself lately over "Rocket Math", a timed drill with approximately 20-25 addition &/or subtraction problems they are given a minute to complete.  Apparently there are different levels, when you can complete sheet A in one minute, you move up to sheet B, then C, and so on.  Katie came home crying because she is still on sheet A, and most of her friends are nearing the end of the alphabet.  She knows the answers, she just cannot complete it within that one minute, so she's been stuck at that first level all year.  Poor Luv!  She feels really stupid and is embarrassed  to have her friends know what level she is on.  She says she never wants to go to school again.  I need to be looking into the best place to get her some further evaluation.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Uh oh, not so good this time.  Both girls had less than stellar reports this time through, and both for the same reason, lack of focus and organization.  Katie's reading at a 2nd grade level, top in her class, and consistently proves that she knows how to do all of her work, and gets the right answers, when tested one-on-one with the teacher, but cannot seem to get anything done during regular class time. She is far too distracted by everything going on around her.  She gets through about 1/4 to 1/3 of a worksheet in the time it takes the rest of the class to finish, then forgets to bring the work home to finish, or refuses to do it when she does bring it home!  Or if she does get something done at home, it sits in her folder and she forgets to hand it in! 

I don't know whether this is straight ADD, which definitely runs in our family, or if it's the sensory over-stimulation causing the problem.  Think of how difficult it would be to work on a timed math quiz when you are hearing the buzz of the lights above you, feeling the tag in your shirt and the seams in your socks, having to concentrate on the weight of the pencil in your hand and the correct amount of pressure to use to write with it and not break it.  She cannot tune out the extraneous information her body is perceiving the way most of us do.  It is so hard to see her struggle like this.