Did you/do you zone out in class?

Post Reply New Topic

devster21, my son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at age five.

mmaestro, you wrote exactly what I am thinking. He is happy at school, and I think the homework situation is just the price we will have to pay. I know what you mean about the possibility of me not knowing if he's being bullied or not -- I never knew that my oldest son was bullied in elementary school, because he always came home happy and hid his problems very well. We have a great network in school of a speech teacher who is teaching social skills to my son (and others), and we are in constant contact with the teachers. My son has a network of three friends that he spends lunch with daily, and I ask him about lunch relatively often. I'm fairly sure that he's doing OK socially.

Our older son DEFINITELY had/has Asperger's, before it was diagnosable, and he hid his social problems at school. He was the kind of Aspie that got terrific grades, even when he would forget to hand in assignments and was scattered. Our younger son is MUCH more easy going, the kind of kid that when he gets a C on a test, and I'm looking at it like "Man, this isn't very good" HE pats ME on the back, as if to say "It's OK Mom, it's not so bad"! I don't think he's bored, and he's not academically gifted (although he does well in school when he is prepared for tests or assignments) -- I really just think that he almost physically cannot pay attention when there's a crowd of people. He definitely can't do the problems already -- if that were the case, I wouldn't care much if he were zoning out in class. He can't do homework with lots of noise going on. When he's at church at a social activity, he spaces out a lot and just quietly looks for a smaller group to hang out with, in a quieter location, rather than the huge crowd having dinner in the gym, etc.

He does do better in some classes. English comes easy to him. Reading is improving, although writing journal entries is still a struggle. Social studies is usually fine because the teacher is highly animated. Science is a struggle because the teacher is boring, but that is the class he is most interested in. The one we are really struggling with is Math. The teacher is EXCELLENT, but our son is not paying any attention in class. The teacher will go over problems in class to prepare the kids for their homework, but every night he comes home with math homework, I have to reteach whatever it is that was taught that day in class. This is OK this year, but next year, I'm going to reach my limit of math ability. My husband is brilliant at math, but is gone two days out of the week for work.

We've talked about it, and I think what we're going to do is have my husband contact the teacher, and get the math homework ahead of time, so that while we are teaching our son at home, we can be working on his homework. That way, his homework gets done as part of the teaching process that is obviously necessary outside of school.

I'd rather not have to do that, but I guess it's our only option.

I zone out when I am uninterested in the material, the lecture is boring, etc. So that happens a lot now.

I don't remember if that happened or not as a child but I could see it happening as I grew older towards high school. I do remember that during my earlier years being in class did not deter me from pestering other classmates, drawing, making paper airplanes and whatnot.

I'm a post graduate student now and I still see it happening a lot. To minimize this, I need to have slept well the night before and the way the topic in hand is discussed has to catch my attention. I'm impatient and if someone makes a question I'm not interested in then that's a perfect trigger for me zoning out. I often vent some impulse by scribbling on the margin.

I guess that I began noticing myself zoning out as I grew older because the kind of things I did as a child when bored ceased to be socially acceptable so I gradually turned to random daydreaming.

I never took any drugs (other than some stuff to relax that didn't really work anyway). I've always been a B student except for periods of conflict later on. For some reason, to this day, some people hate me for being like this and I got picked on by teachers several times - sometimes in very vicious and crazy ways.

My problems were and still are social.

As a general rule, I very soon feel the urge to get my hands on something and learn through task/problem solving - going back to the theory for specific needs. I can produce the best results of the class if allowed to have things this way (has clearly happened to me with some literature projects and business simulations) - I also lose the sensation that I'm making an effort.

Another thing that somehow works is finding someone friendly to study with; helping others feels like a little game that makes me focus as a byproduct.

My daughter did exactly the same thing. I had to talk with the teachers each year ahead of time to let them know what was happening. the teacher (if they were nice that year) would lighly tap her when they saw her zoning out. At the time we did not know that she had AS, just ADD. We have tried all the meds, but none worked for her. The one thing we found just recently was a patch that she puts on her hip. It does not go through the liver and it is not considered a controlled substance so you can fill the pres when you what, not within 7 days. It has helped wake her up and concentrate. She also had graet grades. She is now a senior and also taking 2 classes at the Jr college. She is doing much better with this patch.

What is the patch you keep talking about? What drug/brand, etc...?