Comments on: When Children Lose Belongings at School

By: Eoin

Eoin — Sun, 15 Jul 2018 09:17:44 +0000

I think it’s worth bearing in mind that a child “losing” possessions in school or other social situations can be a symptom of bullying. I’m not implying that this is the case for every child but it is certainly the case that sometimes when a child is being bullied and the bully takes their possessions, the child will claim to have lost it to avoid dealing with the situation.

By: Sven

Sven — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 11:39:55 +0000

In reply to Frustrated Parent Of A 16 Year Old. as a 19-year old with ADD who forgets things (but mostly at home when leaving), I think a diary/agenda or a checklist would help, but it depends. he should definitely have a cell phone at that age, one with a note-taking ability for him to mark everything down... that is, if he himself wants to improve, he's gotta have willpower to get better at keeping track of things.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 23:55:20 +0000

I wouldn’t say that your son “refuses” to take care of his stuff. Children with ADHD or learning about disabilities don’t learn how to keep track of their stuff like other kids do. What works for most children will not work for your son. Your son needs to figure out a system that works for him. You need to help him do that. Getting mad at him will not help. It will create an over-sensitivity to criticism and lower his self-esteem. These will in turn magnify ADHD symptoms.

Get creative. Research the problem. Design a solution. Keep tweaking. Be patient. Empathize. It’s frustrating but if you slow down to solve it correctly the number of occurrences will decline. Oftentimes, people tell folks with ADHD to try harder. We are already trying harder than everyone else, that’s not helpful advice, rather, it makes us feel damaged. The issue is that we are doing it wrong- we are doing it wrong because your way of doing doesn’t work for us.

Take him to an ADHD coach ASAP so he can get help from a professional.

By: Frustrated Parent Of A 16 Year Old

Frustrated Parent Of A 16 Year Old — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 13:44:52 +0000

This article concerns a child. What if the person in question is a teenager? My 16 year old son has a long history of losing clothing, keys, cell phones ( he has also caused damage to his cell phone by sleeping with it under his pillow and dropping it in the toilet). I have cut him off from getting another cell phone. He has also misplaced musical instruments and items on school field trips ( left in hotel room). This is not because he forgot to pack them. He chose to be mindless about them. The school trip incident happened when he was a pre-teen and this is still going on today. He almost left behind several items in a hotel room in Montreal very recently. Today he lost his camera for his photography course. His Dad gave him the camera and asked him to simply take good care of it. The subject never came up of how to make sure he doesn’t lose it or damage it. I found out from him that he left his backpack unattended yesterday. He refuses to take responsibility for his possessions. I am very frustrated. He also has been diagnosed with HFA. To me this is very low functioning behavior.