u/Odd_Walrus7396

So I posted this in an ADHD sub, but also wanted to get educators’ perspectives. I‘m hoping to find tips for improving my son’s writing and story-telling skills, because I want to set him up for success in the future - I don’t care who he becomes so long as he is kind and happy, but everyone needs to be able to narrate to some extent. Even the guy who fixes boats for a living.

He’s been diagnosed as 2e (ADHD + profound giftedness) and I’m really looking for ideas for home support to bolster the skill (kinda like how kids should read for 20 minutes a day) rather than suggestions for school-based supports via 504/IEP, etc. He has those.

My goal is just that he becomes more fluent in writing, internalizes the basic “formulas” for writing, so that it becomes faster for him. My reasoning is that he thinks fast, so the structure/formula with writing needs to come automatically. At least, one of his complaints is that his thoughts are so much faster than his hands.

The thing that’s helped him the most has been daily practice: Over the summer, we’ve made him keep a journal (he can and does write whatever he wants, we supervise only to make sure he’s actually doing it) where he writes five sentences in it every day. He’s gotten faster and more focused, but I’m not sure he’s getting the structure of different sentence formulations. Any good resources that have those formulas spelled out (here’s what an opinion paragraph looks like, here’s a story structure)?

He uses graphic organizers for research assignments, and we’re okay with him using speech-to-text software for longer assignments when that time eventually comes. Whatever helps him. But is there anything else we should do at home to help support this skill development?

I’m not sure this is the right place, but I figured it might be a good starting point. I‘m hoping to find help for improving my son’s writing and story-telling skills, because I want to set him up for success in the future - I don’t care who he becomes so long as he is kind and happy, but everyone needs to be able to narrate to some extent.

Did your 2e (ADHD + profound giftedness) elementary schooler struggle with this? What helped? Really looking forward ideas for home support to bolster the skill rather than academic supports at school via 504/IEP, etc. He has those.

My goal is just that he become more fluent in writing, internalizes the basic “formulas” for writing, so that it becomes faster for him. My reasoning is that he thinks fast, so the structure/formula with writing needs to come automatically. At least, one of his complaint is that his thoughts are so much faster than his hands.

The thing that’s helped him the most has been daily practice: Over the summer, we’ve made him keep a journal (he can and does write whatever, we supervise just to make sure he’s actually doing it) where he writes five sentences in it every day. He’s gotten faster and more focused, but I’m not sure he’s getting the structure of different sentence formulations.

He uses graphic organizers for research assignments, and we’re okay with him using speech-to-text software for longer assignments when that time eventually comes. Whatever helps him. But is there anything else we should do at home to help support this skill development? Kinda like how people recommend reading with their kids at least 20 minutes a day?

He really struggles with putting pen to page to write: It’s boring, he knows it’s his intellectual weakness but thinks he will never get better, he believes I’m a genius at it and he‘ll never live up to my standards (my husband put the idea into his head, in a really over-the-top way, and now my son thinks I never had to work at it or never struggled with it and that is so far from the truth but he doesn’t believe me, also he’s 8 so I don’t have high expectations) and he generally struggles with fiction. So, he takes the easy way out with free writing assignments- his journal during school last year was just “I had fun” over and over again. By the end of the year, he only wrote “fun” but would get up and tell detailed stories to the class about what he was faked writing in the journal.

I really want to check out the meteor shower this wee. Any tips for where to go? Happy to drive a bit outside the area, of course. and, if you recommend traveling to view it, any tips for maximizing the day? Tyia!

I’ve read through the pinned resources and diagnosis megathread and disclaimer at the bottom here and didn’t see my exact problem addressed and so I was wondering if y’all could maybe help me? I am new to Kaiser Permanente and finding it really difficult to navigate

Basically, I don’t know what magical magic phrase to say to the medical gatekeepers at Kaiser Permanente to unlock the door to an updated diagnosis (or not, depending on the test results)

I received a diagnosis of HSD many years ago and doctor after doctor discouraged me from genetic testing for EDS, because so many of the symptoms and supports are the same for the worse end of HSD and hEDS. Which, okay, fine, I figured out how to get through life with supports and coping skills and I was happy to keep my Reddit posts confined to r/hypermobility (lol). I don’t have a lot of close family, so I just did what I could and then continued on my way

This year, two things happened - I switched to Kaiser Permanente and also received a very detailed medical history from a distant relative. Given the details disclosed, I now need to find out whether some of my symptoms are caused by a tumor-generating genetic mutation that can cause organ rupture, vEDS which can cause organ rupture, or just comorbidities of whatever type of hypermobility I actually have. I have a kid, so getting the testing done seems like more of a need than a want

But - I don’t know how to effectively ask for the testing at Kaiser? I can’t even get a normie referral for a skin cancer screening (my old doctors were monitoring two moles on my back, which flexible as I may be are still in places that I can’t get a steady look at), how on earth can I expect to actually get a referral for genetic testing??? Like, what do I actually need to include to not be written off this time? It all seems so impossible.

If you’ve had success, particularly with East Coast KP, can you please give me tips?

tyia

I’ll be embarking on a solo trip soon, and I want to lose myself in a book full of yearning during my downtime. Preferably m/m…books I’ve adored along these lines were Sorcery and Small Magics and Song of Achilles. I read them back-to-back last summer and wish I could recreate those few weeks. I’m not picky about the genre so much as the yearning