Any Teen Celiacs With Inattentive Add?

[buffettbride]

Hi teens! I have a 12 year old daughter with diagnosed Celiac. She is also highly gifted and I suspect has Inattentive ADD. Are there any teens here who experience this? Any advice for keeping yourself together? My daughter is a disaster when it comes to keeping track of anything--school papers, her cell phone, mp3 player, etc. She's ridiculously smart but is organizationally challenged to the extreme. It is so frustrating for me and her dad, and her too, I suspect. I think I've been going about it all wrong and would like some insight from other teens like her to see what I can offer to help her. Thanks!

[Jestgar]

OK, I'm not a teen, and I'm not diagnosed with anything, but I am organizationally challenged. The only way I can keep track of anything is by always putting it in the same place. Always. If I set something down in the wrong place it may be lost for days.

I organize by piles.

[buffettbride]

I don't mean to laugh, but LOL. Piles. My daughter has lots and lots and lots of piles.

[Jestgar]

<snort>

Seriously though, I'm a biochemist and nominally in charge of our lab (not really that structured to be really in charge) so it is possible to be a mess and be successful. I have piles on my desk. I have folders on my computer that are basically "current" and the files get moved to their appropriate folders when I've finished with them (and I can never find them again ). Everything has a place, and must be returned to its place when I've finished with it. I store most things on open shelves so I can see them.

I remember losing assignments in school, buying extras of everything because I didn't know what I'd done with the first (or second or third) one I had. I could never follow a dull teacher, but it's possible to find a way to challenge yourself so you can still find the material interesting.

Your daughter needs to learn to structure her nearest world to suit her, because the wider world never will.

[buffettbride]

We've definitely been able to "get by" and find some tricks. For example, my husband and I have essentially taken over teaching her math this year (including purchasing the teachers version of her math curriculum) because her teacher is so outrageously awful and boring that it's a lost cause. We figured it out about 1/2 way through the year and she got a high "A" on her most recent test where she was struggling to get "Bs" all the rest of the year. Last year her math teacher was super-engaging, and it was nothing but "As."

I think I have to change my mindset so I can help her effectively use "piles" to manage herself, because she just doesn't get traditional organizational principals.

You mentioned replacing things 2-3 times---she has 7 hairbrushes. Lol.

[Jestgar]

I must have 15 chapsticks....

[buffettbride]

I must have 15 chapsticks....

OMG. The chapsticks. *snort* We have a LOT of chapstick, too!

[missy'smom]

I am posting my response in another forum.