By "hitting the wall" we mean that the child simply cannot keep up with the demands of his classes, and their teacher is going to do something about the problem. This something might be getting help, calling the parent's attention to the situation, or complaining, but at least the problem is no longer being ignored.

What do you imagine the most difficult environment for a child who had difficulty sitting still, difficulty paying attention, and loved to talk to other children might be?

Imagine that this child had to go into this situation every day, and was expected to perform successfully in this environment. In fact, this child had to perform at the same level as peers who did not have the same set of problems. How difficult would this be?

For ADHD kids, it is the classroom setting that is this difficult setting.

There are a lot of distractions, yet they are told to sit still, don't move, don't talk, to pay attention to boring worksheets, and keep on task until the work is finished. None of these things come easily to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids. But day by day, off to school they go.

Many Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids "hit a wall" in school as the school year progresses.

Every week they just get a little farther and farther behind, until they're so far behind that it's impossible to catch up. They lose their homework assignments, even after they have spent hours working on them. And they study hard for tests only to perform poorly the next day. They just slip farther and farther behind with each passing week.

The disorder is most often recognized and referred for treatment in third grade.This is when kids most often hit the "academic wall." In third grade they are expected to do more and more work on their own, and they are given more homework to do as well.

We also see many referrals in seventh grade, or when the child leaves Elementary School for Junior High School, with several classes and several teachers. Many Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids who found ways to compensate in Elementary School are totally lost in Junior High School.

How can we help these children to be more successful in school?

One thing that you can do is to visit the outstanding resource of ADDinSchool.com . This site has over five hundred classroom interventions to help ADHD students in elementary school or high school classes. It is a great resource for both parents and teachers working with ADHD students.