Boy. Grade 5. ADHD.
Sounds familiar.
Lets see...
For starters, begining LAST year, his workload will have gone up exponentially.
From "learning to read"... to "reading to learn".
From "learning to write"... to producing significant written documents.
This is a common point for kids who have been struggling but under the radar, to drop off the cliff.
Others can tell you about the dxes that it could be
instead of ADHD.
I'll tell you about some of the dxes that it could be
as well as ADHD (i.e. co-morbid)
1) learning disabilities are frequently co-morbid with ADHD
2) half the kids with ADHD also have Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) (developmental coordination disorder)
3) 70% of the kids with ADHD plus a Learning Disability (LD), also have Auditory Processing Disorders (APD)
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) = motor skills problems, caused by the way the brain is wired - not the muscles or the nerves.
Good site for basic info:
CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research
Gross motor skills issues lead to social isolation, because school socialization centres around physical activity - the playground and sports. At best, its exclusion; at worst, severe bullying.
Fine motor skills issues wreak havoc with school tasks... writing, cutting, drawing, putting papers away, getting changed for gym (tying shoes, doing buttons, etc.)
The challenge is... most people take refusal to participate as "attitude", not "disability". So... the kid asks for help, the teacher tells him to try harder, or to sit down, shut up and get your work done. What they don't get is... help.
Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) = auditory processing disorders. There are multiples, and most are not yet really commonly tested for. Seems like the most invisible one is to do with auditory figure ground: the ability to pick out one set of sounds from amoung a set of others... teachers voice in a noisy classroom. (Classrooms are extremely noisy, but teachers don't seem to hear that.) Often presents in the classroom the same as ADHD - not paying attention, not doing what was asked, fidgetty, etc. BUT... whole different problem, different accommodations and interventions.
Take his behavior problems as a cry for help.
Then, get all the helpers you can.
Occupational Therapist (OT) evaluation - sensory, and motor skills.
Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) evaluation - language, and auditory, including pre-screening for APDs - specifically ask for auditory figure ground.
And some form of comprehensive evaluation... neuropsychologist, or child development/behavioral team, or other such resource that will spend a number of hours testing from various angles.
The biggest thing right now is to get a better handle on what he is going through, what he is tripping on, what is really going on inside his head. The more you can get to the bottom of the issues, the better chance you have of turning him around.