Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Failing in school? Just take some Ritalin.


Ellie Honan of Concord is excited about starting fourth grade this week. That's a new feeling for her. In previous years September was something to dread. For Ellie, going to school meant feeling stupid.

"Second grade was tough, but by third grade she was painfully shy and self-conscious," says her mother, Christine.

Teachers reported that Ellie seemed bewildered in the classroom. She daydreamed and never raised her hand. Testing revealed a bright child with some reading difficulties. The school provided a specialist, and Ellie began to do better, even scoring in the 90s on spelling tests.

In third grade, the help ended, but problems persisted. Ellie's frequent refrain was, "I just don't get it." Homework almost always involved tears and hours of mom sitting by her side.

Turns out Ellie has a problem with working memory, a term used to describe the ability to retain information from the top of a page to the bottom.


Of course, there's skeptics who suspect this is just another disorder some scientist pulled out of his ass to explain to parents why their kids are stupid. Not that I'm one of them. Okay, maybe.

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