School Behavior Problems

What is normally the problem when a child who listens to everything at home, refuses to do his school work and homework.  The child is 9 and when in school he will sit there and not complete the assignment and hates school. Can this be an anger problem, behavior problem, mood swings, etc.  He gets very upset when he fails and yet he will not care if his work is not complete.  

[specialmom]

Well, I'm not sure.  There could any number of reasons why this could be happening.  What do his teachers say?  What has he said to you?  These are important clues to figuring this out.

Is it EVERYTHING that he won't do or only certain things?  Does he have friends?  Does he have behavioral issues?  

The teachers are coming to you and saying what exactly?  What is he doing instead of his work?  What does he say when he doesn't do his work or does he just not turn it in??  

[Sandman2]

   Another very important question is - did this happen last year too?
Also what grade is he in, and when is his birthday?

[bklyn1313]

His teachers recommended thearpy, but that did not work last year.  This year they are looking to take him out of the gifted class and place him with the other class. He will just sit there and not do the classwork, can be math, writing etc.  Then he gets upset and cries. He is historically stubborn and we are looking for some answers.  He is very very unhappy in school. He does have friends in school and some come over for play dates.
This seems to be his only behavioral issue. At home he is fine.  

[Sandman2]

    Well, he shows classic symptoms of ADD, but I really don't have enough information to give that as a possibility yet.  
     You said his "teachers recommended thearpy, but that did not work last year."   Could you give us more information on that.  What kind of therapy?  Who gave it?
     I still would like to know his birth date and grade level just to rule that out.
    This is one of the best sites for information on ADD and ADHD - take a look at it and see if any of the symptoms sound familiar.  I don't think the hyper stuff will apply.  What you are looking for is the inattention things.
The site is -   http://www.help4adhd.org/en/about/what
    It does sound like he is in over his head and is shutting down.  Moving him out of the gifted class might be a good idea, but it doesn't deal with the problem that is causing his actions.  He sounds like he is highly frustrated which is one of the classic ADD symptoms, especially if he had early success in school.
   Since he apparently was having troubles last year too, it seem that we can rule out any recent home/school experiences that would lead to his actions?
    So take a look at the site I recommended.  I think you want to focus on the "ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Type."    Do let me know what they tried last year.  I am also the CL on the ADHD site here - http://www.medhelp.org/forums/ADD---ADHD/show/175  - so feel free to post there if you have any questions about ADD.  Best wishes.

[bklyn1313]

Thank you so much for your imput. I will check out the site and let you know.