John Sharry

Mar 24, 2025 | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

My daughter is 10 and in fourth class. Her teacher has reported that she is having difficulty with class work – task initiation and completion, lack of focus and so on. She often doesn’t complete class work, and gets emotionally overwhelmed in class because she has zoned out while instructions were being given to the class. A classroom strategy has been devised and implemented, but I think she needs more help. I know her abilities very well and I would understand her to be neurodivergent.

Mar 10, 2025 | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

QuestionI am struggling with potty training my daughter. She is three years and two months old and we have been potty training for more than three months. She never asks to go to the toilet herself and she will wet or soil herself twice or three times a day if I don’t put her in pull-ups. If I ask her to go to the toilet she sometimes reluctantly will go for me and sit on the toilet, but not regularly.

Feb 24, 2025 | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

QuestionMy partner can be a fun, kind, loving father. But he can also be a raging bully, parenting by threat, chasing my son and sometimes hurting him physically. We’ve been through ultimatums, he has been to therapy, which seemed to help for a while. I can no longer watch him damage my son with his verbal abuse and physically threatening behaviour. He just can’t see the damage he is doing and brushes off everything I say now as “your way”.

Feb 10, 2025 | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

QuestionHow do I deal with a highly capable 17-year-old girl who does not want to go to school? She seems to be suffering from very high anxiety levels and is stressed about many aspects of school, such as being asked a question by the teachers or being asked to read aloud in class, etc. We encourage her to attend school, but it does not always work and often ends up with her in tears and staying at home. Even when she does leave the car to go in, you can see how stressed she is.

Jan 27, 2025 | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

Q: My 15-year-old son hates going to school. He was diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and dyslexia last March. He is now in Junior Cert year and is not doing any homework or study. The teachers say he has largely switched off in classes and, of course, he is not doing well in school tests. The formal subjects, such as maths and English, are particularly hard for him – he describes them as really boring and he just blanks them out.