HI. My son was diagnosed with ADHD-combined type at age 6 1/2, and he's now a college Freshman. He also struggled with reading and writing, but he's very bright, so his intelligence allowed him to "get by" until later years. He wasn't formally diagnose with LDs in reading and writing (dyslexia and dysgraphia) until middle school. A high percentage of student with ADHD also have co-existing LDs. While ADHD is a medical condition, and schools can't diagnosis it, schools can do testing for possible learning disabilities. If that hasn't been done, you might want to request it.

As it was explained to me, you need to first treat the attentional issues, in order for the child to maximize their learning potential. The best instructor or tutor in the world, using the best methodology, won't be as effective if the student isn't able to focus on what's being taught. While we initially resisted medication, we eventually realized that not trying it was also a disservice to our child. He was struggling to accomplish school and homework tasks that a child of his intelligence should have been able to master without difficulty. We had already tried having more structure and routine to his day, and charts that the teacher and we used to record "on task" behavior, and reward incentive systems, and diet/supplements.

When we did do a medication trial in 3rd grade, it was the week before parent-teacher conferences, and we did not tell the instructor. We went into the meeting and asked how things were going, and the teacher, who was a phenomenally patient and understanding woman (and who I still keep in contact with, a decade later) said "your son had some really good days last week, and others were quite a struggle. Like on Tuesday, he was so on-task and did his work without nagging....."
I left the meeting in tears, because the teacher, without ever knowing we'd tried medication, correctly identified which days we'd given it to our son. At that point, I knew we would have to include it as part of his treatment plan. He doesn't take it over the summer, because he doesn't have as much problem when he's not required to sit at a desk, but I'm sure he wouldn't be where he is today without a multi-modal approach that includes medication as well as structure. Every child is different. I hope your child can be successful, however you decide to proceed.
I would strongly encourage you to join a local parent chapter of www.chadd.org in your community. For online support, I'd also like to invite you to join the Learning and Attention Difficulties Group at community.greatschools.net/groups/11554

My daughter has ADHD and I don't believe in medicating so she isn't on meds.

The best things you can do:

Create a schedule and stick to it. Children with ADD/ADHD NEED structure, they need a schedule to adhere to... our daily lives are fairly routine, but my daughter thrives in this environment.

Allow breaks when doing homework at home. Our daughter must read for 15 minutes every night to us. This is where she maxes out. I try to break it into something a bit more simple for her like, "Read one chapter a day" and in her head that doesn't sound as bad as read for 15 minutes (sometimes you have to be just as creative as them!)

At school, bring your diagnosis paperwork (you should have received some papers in regards to the diagnosis - test results, etc) And set up a meeting with the teacher, the school social worker, and whomever else they deem necessary to be involved. Ask for an IEP. This is FANTASTIC. Hannah (my daughter) has one and it will follow her throughout her academic career. Every year you will meet at the end of the year to set up a new IEP plan - new goals, expectations, etc. for your child. This plan will make life on your child MUCH easier.

Our IEP for Hannah has her leaving the class for reading and spelling and working in a smaller group of kids (all of which have ADD/ADHD). Their homework level is cut in half from the other students. Its not any easier, its just less homework as these kids have short attention spans.

The way the school social worker described it to me was - I can't see without my glasses... Hannah can't focus without the proper tools. Proper tools include an IEP plan, the ability to get up and walk away for 5 minutes during tests, and lots and lots of rewards. Impulse control is something we're working on with Hannah, and between the school and the IEP plan, and our scheduled and structured home environment, she's doing fantastic. We also put in place a rule for her where before she acts - she must count to ten and REALLY think about how she would want someone to treat her in that situation or what she think might happen if she does this particular action. This took me over a year to make it stick... but now we're seeing SO much improvement!

Good luck to you!! Trust me, its not hard to get them to catch up on reading, Hannah has done a phenomenal job in just one summer! ~ Make it fun for them. Allow supervised access to the internet ... theres a website, starfall.com and it has games that encourage reading. Hannah LOVES this website and now we let her play on it daily. Its really helped her reading a great deal.