How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

Rebecca — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:59:04 +0000

My daughter is just 5, she was diagnosed last year and with change in diet and behavior modification, she went from having a shadow in a class with 24 girls and one teach to having no shadow in the same class. Red dye 40 is the biggest behavior trigger. But I am finding that she is also not performing to her level. They try and give her more work but she says no and that is it. It is a mainstream school and where I live ASD is totally unknown. Schools refused to take her and this is the only school that will make an effort. What should I do? she sometimes goes as far as says she does not know how to do it or she is scared to do her work! We know she can do everything with her eyes closed.

How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

maureen — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:50:54 +0000

for mary… alot of times an aspie is a strategist. *i married one of these* they can come up with so many ways to do something. it is really exciting to see their minds at work. but when it comes to on the spot desicions (such as my husband having to clean up a one year old who just mashed a fruit bar everywhere- or in your case a child who was just hurt) they can think of many things to say or many ways to handle the situation… the reason they freeze up is their perfectionist tendancy and desire to do the right thing. in our case, when my husband is confronted with this situation and he does what he thinks was the right thing, i am patient and accept the effort that was made (besides, all moms know that dad’s are not moms-grin) with our younger aspie, we work with him on pretend situations and when real ones occure, instead of hitting himself or crying, we ask him “is crying going to fix it?” “hitting yourself is not going to help make it better” (gently of course, not angrily)what can you do next time? what can you do now? help him express his feelings and be his support in confronting his situation (ie, how do you feel about being kicked in the face? i can go with you so you can tell the boy) i hope this helps, mary.
thank you sara for reading the post and for keeping home education in your back pocket. there maybe more support in your area than you might be aware of. HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) is a great link to find out about home schooling and support where you live.

How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

Sara Galvin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:42:52 +0000

For Maureen: Thanks for the info. I do notice that my son gets along better with older, more mature children. His bf has been home schooled and may go back to being so. As long as my son is cheerful with his schooling I will leave him alone. Right now, I am teaching writing skills, the thought process of creating a story not machanics. He does well with cursive writing—push school to teach this, our school wasn’t going to and it is not required so OT and I taught him–he likes to go to school, he likes the library and taking the comp tests in reading, these are the reasons he is still at this school. As long as we keep getting good teachers we are ok. It is helpful that the school system psychologist has a child in our school and knows my son. She trys to be helpful. I will keep an open mind about home schooling. You have all my admiration and respect for the job you do.

How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

SHANNON — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:09:02 +0000

I am struggling so bad with my son. He is 13, in 7th grade. He is very smart, great report cards, he is socially struggling, blurting out mean and hurtful things to family members. He wants people to like him but is so easily frustrated.
It is hard to motivate him socially. He feel everyone is “out to get him” because he has to be talked to on more than one occasion a day about his behavior ad outbursts at home or school. I feel he is already “distant” due to his ASD but it seems as though the lack of friendships and puberty are making him depressed, frustrated, and subsequently more distant. What can I do? I feel as though I am losing my son.!!!!!!

How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

maureen — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:50:36 +0000

for sara galvin… real life?? real life is not about academics… yes, make sure they can read, yes make sure they have critical thinking skills. social skills… two thoughts 1) do you want them to grow up as children or as adults? with this i mean… watch them. dont they do wonderfully with adults and one on one with peers? there are multitudes of jobs in “real life” where one can work with one patient or one co-worker or independantly etc etc. so many of the educated children of the public system are immature, inconsiderate, disrespectful.. ask yourself are these the attributes you want your child to grow up inheriting, since they are inundated with these attitudes and concepts 7 hours a day. 2) if you have multiple children (we have five, two of my boys are ASD) they will have to learn to get along with each other and you. also, dont discount community groups such as scouts, sports, the YMCA, music classes etc etc. these are places where small amount of times with others is not too overwhelming for the child with ASD, because the amounts of time are short.
the book “the way i see it, a personal look at Autism and Aspergers” by Temple Grandin is an excellent resource that i highly recommend. when multiple children are home schooled, simple things like learning to take turns in board games or video games, is a social skill. helping them to set rules on how to treat others, is a social skill. As you are aware, the outbursts and lack of self control are big issues with ASD.
i have taken my 6 year old aside and had him make rules on how to treat his 3 year brother. this helps him to know that he too can make rules and when he breaks them he gets to chose the consequence (Since he broke his own rule) when he is keeping them, he comes to me so proud and we think of a reward. home schooling ASD takes alot of thinking outside the box, patience, determination, and consistancy. You can do it, you really are the only one who can. you are the only one who knows them, and has a heart to help them be their best. One thing that i have learned is that i have a tendancy to help them compensate vs. overcome… i have had to watch this in myself. and oh by the way… it is never perfect… and when life takes over, they also have to learn to be flexible and adapt to change. if you want to chat more, hstockton@cox.net

How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

Andrea Schoenmakers — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:32:36 +0000

Elizabeth
Thankyou for you insight and views. Descriptions of how you see the world are invaluable to mums like me trying to help educate the educators about how my 7 year old views the world. Please post more from your take on things.

How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

Sara Galvin — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:36:50 +0000

Aren’t you afraid that your AS child will not learn how to cope in the “real world” if you home school? We are considering private school for LD cildren but are shying away from home schooling since that won’t help him learn how to get along with others. I’m not saying we won’t ever consider home schooling, but we are afraid of social isolation. This year is going ok, but if we have another year like last year we have to re-evaluate. Thoughts?

How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

katrina — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:47:24 +0000

try home education it stops all the problems assossciated with school & being different. My son is Aspergers and does well out of the school enviroment

How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

Sara Galvin — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:21:08 +0000

My son is 8 yrs old and we are just starting the AS journey (he was diagnosed last year) He makes great grades in concrete areas( spelling and math) but horrible grades with writing and organization. He has a great teacher this year and gets special ed ea day in the room. They are focusing on his ADD and not his AS (even though they go hand in hand) Last year was awful!!! Keep pushing the school and don’t be afraid of asking for a teacher change. Both my son and his teacher were miserable last year! I also send in articles, I don’t know if anyone reads them, but at least they have the information.

How to help your child with ASD to do better at school

maureen — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:24:14 +0000

i agree with comment number 4, as even in the original post, parent concludes that child does better one on one. i have five children, two of which are learning challenged. i home school them all so that each child can progress at thier own rate, we celebrate each child’s success and take as much time as we need to get to the point of complete understanding. my two sons that have a more difficult time really benefit from this because there is no pressure to perform at other than their best. though they are competitive in other areas (community sports and music) they are not in positions educationally that cause them to feel inadaquate or like failures. i believe the public school systems are not equipped to provide such positive influence as they cannot control all environmental causes of such feelings. being at home (and in smaller groups, ie scouts, sports, music, play groups, teen groups, church, etc.) there is more ability for the parents to help the child integrate more acceptably and help them to cope with other’s view of them.(self concept based on other’s actions toward them) it is more difficult for the parents to be involved with the child’s world when the parent works all day and the child is gone all day.. both are exausted at the end of the day and help is short coming. all of these are things to keep in mind as your heart hurts for each child that suffers in school… the school does not have your “heart” and cannot meet the needs of every single individual child.