Autism and Homework

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I figured this belonged her since it can apply to children with autism. It's an article about the problems with autistic children doing homework. I had this problem as well and I think its something maybe parents of autistic children can also relate to.

http://www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com/homework.html

For me, my parents could NEVER get me to do my homework. It was to the point where I would meltdown everytime I had to come home and do it. That article is the reason for it right there. But most schools don't see this problem. I understand it would be hard to accommodate this though... but I wonder if there is a way you could accommodate it.

Thank you so much for posting this. We struggle so much with homework. I really liked the idea of having time set up at the end of the school day for homework. I think I may try and arrange for my son to be able to use the school library right after school to complete his homework. If not I may just pack a snack in the car and then bring him over to the public library and have him do it there.

Yeah... I've always struggled with it to and my parents could never get me to do it. I mean with Math, I had it in the morning so I could go in early and work on it for a while then... and my teacher would help me with the rest after. I usually went in during lunch too to biology class and worked on my homework to get help there... other than that, any other homework I had I couldn't do. I think its because we have two routines. We have our school routine where we work and do school stuff and then once we get home, we push school out of the way and want to relax and do our usual things to settle down after a long day at school. That means doing homework is out of the question because doing something "school-related" in at home... throws off our brains and we meltdown because of that.

Damn it, I wish I had had this article back when I was in public school. This is EXACTLY what I tried to explain to teachers, staff, and my parents, and none of them could understand it. I was too emotionally exhausted after school to do homework.

Thanks, great article!

I've always found my son to be extremely tired after school and I dread doing extra work when he gets home.... I end up doing a lot of it for him.... I think he's done enough work throughout the day.

I'm at a loss to why kids have to have so much homework, I'm not a fan of it. I dont believe in homework in pre school and kindy..Or primary school for that matter.... Cant we just let kids be kids at that age.

I think too, for special needs, they should limit the amount of homework. I've been in resource classes and I've STILL had homework to do when I got home. It was a hassle for my parents and to the point where they stopped forcing me to do it. I mean my parents tried to find ways by even taking things away, saying they would take away my computer if I didn't do the work but... having autism... that actually made it worse because my laptop is part of my routine... my parents tried punishing me for not doing the work I mean you can't blame them... what else could they do? Whatever they did do, I was unresponsive too and they just gave up. THey even tried to get me an aide to help me at school but teachers never realized how bad I had it. If I wasn't constantly melting down then I was being treated to normally. I didn't want to meltdown because I was finally in a school setting where I only had one bully... if I melted down then it would give more reason for kids to pick on me for being a cry baby... and that was worse. If you've ever had to deal with school mobbing in elementary school, then you would know how that can affect you later in life.

I just hated how teachers never saw this. My parents knew I struggled with homework but they never really had a reason why. I now know it was part of my autism and being exhausted getting home. We have routines that we separate from each other and it depends on the setting we are in.

So for a child with autism, they have two routine settings... one is their school routine, a routine they know they have to follow at school and then there is their routine at home. Whatever they are allowed to at home, say watch Spongebob or a few cartoons for a few hours to wind down after a hard day at school (it depends on the person and child but I'll just say that for now), then you probably make them dinner and they eat dinner, get ready for bed... that's their routine. You try forcing homework into that routine and it messes up their "home" routine. Because by that time, they are done with school... its already exhausted them and homework makes that worse for them. Most teachers don't realize this because they have to give everyone homework... they can't single someone out just for that reason. But the least they could do is try to find someone who can maybe work with the autistic child IN school, maybe in a less distracted and sensory-induced study hall where they could do the work... while still being in their school setting.

They put me in study hall because they had the right intentions that it would help... the only drawback? Kids talking in the background caused me a lot of distraction. I mean the teacher could tell them to stop talking and they would still talk. It didn't matter who was doing their work. I couldn't have noise-block headphones or music to help me and that was even worse. I mean you let one person have that and then they all will complain because I get to have it but they don't. Other students don't understand the nature of someone else's disability concerns.

I hated school so much that it made me emotionally-unstable. I was misunderstood for what I did need and because I never acted enough about needing it... they never gave it to me. I always cried on the phone in the nurse's office to my mom wanting to come home. She knew it was hard for me but they didn't understand that... because I could never cry when I should have. It really made things worse. I was constantly upset at my school, even though I had good friends who had what I had, it still made me struggle. I was only lucky I had good friends but I dreaded school every morning because of constantly being misunderstood by the teachers.

The article was spot on. Our son is extremely diligent with homework. But school is all about the work, since he has no friends at all. We have a limit written into his IEP. he's in the National Honor Sociery. Teachers love him because he takes his studies so seriously. But it is exhausting for him.

We schedule breaks and give him lots of support during finals. He tends to crash and burn due to the stress of finals. We use anti anxiety meds for that and are considering Ritalin to help him concentrate. I think he does get a lot of support for doing things right. but he lacks the ability to work on his own, which scares me when I think about college.

Which brings me to my question. Should we skip the tutoring? We hired one to help him improve his writing skills for the ACT. Bad idea? Now, he's trying to read for pleasure but hates it because it's like school for him. How do we teach him that it can be fun? He has a book he loves
, but he hates that there's a deadline due to the tutor.

Advice?

Thank you so much for this article... I'm going to print out a copy, and send it to the school...