Advice for a teacher

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A middle school teacher I know approached me on advice concerning a student with asperger's. Obviously, I don't know the whole story due to confidentiality regulations.

There is a student in the middle school with a.s. The student's special interest is computers. The school gives laptops to every student for use during the school day, and teachers are encouraged to make lessons as multi-media as possible.

The student has been making great strides in many areas, and the teachers applaud him for that. However, the student's special interest is computers. Whenever the student is asked to do a lesson or activity on the computer the student will wander off to his special interest. Not only is this interfering with his ability to do the work, but he is routinely violating the school's computer conduct policy. (the teacher did not share with me exactly what the student is doing on the computer)

The teachers, feeling they have tried everything else, will now only let the student use the computer under direct supervision. This means he has to have a person sitting behind him, watching the screen to be sure he is on task, when he uses the computer.

The boy's parents are upset by this. They feel that this policy is restrictive and that it makes it impossible for the boy to do his work.

The teacher is looking for advice on how to help the boy learn to resist the temptation to do his special interest. The teachers have, in the past, tried to tie his special interest into the subjects they were learning, but at this point that is not working because whenever he has the computer he does stuff on it that violates the school computer user policy.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I apologize for the vagueness of the message, this is as much as I know.

Thanks in advance.

"The teacher is looking for advice on how to help the boy learn to resist the temptation to do his special interest. The teachers have, in the past, tried to tie his special interest into the subjects they were learning, but at this point that is not working because whenever he has the computer he does stuff on it that violates the school computer user policy."

Having spent nineteen years in school myself, and disliking every minute of it, I would say if the kid isn't doing his assignments, it should be reflected in his grades. He should be repeating the course until he buckles down and does the work.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but I do believe schools aren't doing students any favors by passing them on regardless of whether they have mastered the material being taught. If the student isn't willing to cooperate, I think this is all the school can do. As the old saying goes, you can lead the horse to water, but you can't make him drink it.

Hi Chronos,

The school does have the technology. Access is restricted for all students and there is a tech supervisor who can monitor screens. The school can't afford the technology to give individual teacher's access.

I don't know exactly what he does on the computer, it may just be that he spends his time messing with the settings and foramats. The issue is that the computer is provided for him to do school work on, yet whenever he has access to a computer he does not do schoolwork. The computer itself (not a website) is the distracting special interest.

Thanks to everyone for your replies!

Wow, I know a kid just like this!

I'm no doctor, but what if the school set up an if-then policy, and asked the parents and child to agree to it? This would entail spelling out EXACTLY what the child IS allowed to do (most computer conduct policies outline what is NOT allowed and are thus not sufficient for someone spending all their time trying to circumvent the rules.) One big issue to overcome with a kid on the spectrum is making sure a) the rules are clearly understood by the child and b) the rules can't be circumvented by some literal-minded thinking.

IF the child follows the rule, THEN he or she has access to the computer for the duration of the time he/she keeps following it. If the child does NOT follow the rule, THEN he/she must complete whatever task he/she is working on manually. Writing manually, researching manually, etc. If a computer is essential to the task, he or she must write out all the steps involved and hand them to someone else to do, but complete cold turkey as far as the computer itself for the duration of the task. Someone will have to monitor the child and his or her computer for compliance; depending on how difficult that is, the agreement could be modified to day-per-day: one day following the rule = computer access for the next day. One broken rule = no access the next day.

In a kid with impulse control issues, progress may be very slow; I know with DS we set up similar rules regarding candy, and he's just now able to stop himself before stealing a candy without permission.

I suppose another alternative is pairing the student with a less computer-savvy kid, and setting the rule that the only one who can input anything is the second child.