learning disabilities and AS

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My 6 yo aspie daughter is having quite a few mental blocks when it comes to education. She will cruise along fine and then all of a sudden she doesn't register anything you are saying, what she has learned, or where any of it is coming from. She can do a simple addition and subtraction worksheet fine until about 3/4 through and then can't remember what the subtraction sign means or what you are supposed to do. You can explain 50 different ways and she just has lost the way. I describe it as if she is cruising down the road merrily and then all of a sudden the road ends and she has no idea that she was on a road in the first place, let alone how to get on it again. Is this typical and what can I do to help her? She will be in second grade next year and as of right now she is not in any special programs. I can see this being huge problem as the classes are going to get more difficult. I could understand if it was her average transition problems, but this happens when there is no transitions involved. She simply loses her path. Soon she is back learning again and is on grade level. Then it starts all over again. I can't find what is triggering it,if it is a trigger or simply a block that happens suddenly. Please help!! !

Is she forgetting how to do the work or simply stopping before finishing and refusing to continue. If it's the latter she may be suffering from executive disfunction which I normally term as medical procrastination. It is very hard for Aspies to concentrate on things they have no interest in so if this is her problem I would suggest trying incentives to get her to finish her work.

SHe isn't refusing to do the work. She is genuinly interested, which kind of is suprising since she usually gives up on things that are difficult for her. She wants to go on and it comes easily, but goes away as fast as it comes to her. Like amnesia. She isn't retaining anything once the block comes and looks at it like it is a new concept when you re-teach her. It is very different from anything seen before and i worked with exceptional kids before.

I never really had that problem. Maybe it's because the problems tend to get progressively more difficult on worksheets?

I think I have something similar.

Basically my brain will just stop processing input at random. For example, I will be reading a page and then suddenly the words stop making sense. My eyes work fine, I can clearly see the words, but I cant figure out what the words mean. I can reread the same article a dozen times, and still not understand what it said. It is fairly annoying.

This generally only happens when I am overwhelmed, exhausted, or otherwise mentally drained. For example, it never happens after I am well rested doing something enjoyable. It usually only happens when I am operating on 5 hours of sleep, or just got done with a long, difficult day of work/school. The best thing to do in this situation is just to take a break and relax, take a nap if possible. I personally pace back and forth as that helps me relax, but your daughter may have her own solution.

I dont know if this is what is going on with your daughter, but try taking a short break next time it happens. If her brain is getting overloaded, then trying to explain it again isnt going to help reduce the overload. Just taking 5 minutes to walk around the house a few times might help her clear her head.

If taking a break doesnt help her, she may have some other memory problem that I'm not familiar with.

I am glad Tracker can relate because I was at a loss with this one. My AS son does not experience this in the way you describe.

I would suggest it may be co-morbid but not an integral part of AS. If I was in your shoes, I would be talking to a pediatric neuropsych about it.

Good luck.

My 10 year old AS son does this to. Not just with work sheets but simple instructions eg J get your jacket.......J wanders off then will come back and sit down empty handed or with something else, then he gets really frustrated and confused when I tell him this is not what I asked you to do. Its worse when he is tired or under alot of stress.

He has even commented to me in the past that his memory is bad, and it upsets him, it makes him feel stupid. I had him checked out for seizures ( because this amongst other odd behaviour were going on, we also have a family history of epilepsy) so far all eeg's have come back normal.

I will be talking to my pead about it all when I see him next week.

Oh I just wanted to add, he also does what Tracker talked about with the reading. Sometimes he will reread pages and pages of stuff and its all just jumbled or not making any sense or he has forgotten the first line on the page by the time he is a few lines in, the same happens with movies.

I have this kind of problem. I sometimes forget how to work things out, other times I am the first to work things out. I think it is due to stress and poor concentration in my case.
Sometimes when I go into a shop, I pay far too much money for something, like the other day I gave two £10 notes to buy a pastie at my local garage, I just forget the value of money. Luckily the cashier was honest and gave me the correct money.
It makes no sence to me really why I do this, or when I will do this.
What I do know is that many people are dishonest and keep whatever money I have handed over, and even if I think I may have made a mistake I am too nervous to say so.
It makes me feel very stupid.