University Requirements

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Hi all!
Am new here so please bear with me.
I have a son who was diagnosed with Aspergers at early age and had support all through his education, he is now applying to Universities and some of them are being strict with his not passing his English GCSE C grade.
It's not as if he cant speak or write it, its just the Shakespeare novels and poetry that is confusing him.
He has passed all his other GCSE's with A's and is predicted to have A's or A*'s with his A Levels, and is applying for Mathematics in Universities.
The question is whether any way round this English C requirement?
Would the Equality Act or Disability Discrimination Act come into it because the Universities require my son to pass something that his Asperger Syndrome is interfering with?

Thanks in advance

When I did my applications years ago I wasn't diagnosed at the time. I would think that they should overlook English, maybe some additional letter empasizing this should be supplied.. Either way you could also pass some independent qualifying English exam as well (one which normally all international/ES students are required) without any Shakespeare but I am not sure if that would look good for a native speaker (but then again maybe it would be just fine). Also maybe it's a good idea to call directly to admissio offices and ask them to clear situation out.

im currently going to a university and enrolled as a culinary student. i start off by letting the disability office know of me and my diagnosis, secondly i will request my instuctors to grade based off of content rather then proper english standards (like MLA).

however, always follow the basic rule of "help me, help you".

this link is for CSU, you can use it as a base to compair to the universitys your son has applied to
http://rds.colostate.edu/cognitive-disabilities

also please be aware that asperger's syndrome is only just now starting to get recognized and not many provisions have been set forth yet in regards to our obvious lack of english savy. BTW, CSU is also the home to Temple Gandlin (how ever her name is spelt)

Hi

If you haven't done so already, I'd advise you to speak with the admissions section at the universities. They may make allowances for him anyway. Surely, the fact that he has all those other GCSEs proves that he can understand and write English pretty well. I'm sorry, I don't know about the legal side.

My husband got all As for his O Grades (Scotland), but a C for English. It was the very same thing that your son is struggling with that caused him to get a low grade. Thankfully, that was all he needed to study engineering. If they separated language and literature, I'm sure more people would get on better, including myself.

Sorry, but there is no connection between not passing a GCSE in English and Asperger's. There might possibly be grounds if your son had dyslexia but not ASD.

(Speaking as a former admissions tutor and someone who has ASD.)

What about the tendency to take things literally? When reading Shakespeare or certain poems, if you take things literally, these will make no sense at all and take a lot of effort just to understand the basics. I definitely struggled with Shakespeare, especially as you have to translate it into modern English first of all, then translate it from the literal meaning to its actual meaning (and there's no translation model for that). By the time you've done all that, you've lost your train of thought and are none the wiser. If the person with the ASD also happens to have associated concentration difficulties, I can definitely see how this would be difficult, or near impossible for some. English language is no problem whatsoever for me, but poetry and Shakespeare are much more demanding.

Sometimes, some people on the spectrum may have trouble with figurative language. Even NTs sometimes have trouble with Shakespeare and poetry.

A GCSE in English not only about the two topics above but is also about being able to write clearly and being able to express your thoughts in an organised, logical way.

No connection?

Invocation of blanket generalities is useless. Considering that ASDs and expressive communication deficits are often seen together, why wouldn't a subpopulation have difficulties with English?

I think understanding literature can very much be a part of AS. I actually changed my English major because I couldn't comprehend Shakespeare and similar works. The only reason I was getting high marks was because I used an online summary to write a decent essay, quoting lines here and there for support. I think my writing skills somewhat shrouded my deficit; however, we who struggle clearly can't hide forever.

Maybe your son just needs to focus on trying to pass his GCSE in English, if that's the only thing stopping him going to uni- it's a requirement for everyone, and it is very very unusual for any decent university to waiver this for whatever reason. If he's looking at As at A Level, he must be looking at good universities, so focus on resitting the GCSE to get a C: school should help him with this.
He shouldn't need to do anything with shakespeare/poetry or similar, as it should just be the LANGUAGE part that counts, not the LITERATURE. See if you can ask the school about him retaking a pure English Language GCSE, and he might be ok.
Good luck!

To the other discussion: I found literature FAR easier to understand than the language. I took it as 2 GCSEs, and there were 2 grades difference between the subjects. Language was by far my worst subject.
I found literature easier to understand by looking at it with a scientific and logical brain- far easier to understand then.

The thing is that my son has already tried twice for his GCSE English and got D in both of them.
He has a B in his GCSE Geography which had a lot of essay work so he has no problem with logical writing.
He has A* in his Chinese Language and Literature that he took during his Chinese Sunday School.
Surely with all his A's and B's grades plus his predicted straight A's in his A Levels plus declared having a disability plus with the Disability Discrimination Act there must be some leeway from the University?
It is not as if my son has failed all his other subjects and has no hope of passing his A Levels!
After all he took his GCSE Mathematics six months early and still attained an A*

It is frustrating to hear from an institution that my son will not embark on a future of mathematics that he loves because of ONE grade that he is unable to obtain due to his Aspergers.