Motivational issues for ASD students

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I was speaking with my new NAS worker out uni and she was talking about the motivational issues of students on the spectrum... I knew this was a thing but what I'm wondering is WHY? I am a serial procrastinator and it has become so frustrating. I just don't seem to learn. It's as if the avoidance has to be overcome by anxiety over not doing the task and that usually only occurs at the last minute. I know NTs have these issues too but it seems we might be more affected?

Speaking as a para- educator / teacher's assistant/ whatever you wanna call this, I see this in a lot of kids who are not neurotypical (autism, ADHD, dyslexia,etc.) Speaking as someone on the spectrum, I totally understand where you are coming from. I procrastinate on everything and think it has to do with both issues with prioritizing (which falls under executive functioning issues) and fear of the unknown/ not knowing how to do the thing or how it will turn out (anxiety).

I will say this got me in trouble when I didn't sell my old car and it was towed. And now I'm stuck making payments to the tow company.

We're most definitely more affected by this.

I think a lot of it comes down to the uncertainty of how well we will actually perform the task. Rather than face the uncertainty by performing the task, we put off doing it until we absolutely need to. We become increasingly more anxious as we reach closer to the deadline. Eventually the uncertainty of whether we'll actually do the task or not becomes stronger than the uncertainty over how well we'll do in the task. So in order to remove the greater uncertainty, we go on to carry out the task, forcing ourselves to deal with the uncertainty of how well we'll actually perform the task.

And yes.... I realize there's a lot of uncertainties in there.

It seems to take emergency levels of adrenaline to overcome the autistic inertia, for some people. Putting things off until it's almost too late makes it an emergency.

Guilty here, drove my teachers nuts. Had some tell me I wouldn't amount to anything.

Last edited by blackicmenace on 08 Dec 2016, 11:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Side question
What activity or club would you like to see (not available currently at your school) would you go to at least one time to check out.

That's a very interesting way of putting it as I often seem to function more efficiently/ an more productive on days wth three conditions.

1) I have had had little to no sleep the night before.

2) The reason for this lack of sleep was i HAD to stay up and complete an assignment.

3) I had no option over leaving the house (often due to turning in assignment or medical appointment).

There's all sorts of interesting neurochemical and cognitive processes taking place in the above situation. Unfortunately a day or so of this and I'm going to burn out (as would anyone!)

I'm in university so there are a lot of active societies. I tried out the mental wellbeing society once. It was a new idea, set up by an acquaintance. Had I been managing my time more effectively I would have probably attended regularly. It offerred a lot of calming and mindfulness activities such as arts and crafts.

I think something like the above could be really beneficial to students on the spectrum. Also, a lot of people I'm aware of being autistic are in groups related to roleplay, tabletop games, and anime.

In general I think having a wide variety of clubs is important for all students. Also, good advertisement and taster sessions to encourage people to try new things is important

I can relate to the process though I think instead of performance uncertainty my issue is more related to being intrinsically averse to sustained mental effort >.< It sounds very lazy and I'm sure it is a bit but I think there's also an element of being overwhelmed.

There are other tasks that require me to engage my brain but they come easily to me as I'm interested in them.

I'm also terrible for wanting/ needing immediate satisfaction yet there also seems to be a thing where external rewards systems don't work so well when your autistic?

Haha I'm hoping therapy will help me get around some of my problems here or at least provide me with effective strategies.

When I was at school, my special interest played the biggest part. There was always something to be doing that required my attention a lot more than the work.

I was too distracted by my artwork to be too interested in academics. Sometimes I wonder how I've managed to graduate with A's and B's. I was the hippie artist. I was supposed to be the one selling beaded necklaces and drawings in my parents basement, according to my peers and my teachers.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I like to get instant feedback on everything that I do. If I need to do a long drawn out exam/assessment where there is no feedback until the very end, then this is very difficult for me. I hate the idea of completing the entire thing, then being told I need to do the whole thing over again, as it was done incorrectly from the very beginning. I'd rather be told in stages that my work is ok, as the satisfaction from the constant feedback helps to keep me on track.