The most difficult and troublesome school subjects for students with ASD

Has the NAS carried out any research into what the most difficult and troublesome subjects are in secondary schools for students with ASD, and why?

  • I was doing terribly in English until someone gave me a copy of the mark scheme used for GCSE. I immediately started getting As because it told me how to write the essay (point quote comment).

  • I dont think dissections should be required. Or any lab dealing with hurting a living creature. In bio last year, we got these microscopic organisms and I thought they were funny, they rolled around and were cute. Then the teacher had us put this liquid on the slide and write and draw what we observed. The little things started going crazy at first but soon they barely moved and were just twitching until eventually they died... Kids in the class were laughing but I was just staring at them, horrified that I was witnessing them in pain and couldnt even do anything to help, and it was my own fault too. Another lab when we had microscopic organisms, people were squishing and throwing them away when they were done, I put mine back in the water, I dont know if they survived but at least I didnt throw them away. I think people dont think about them as getting hurt because they are so small and the teacher can just buy more, but I hate it.

  • A friend told me that one of his classmates failed (got an X grade in) his biology GCSE for refusing to dissect a dead rat that was pregnant as it was a coursework assignment. It was not possible to pass the GCSE without it.

  • PE due to lack of coordination and complete lack of interest in competitive sports. However I quite enjoyed cross country running. I also hated German, again because of lack of ability, coupled with having a teacher who made us stand up in class and read stuff out. Still, at least my pronunciation gave everyone a laugh.

    Favourite subject was Biology, I have always been interested in nature. Didn't really enjoy having to dissect a cow's eyeball, though.

  • PE is a recurring subject. Has the NAS looked into PE lessons and come up with and advice and recommendations for schools?

  • Two of most horrific memories from 'PE' were being told to "Beeeeee the tree, feeeeeel the tree" at which point I think I fully embraced that being 'normal' (like everyone else in the class) was NOT for me!! And, as a teenager, being forced to take part in weekly dance classes to "perform our own interpretation" of 'Radio Ga-Ga'. The only thing I took from that was finally identifying with the quote "What fresh hell is this?" 

  • I struggled with many things at school. PE was very hard with such poor coordination, and i was useless at anything hands-on like DT for much the same reason. But i think the worst thing for me was Drama. Anything where some sort of pretence was required was a disaster, and i am no better at that as an adult.

  • There's a lot of unanswered questions relating to ASD and research that the NAS should have carried out decades ago.

  • I actually found this quite easy, it seemed regardless how long ago something had been written it always was related to things happening around me. I could also come up with ideas to make it fit the time, unfortunately the teachers didn't agree with my interpretations. I found this quite arrogant because they had not met the author either...

  • Has the NAS carried out any research into what the most difficult and troublesome subjects are in secondary schools for students with ASD, and why?

    ...Apart from what has so far been volunteered here... that question - the original question (!) - is indeed a very good question. A "NAS-Moderator" needs to Reply to that in person. Good luck with trying to get them to do that...

  • Then there are the subjects that you actually like, but they can't be bothered to go the extra mile to make it useful to you. Late in life I seem to have discovered that I probably should have done more metalwork. My grandfather ran a foundry. My father didn't go into the family business because of the slump. And I probably inherited some of my manual clumsiness from him. But now I can see I have some ability with metal fabrication, that no one at school ever really made much effort to cultivate, as the family moved so often I just became an inconvenience to most teachers. I'm quite good at improvising. It is worth noting that people on the spectrum often have engineers in previous generations.

  • For me it was always science sports and maths at school I hated them with a passion. But English and business classes I was and still am pro at. 

  • English language, literature and essay writing were the only subjects I found effortless at school! My bugbears were PE / Sports and anything requiring group work. 

  • Greetings to you. Perhaps regretfully, I contribute, and state that at school the only troubles I ever had was with Socializing... (and so "Sociology"). 

    I myself excelled in Art and English, and was quite alright with PE, Literature, Computing, Science (Chemistry, Physics, Biology)... yet (as I wrote in another Thread) I was also very good at Mathematics... until my own teachers insisted at me that "Mathematics is Difficult"!!

    Thus my Post is to say... that everything is easy... until you are surrounded by persons who say that "no-one" finds it easy... and then you are finally surrounded by persons who STOP you from succeeding just to prove their point! 

  • "What do you think the author meant by this?"

    Same as you and: -

    Hated kids Miss, wanted to bore them witless - what other motive can there be for writing this?! 

  • "What do you think the author meant by this?"

    "Nothing at all, sir, it's just a story. Why can't you just accept that at face value? Why has there always got to be some sort of secret, hidden meaning? It's futile to ponder what the author might have meant, because unless he wrote his reasoning down, no one could possibly read his mind. And we can't ask him now, because he's dead..."

  • I hated languages, literature and art.

    Sports were an absolute nightmare. I did everything I could to avoid Sports. This caused me so many problems. Including, extreme stress and anxiety. Finally, at some point I was exempt from Sports. That was a huge relief.

    My favorite subjects were Algebra, Geometry, History, IT, Geography, Chemistry, Astronomy and Biology.

    Languages, Literature, Art and Sports caused me a lot of problems and headaches.

    I was struggling so much with Literature, Art and Sports.

    I have almost zero interest in sports now.

    Then the horrors of school changing rooms... I only ever attended the rooms once and I refused ever to go to them.

  • No wonder the school tennis rackets and cricket bats always seemed to have holes in them... 

    Another jigsaw piece. Thinking

  • Sports here too, both from a co-ordination (or lack of) point of view... I really struggle with hitting balls with bats etc... but also from the team work angle as I'd rather be on my own. Then there's the horrors of school changing rooms... much of the bullying I experienced as a kid was in these horrific places!