Published on 12, July, 2020
My 15 yr old son has HFA. He goes to a special needs school and is doing great, apart from his English lessons. Even though he is at this school, he was getting held back with his Science and maths lessons compared to class mates.So for those lessons he goes to the normal secondary school in the same complex, a couple of hours a week and he is getting on great and enjoys it. But when it comes to English and other lessons where writing is involved, it's a disaster. He's struggles with writing stories, descriptions, his hand writing is only just readable, so how the heck he is doing so well in science is beyond me. His teachers seem to have given up on him, accusing of "putting on the autism act, because he can skip off to his Haughton lessons happily and get them done". This was said between his teacher and a TA within earshot of my son and one of his class mates heard it as well. What has been said is out of order, but I know that this is getting frustrating for everyone especially with GCSE's coming up soon. Has anyone any advice on how to help my son? We are not sure if it's a psychological problem or if there is something wrong medically Thank you to those who read this and thank you for any help you may be able to give.
*Update*
Thank you all who have replied. We had parents evening at school last night and got some great results. His maths and science lessons in the main stream school are going great, he's in top set for maths and at the moment his prediction is a grade 6. His science subjects individually are going great, he only scored 15/30 points on his biology test due to only joining the class at nearly the finish for that subject. He got 28/30 points for his chemistry test and we are awaiting the results of his physics test. And his hand writing was very clear compared to how he normally writes. He has a prediction score of grade 6 at the moment, but could go higher. Now, his English. I actually got to speak to his teacher for a change, normally you just get his form tutor. His teacher Mary started off by saying how proud she was of him and has great confidence in him passing his exam. She is going to give it until Autumn term and then we will decide if he does his English Literature exam or not. He doesn't have to do it. So in that case, we can concentrate on English language. We are trying to come up with ways of breaking down questions and answers. I mentioned that I had asked on here for some help, and she looks forward to hearing what people come up with. But all in all, she is determined to get him through it, same as me. As for the other problem, it is a discussion / complaint in progress. Again thank you, and please keep making suggestions on how to help.
Sue. X