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lockdown learning

Nikki

Hi everyone, my son has ASD, Dyspraxia, Sensory issues, Attention Deficit Disorder, OCD, Hyperacusis and social anxiety. He is very intelligent and is academically able. Currently he is struggling to cope with school work in the lockdown. Unless I sit with him constantly and keep an eye on what he's doing he gets badly distracted and either starts doodling or watching YouTube videos. At school he masks all the time and hence he doesn't get any help. But at home he is unable to focus and struggles to finish any work, without supervision. The school have asked me to tell my son to submit at least one piece of work a day. They offered to allow my son to attend school if he's struggling at home to learn. (I am not ready to put my family in danger by sending son to school) Other than that my son hasn't had any other support with his ADD issue. I have submitted my application for EHCP and waiting to hear if they will issue an EHCP. They have finished assessing my son. Son is in year 6 and isn't working to his potential. Even before the lockdown, he was not doing any homework. The school have not offered any help with that. Owing to ADD he gets severely distracted and is unable to finish any work even if he starts off with the best of intentions. Sometimes he just doesn't want to do any work at all and gets very upset if he's forced to study. He has meltdowns at times as a result. Now that lockdowns are the new normal, I am concerned that my child will miss out on precious months of learning. I really cannot imagine how my son will cope with secondary and GCSEs without doing homework and self-study/revision at home. He definitely needs one-to-one support, I am unable to devote dedicated time to sit with my child to help him do his classwork and homework.  I would like to find out if anyone is facing a similar situation and what help the kids are getting in the lockdown with online learning. 

Appreciate your help very much.

Thank you!

  • in reply to Charlie Timm

    Hi Charlie, thanks for your reply. I do agree it's not easy for children with ASD to cope in the same way as nuerotypical kids.  But I do worry about what the future holds for my DS. He is extremely talented, but is not able to apply himself anywhere. I wish help and guidance was more easily accessible for both parents and kids.

  • in reply to Plastic

    Thanks so much for your suggestion Plastic! Yeah, I agree. Some tasks are harder than the rest. For my DS, he gets overwhelmed looking at the number of problems on a Maths sheet and refuses Maths as a result. 

  • in reply to Nellie82

    Nellie, thanks so much for your reply!  All the info you have given me is really useful. I agree, there's a lot of help that's available, but I guess it's all about knowing how to get it.

    I appreciate you sharing your experience. Makes me feel better Slight smile

    xx

  • in reply to ~fiona~

    Hi Fiona

    Thanks for sharing your experience! 

    I can imagine how difficult it is with juggling work and providing learning support.

    Fortunately, son has 2 hours of online learning everyday and the teacher is an absolute gem. So DS submits small bits of work. But it's not enough. The school have stopped placing demands.

    DS has similar issues of refusing to go out. But he loves Roblox and creating stuff on Scratch. So I convince him to get out by talking about his favourite games or the discussing ideas for creating something new.

    We always let him play a game for half hour in the morning to let him feel happy.

    So maybe giving your daughter something to look forward to after the walk might help?  But I do agree it's not easy.  Does your daughter have an EHCP? If not it might be worth applying for one. Although it does need a lot of assessments for which we had to pay from our pocket.

    Hope things work out for you.

    xx

  • A big problem is a lot of tasks are too open-ended.    English - write an essay?      What, you want me to make up a lie?    A falsehood?    What about?      There's too many unknowns so there's no motivation to just get it done quickly - it requires way too much thought.        Maths is easier - concise - it's either right or wrong.

    Try asking the teachers more precise work for him - take away all the loose ends and unknowns - he might work better with that.

  • My son Is 8 and i have to sit beside him constantly as he loses focus so quickly, or not understand what he needs to do. He is very able academically. I empathise completely. I struggle as I have to sit with my daughter also as she is younger. My advise would be to break it all down into shorter times of learning. He may be feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work he is needing to do. Prior to doing this we had constant meltdowns. I dreaded everyday home schooling. My son gets 1 to 1 support at school and it has helped. One of our support contacts informed us that we could also be entitled to a personal assistant to support at home. There is a lot of support out there that isn't readily offered. Don't be worried about asking for support from your local authority. It is exhausting dealing with it 24/7.

  • Hi Nikki,

    I had just come on here to post similar about my Daughter aged 9. She has recently (December) been diagnosed with ASC and this past week of home schooling has been so challenging for her and also myself!!  I am trying to work from home and study so I don't have a huge amount of time to sit with her and make her do her learning, She has a couple of live sessions a day which she will happily sit through, tell the teacher she understands and then once it's over she comes to find me to say she doesn't know what she is supposed to do. 

    Today she had a very simple task of listening to a lesson input (recorded) and make a poster, I even did a quick draft of a poster for her so she could take it away and copy and still she says she can't do it.  The learning is often (though not always) quite easy as she is quite bright, but she seems to get a mental block and starts to panic.

    So although I can't be a huge help for you with your son I can empathise and I also would love any advice from anyone about what I should/ could do to help her actually do her learning without me (she doesn't have a one to one at school so no reason to need me by her side all the time).

    Is your son getting any live lessons or are they all recorded? Has he had any contact with his teacher like a phone call? 

    One other thing I'm having trouble with her is that she refuses to leave the house, even for a short walk. It will be an absolute battle to the point I don't often even bother suggesting a walk anymore, which isn't really fair on her sister (or me!)

  • Nikki said:
    isn't working to his potential

    I've seen this a lot in talks regarding ADD / ADHD / ASD etc. And the answer has similarly been the same i.e. it is because it is very hard for him to motivate himself to do anything that is not of his own interest. 

    It is my honest opinion that school in general is a very ill fit for the neurological niches. The "do what you're told" approach, resonates very little with our way of perceiving the world. I would expect that he has a number of subjects, which he is very motivated in doing. 

    So - my question is really - what potential does he need to live up to? In short, school is a preparation for a work life that much likely will be even harder on him. I think a lot of people in here, myself included, can confirm that it is very hard to find a suitable place of working as ASD / ADD etc. Regardless of your subject expertise. 

    I think the lockdown is a potential gift in the fact that it allows you to decide what he does. Let him have this time to figure out what he is passionate about. And spend a lot of time with what he loves. Most likely - that will allow him to live up to his full potential.