Published on 12, July, 2020
My daughter was diagnosed with ASC four years ago and is now in the first year of A-levels. She is very bright and a natural independent learner.
She is studying essay subjects (RS, History and Politics) and is now really struggling with the task of essay writing. She is also absorbed, perhaps too absorbed, in the subjects she is studying. She is reading 1-2 books a week on her subjects that go well beyond the syllabus. She is following her curiosity and always wants to know more. On the face of it, this seemed like positive behaviour. Now I am not so sure.
Her challenge with the essay writing is that she struggles to make sense of the essay question. Terms are not defined with sufficient clarity and she can see many ways to address the question. When she does eventually pick a path to go down, she loses her way as the questions she has grow and grow. She finds it very hard to marshal her thoughts and often gives up.
When she does manage to write something, it is very good. She is getting top marks for the work she hands in. However, the effort and emotional drain associated with doing the work makes this all unsustainable.
She is slipping behind and is growing increasingly anxious. School refusal has now become a real issue again.
The school are now worried that she won't be ready for her year end exams and would like to talk to us about support and options. I suspect they'll want us to get some external support for her. Perhaps involving medication.
I don't really know what to do for the best.
Any advice?
Get her as much support as you can, I mean in the sense of people helping her with the work, 1-to-1 support. Maybe counselling. I wouldn't go down the medication route. I've tried that and most the medications made me feel worse. Children are given way too much homework these days and the school hours are too long, that's why she's stressed out, on top of being Autistic. She might also need help with social skills, just having someone kindly explain to her how to socialise, it's possible stress relating to social problems is compounding the problem of doing the schoolwork.
Be prepared to hound the school and social services etc. for support but always do it in a polite way.