DS (8) Maths test refusal because all the numbers were chased away.

[SilentHeadphones]

He had a maths test yesterday, refused to do it. TA (1:1) tried to encourage him but in the end had to leave for another class. Class teacher told him to do a question, he did it. She pointed at another, he did it and again. She then had to stop him because it was the end of the class. He is suspected ADHD, ASD and hates maths. He often refuses to do it, but if we can persuade him to then he usually gets most of it correct. So we are never sure if he can't do it, hasn't understood the question, or he just doesn't want to do it.

We asked him why he didn't do it and the only thing we got out of him was "all the numbers got chased away and only 5 was left."

Anyone else been in this situation?

Either it's an imaginative excuse, or a visual thing.

Have you had him tested for colour blindness? Or eyes checked in general recently? If he reports it happening again try changing the colour somehow (most schools have coloured overlay sheets for dyslexic students as the colour change helps the words to 'stay still')

He had his eyes tested a couple of months ago.
He's not usually one for making up imaginative excuses.
I don't think he meant on the paper, I think he meant they were chased out of his head and all he could think of was the number 5.

Sounds like a PDA type of passive opposition to me (not suggesting he is PDA, just that you see that type of 'reasoning' a lot in extreme demand avoidant profiles).

He did the questions when pointed to, and unless he answered them all with 5, then I'd say it was an imaginative excuse.

As he has ADHD - has he been tested for diskalkulia (sp.)?
My DD has both and we only found out the latter by accident. She had special therapy lessons. She was trying so hard to make some kind of sense out of numbers and operations and very often got the right answer but not for the right reason.

I am pretty certain he has, but they won't test for that until next year. And won't put any measures in place until he has a diagnosis [head wall bang]
I don't know if he answered the questions correctly on the test. Will find out on Monday.

It could also be just that he panicked when faced with a test and his mind went blank. They are supposed to let us know when something out of routine will happen (i.e. a test) so we can warn him but they didn't.

Meeres-Irlen? It's possible to have perfect eyesight, so it has to be tested for separately. And it can be on its own without dyslexia. It's worth a google and a referral if only to rule it out.

Please believe him. I stuggled with Mathes in school and I'd still swear now those numbers used to walk around the page.
Funnily enough mental arithmatic has always been second none

I do believe him! We have a meeting with school Monday and I want to have constructive things to say,

He needs a dyslexia/dyscalcula assessment.

And he may have had more success when the questions were pointed at because the act of pointing brought the questions into focus.

I vividly remember sitting in a foreign language spoken language test and feeling like the words were almost literally running away from me. They just seemed to slip out of my head, in an almost physical sense.

I went on to study the language at university and got a 2:1.

I know colditz but they won't do one until the next academic year. His speech therapist is also the person who would do the dyslexia assessment and I have raised it with her, she is keeping an eye on him, but doesn't think that he has it.
Dyscalculia is a real possibility I probably have it too

Speech therapists aren't usually qualified to do proper dyslexia assessments. His teacher would be a good starting point for a conversation about his reading, writing and spelling development.

His teacher would be a good starting point for a conversation about his reading, writing and spelling development.
Yes, we've had several of these conversations. But it's not reading, writing and spelling that's an issue. It's maths.

It may not be usual, but that's how it is.

We (different country) had to convince the teacher that DD was not stupid. We changed school, got her assessed (5 pages of what actually went on inside her head when doing maths - my poor girl of 7 trying so hard).
She went to a specialized tutor to practically start from scratch, got some extra time and a quiet room for examns etc. She found that colour coding and verbalising maths questions and solutions helped her.
She is in year thirteen now, has passed all her maths assessments so far and is currently discussing curves.
But recognizing a number at first glance is still a problem (telling time, switching on the oven.)

Was the page quite 'busy'?

I have often thought DD would do better in maths and science if there was only 1 question per page. When things are crammed together it seems to blow her mind. Same with reading, which is much better when there is lots of white space around.

I don't know how crowded the page was.

I don't think the teacher thinks he's stupid, I hope not!

If he can answer the questions correctly when asked verbally, or when pointed to individually on the page then it is unlikely to be dyscalculia which is more about not being able to do them.

If he has possible ASD, he hates maths and the maths test was out of his expected routine, then it’s entirely possible that being presented with a surprise maths test led to a mental shutdown. The same test presented differently in a different situation might not have had the same effect. Maths anxiety can cause this and ASD and anxiety are strongly connected.

If this sounds possible, then you could start working on his maths as an anxiety issue. If he’s autistic, then unexpected tests will probably never yield positive results.

If he's doing them when pointed to the then it seems like he just needs help staying on task rather than he is refusing as he'd just say no or make excuses/meltdown when asked.
Sounds like he needs 1-1 to help him with these kinds of tasks were the children are expected to get on with it independently.

Strategies like using a piece of paper to change cover the questions he hasn't got to yet and moving it down each time one is completed might help. He may need still need ta support at first though and/or practice a home.

Not sure why it says change in there!

I had suspicions my dd had dyslexia from being very young. I raised my concerns all through primary school with each teacher she had and they all said no.
She went to secondary and I asked her English teacher if there was anything that might make her suspect dd was dyslexic. She looked surprised and said no. The school had her tested properly and hey ho, she has dyslexic traits.
The point I'm making is that teachers are not always best placed to recognise it as there are so many variations and different levels of it.
Words can appear move around the page with some kinds of dyslexia, maybe he means that?

@noblegiraffe
DD (just) passed the standard verbal and written tests, because she counted very fast in her head (by counting imaginary turtles!). She got just enough right to be classed as lazy and generally a bit dim by her teachers and ed psychs.