Should I tell the school not to give my daughter extra time in tests?

[TractorTart]

My dd is 13. When she was 8 she was diagnosed with ASD. She is very bright and has no difficulties at school. She is very different to the little girl she was at 8, she has a nice group of friends, she no longer has a lot of the issues she had then such as severe tics and unusual behaviours.
We have needed no interventions at school as she is doing really well but the school have the info re diagnoses.
She is currently having end of year tests and told me that in one of the tests the teacher told her she has an extra 15 minutes to finish the test, she asked why and the teacher told her it just says it on the register. Should I tell them she doesn't need this?

If you feel happy that she doesn't need it then why not? I don't see any harm in it.

Presumably she will be doing her GCSEs in the next couple of years. You and her might be grateful for the extra time then. It's a lot easier to 'qualify' for exam access arrangements when you can prove the extra time is her 'normal way of working'. So she might not need it now, but consider the future is my advice.

If she doesn’t use extra time before the exams it’s a lot harder to argue that she needs it when it counts.

I would be inclined to leave it. She always has the chance to hand in her paper before the end of her allotted time. She might find it useful for planning in longer essay or multiple part exams that she hasn't yet had to do.

The extra time won't harm her and it might help her. She will most likely be reassessed before GCSE any way so I would leave it and trust the professionals.

To be honest I am not sure if they would even have to listen to you. If she has the right to the extra time she has the right. She doesn't have to take it though she can just say she is finished and doesn't want to use the time

Would you mind if I asked if you had any specific interventions between when your dd was 8 and now to help her so much?

Definitely leave it as it is. While she is coping brilliantly now, when it comes to more important exams down the line, she may feel under more pressure and those extra minutes could be valuable.

I don't see what the harm in it is. Does she also feel as though she doesn't need the extra time?

I would leave it as is her exams might or could send her into meltdown so this extra time might never be used but it is a safety net for her.

We are having this conversation at the moment but about SATs next year. Our son is entitled to extra time and laptop but we are considering declining. He hates being different and as SATs won’t have any long term impact on him we are thinking about letting him decide. However I hadn’t considered the aspect of getting used to the extra time for the future.

How does your DD feel about it?

Oh and our school are happy for us to decide and as it is specified on his EHCP it will have no impact on future exams.

I would keep it. I managed fine at GCSE with no extra time and wall my end of year exams since the age of 9. However, when it came to A Level one of my subjects required us to write multiple essays and I begged my Mum to get me tested to see if I could get extra time. Fortunately something was picked up and it was a godsend to have. In my other subjects I didn't always use it and all I had to do was hand in the paper whenever I wanted during the extra time. Many friends who did essay subjects (3/4 of my A level subjects were sciences) for A level who had no issues were always wishing they had extra time. If you don't use it fine but personally I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Meant I got all A's and A* and am studying a medical based degree. That extra time could mean one extra paragraph or final check of a calculation which could be the difference in one grade!

It’s great that she’s a lot different now than when she was 8 😊 and that she does well at school. I can understand you wanting to do away with the ‘extra time’ as it’s a marker really isn’t it?! But, you don’t know what changes puberty, stress & life might have on her. It’s FAR easier to retain the allowance of extra time than get it allowed again later. (It shouldn’t be, but it is). If she doesn’t need to extra time surely she can just leave when her friends do and say ‘Thank you, but I don’t need the extra time today’.

My very bright son was not diagnosed with dyslexia until he was 17. When I look at his GCSE results compared with his not quite so bright brother I feel sad that he did not have the extra time in those exams. Admittedly he did OK, but he could have had better grades.
If she is getting extra time now, she might need it later- so I would stick with it, to establish the pattern.

Leave it. She doesn't have to use it if she doesn't want to, but she may need it for GCSEs, by which time it will be too late to arrange for it as easily.

I'd contact the school SENCO and ask whether they have reassessed her themselves.

To be valid for GCSEs it will have to be done again after the start of y9 anyway, so you wouldn't want her getting used to it only for it to be removed if the secondary haven't checked she will qualify.

Just to add, I was bright and had no difficulties at school (heck, I provided 1-to-1 tuition in a couple of subjects for people who were struggling), but turned out to have a pretty significant SpLD that had been masked - until I crashed and burnt later on at university. The two things aren't mutually exclusive.

Another one for leave it as it is. Like above, you don’t know if she will need it for GCSEs and it might be difficult to get back.

Wow. No. Do not unilaterally decide your daughter is cured just because she has learned to mask so well. She may well need the extra time under stress to process the questions. She will be using up a lot of energy and concentration to be fitting in so well, and while it's great for her that she is thriving, don't get rid of the tiny bits of support that are already in place.

Leave it. I have a condition that affects my processing speed and while at GCSE I never needed the time, it was useful when applying for extra time at college and uni and took the pressure off a bit if anything did take me a little longer

I'm in exactly the same situation with my DS of the same age. I have decided to leave it for now - might be difficult to claw the time back later when it matters (for GCSEs, etc).

It is a flag, and in the next year or so she will need to be reassessed as to whether she has issues such as slow processing or lack of focus and , if so, what access arrangements are needed to be put in place for her gcses. These then need to be her normal way of working. You may find she is asked to change ink colour when she is in extra time as a way of looking at how or if she uses it.

ASD isn't something you grow out of. Just because she seems to be coping better now don't start taking away the things that might be helping her to cope.

she may find that she gets anxious because of asd later in high school & burning your boats here may make it difficult if she needs extra time. For instance: organising herself before she starts & reads her exam questions - going to class to class with separate books, studying equipment, stressing out because of the number of things she needs to do/remember/organise. The difference between herself & her friends socially & every other way is less at this time than it will be as she grows & matures at a slower rate. These can cause anxiety - don't shut the door to what might be a life line to her later - is she copes than fine but acknowledging her potential difficulties doesn't mean acknowledging a lower potential - it just means that she is getting an equal playing field - It may get harder to get school help later if she does need it

DS has extra time - if anything he finishes early as he gets in, ploughs through and then is done. What's the point in going through it again, if he didn't know it at the time he's not going to know it later Anyway what it does give him is a quiet room for the extra time, so without other people sniffing or fidgeting or breathing which would distract him.