ASD child graded on eye contact?

[HuntedForest]

DS(10) has brought home two tests.
One was a vocab test, with a set list of vocab. The last three questions were words which were covered only in class and I didn't know about so couldn't practice with him and that he didn't expect to be in the test, He got three wrong. He has issues concentrating in class, always says it's too noisy and he can't follow things unless you speak directly to him (obviously not possible), can't follow instructions given to the class as a whole etc. This is a known issue.

Second test was a poster and presentation. The teacher always groups him with the best students for that subject. He got 3 marks for poster itself, 3 for content, 3 for group work and preparation. One mark for the presentation (content tallies with the task, articulation and presentation - fluent speech, eye contact to the rest of the class etc). Thus getting 10/16 and "unacceptable" overall. It's not written but for the way the mark sheet is formatted, I would guess he needed 12 points to pass.

He is in his 4th year of speech therapy and has ASD...

We are in the us so have what is called a 504. It states that dd can’t lose points on assignments for things that are identified as part of her condition and then lists them. For her that is handwriting and keeping track of physical materials and assignments (ironically, she is an excellent public speaker despite ASD).

I would ask the school for a formal accommodation which means the teacher adjusts the grading rubric so eye contact is not included on future assignments.

That's shockingly bad practise. Are you on the UK op?

I’m torn on this. Obviously it is part of his diagnosis and therefore I understand that he may need adjustments (for example, perhaps the teacher would not instruct him to make eye contact). But does that mean this is never going to be something to work on? And in the future, is it not going to be something he might be assessed on (even informally)?

I genuinely don’t know.

I know @flaviaritt but.... I'm pretty sure the teacher didn't say beforehand "you will be marked on eye contact, speech clarity etc"
And I know people (unconsciously) judge you on all of these things. It he can't actually help that his speech isn't clear and he wears a brace. I have explained he needs to talk to the desks, or people's ears but he panics when he's expected to talk in front of the rest of the class.

Sounds hard, OP. Talk to the teacher and see what they can do. With speaking and listening (as it usually isn’t formally assessed at GCSE in a way that actually counts towards grades) there is sometimes more flexibility.

DS was told he couldn't take part in his year 6 class assembly because he wasn't speaking loudly or with emotion in rehearsals. He just needed to try harder, apparently. The amount of autism training teachers have is far too little. That said, he's 'learnt' now what is the correct behaviour in situations like that - whether or not he's willing to do it is another issue

Chris Packham did that programme about autism - there was a bit in there about how before he first went on telly he wrote a list of things he needed to do "be normal" like maintain eye contact etc - it was eye opening for me, because DS is doing that constantly and it must be so tiring.

Thats dreadful and it sounds as if no reasonable adjustments were made. I despair of things every improving sometimes.

Is this feedback given on the test? The eye contact etc?

Pass rate? Unacceptable at 10/16?

Is this a state run primary? I work in one and I know in my school we don't operate in the same way, and can't imagine giving points in that way is helpful at all. Feedback, yes, points though?

I would find out more and ask what adjustments are being made for your DS (has he got a provision plan?).

Sounds a very formal way to assess 10 yos doing presentations!

Sounds worth a talk with the teacher and discussing some practical targets.

DS (9) has ASD, dyslexia and dyspraxia. He's actually OK with presentations as he gets enthused about being the expert and rabbits on with a veneer of confidence. The eye contact is not so bad for him as he can flit around the room at various people and within his class, he's quite comfortable (won't look at strangers and will talk to a "safe" person though) Sounds like you're on a good track with coping strategies even if they're not coming to fruition yet.
With the dyslexia, DS gets to pick his choice of 5 spellings from the class' 10 so he has a better chance of getting a 3, 4, 5 out of 5 rather than struggling with a low score out of 10. A similar strategy of changing his "pass" or customising requirements could be applied to the presentation criteria to meet his needs and show progression.

10/16 sounds pretty good to me anyway!

When DS had lines in the Christmas play we got him to practice by moving further away from us ending up in the downstairs toilet while we were in the lounge to develop him projecting his voice. That was a couple of years before diagnosis.

I would speak with someone about this it’s not acceptable to mark him down on something that is affected by his condition.

In response to the poster who asked is this never to be worked on in short my opinion would be no. It is often counter productive to force eye contact for someone who has ASD and can actually be physically uncomfortable for some.