Advice please :autistic child is not allowed to colour in lessons

[Dispairrepair]

Any advice please, my dd is autistic, highly intelligent but can't cope with exams and has started college.
She can't self regulate and talks a lot. One of her coping mechanisms is colouring in and I've been assured in the past by tas and teachers that she is OK with this and can still concentrate but, becomes distracted anyway and will need occasional reminding to keep on task.

She says her new teachers repeatedly ask her to stop colouring?

Is this expected now she is in college or should we expect them to accommodate this need? She finds sitting in one place hard and she fidgets.

The world is full of neurodiverse professionals who survive meetings by doodling.

This is simply untrue.

my workplace does not care one bit that I am odd. I am an expert in my field and a sought after member on projects teams.

my workplace is full of people like me. Anyplace that has to hire a large number of people with advanced degrees is likely to also have a large neurodiverse population.

@Livelovebehappy

Whilst school and college might be accommodating in letting her colour in, employers in the workforce won’t be

You don't know that for sure but it's irrelevant in any case. OPDD needs the adjustment now so it should be put into place. I always find working with the child and their abilities in the moment is more productive than a short sighted 'you won't be able to do it at work'

I’m an autistic secondary school teacher. I doodle constantly when I’m expected to sit and listen. When I’m teaching, I flick a pen between my hands as a fidget. My workplace are fine with this. Please, please email the college, we’d much rather know now that it’s a coping mechanism and not just inattention. I have a child in my y7 class with an EHCP, have taught them for 2 weeks and all the info I’ve had so far is from a spreadsheet with primary info which says “has EHCP, needs support.” I still don’t know why this child has an EHCP and would be so grateful for an email telling me how to support them.

But businesses can't let an employee colourblind for extended periods of time. Depends on how long we're talking about here, but if it's an hour here and there, then obviously work that you're being paid to do isn't getting done and others will be picking up the slack. Not sure if you are saying you colour in too or if its just a personality thing as you just state you're odd, which would be irrelevant in the workplace anyway, as you're still getting your work done.

This isn’t about colouring in or doodling or fidgeting instead of doing work. It’s about having some activity to calm the senses so that the person can focus enough to listen in circumstances where you are listening not doing- like meetings or training sessions.

Not being able to colour in, doodle, fidget results in an autistic person looking like they are listening, but they aren’t actually listening because their mind is wandering and they can’t focus.

Write to the Head requesting this as a reasonable adjustment, pointing out that failure to make adjustments can constitute indirect disability discrimination under EA2010. If they decline to make the adjustment call the EASS and ask for the relevant model letter.

You've had some very odd replies from people in education who have no idea how out of touch they are with current workplace practices and neurodiversity friendly policies in some sectors.

I've been doodling in meetings for 37 years now. Helps me listen. Noone has ever had a problem...

Of course I’m not doodling when I’m actively working. Most of my day is spent actively working. Doodling (or now fidget toys offscreen on zoom) help focus the mind on the speaker during listening. It increases focus and meeting participation.

We had this, some teachers couldn't grasp that when she was doodling she was listening and asking her to put down the pen to listen had the opposite effect. It was in dd's EHCP, probably still is but she's EOTAS so not an issue, I took to emailing each teacher quoting direct from EHCP and reminding them of need for reasonable adjustments.

Except she will be doing work, obviously.

@hiredandsqueak exactly.

They will be not only causing dd distress but making a rod for their own back

"she finds sitting in a seat hard" does not mean colouring in is a reasonable adjustment. They need to explicitly know that this helps her. Just let them know and ask if it can be considered/trialled as an adjustment for her as it worked last year.

Many people could be described as finding it hard to sit in one seat, but if you let them colour, they'd not learn a thing.

I do think you’re being a bit unfair on everyone here. You aren’t sure if they are aware this is the coping strategy she has found that works but your expecting them to just know and understand.

You need to be proactive not reactive. You need to make a meeting, with your daughter there too ideally, to talk things through and come up with a workable plan.

Can confirm my employer would be, as long as the work is being done. I’d have no issue with it on my team.

Come join us in 2023.

OP, you need to contact them as others have said. There will be no repercussions for DD, they’ll listen.

@OhcantthInkofaname You seem quite bitter about disabled people having civil rights?

WTAF

Just speak to the college. I have asd and I stim.

I stimmed all through college, university and now work. There wasn't an issue. Cod Liver helps with the fidgetness

But now she's older, I recommend she finds something to study that she can "hyperfocus" on or "obsess" over.

E.g if she's colouring in - she needs to be doing art.

If she's obsessed with hair - hairdressing

Or like me, obsessed with doodling on a computer so I did graphic design at college!

I doodle at work on my notepad. It helps me get fully / deeply involved in processes and helps me understand them. 🤟 I'm not even the only doodler.

Straight to SEN to sort this out. As I’ve found out recently when someone told someone I didn’t want my child’s reasonable adjustments (!) you have to be on it all the time. Speaking to the SeN should have the right network to take this on for your daughter.

oh and to all the ignorant idiots on this thread please do one and leave the grown ups to help.

People are ridiculous. At school we had ‘rough jotters’ with that crummy thin recycled paper. I used mine entirely for doodling- animals, people, practising perspective and shading- and no one cared because I also did the work. No one, including me, even knew it was an ‘accommodation’. I still do it at work. In meetings or 1:1 conversations I fidget with a pen, jewellery, a hair tie- anything I can reach, usually under the table- unless it’s supremely important like a job interview when part of my energy goes on keeping my hands still.

Zero tolerance fidgeting policies in schools and colleges are unnecessary and are creating problems to solve that just don’t exist if you focus -within reason- on the output rather than the method.

OP I would talk to them- they probably don’t have the information passed on but if they are as good as their reputation they’ll respond well to the conversation.

But from past experience I know if they have told her to stop repeatedly and I ask them now to stop asking they will likely see that as a direct challenge to their authority and they won't think it's fine.

I thought this was a new college?

Just drop an email now to the pastoral/SEN team and say something along the lines of, ‘I’m not sure if the handover includes this info but X finds colouring in really helpful during lessons- as listed in Section F of her EHCP-could you possibly share this information with her lecturers as she’s been asked to stop a few times and is getting a bit stressed out? Thank you so much!’

Don’t leave it ‘a few weeks’-there’s just no need.

Do you continue to have termly meetings and Annual Reviews in college?

@Livelovebehappy you should change your username to 'FollowTheRules'.