Autism - what school adjustments for teenage boy

[thepuffin]

My DS has recently been diagnosed with Autism and referred for an ADHD. He is 15 and in year 11 doing his GCSEs next year. He is not hugely academic. I have a call with SENCO next week to discuss adjustments that can be put in place. But I can't think of any as this is all new to me. He does not want any of his schoolmates to know about his autism so any adjustments made by the school would need to be discrete. Your wisdom would be appreciated

I would say don't start with the diagnosis.

Start with what is he struggling with and what would help that.

So off the top of my head: crowds, noise, lights, room changeover, teachers leaving, lunchtimes, doing homework at home, understanding when teachers are joking / being indirect - are any of these issues?

@TeenDivided homework at home is appalling and time management and lack of attention and fidgeting are also problems.

OK so:

homework at home is appalling - can he access library at lunchtimes to get work done, do they run after school (or before school) homework clubs that he could go to / can they implement them / can he work in the school library before coming home or somewhere else staffed; would fixed online tasks work better at home than open ended homeworks?

time management - will he need a prompt for exams?

lack of attention and fidgeting - can he have a silent fidget toy to fiddle with in lessons / a wobble cushion / be given little tasks to break up the lesson to give him a chance to refocus (such as sharpening some pencils); again prompt for exams and maybe 'stand and stretch' or restbreaks too.

If not very academic, it may help to drop a subject with a big revision load (eg History / Geography) or just something he is struggling with. Then use the periods he has cleared to work somewhere to do homework (eg library, inclusion unit, back of classroom). This has the double benefit of getting homework for other lessons done but also reducing exam and revision load in the summer.

If they haven't already school may well start running after school revision sessions / clinics. You may want all the teachers to quietly encourage him to attend. You may find if homework is a real issue that you need to get some agreement that if he attends after school sessions they won't make a fuss about homework.

@TeenDivided some great ideas here, thank you. He wouldn’t go to library at lunch as likes to hang out with his mates but after school homework club might be an option, one to add to my list for next week.
The online homework is a nightmare as he gets distracted and looks at other sites so was wondering if paper homework would be better.
He would worry if fidget toys drew attention to him and made his mates ask him if he was autistic so think that would be a no.
Advance notice of coursework would be good though as he has left it to the last minute last year.

Fidget toys - 'everyone learns differently, I learn better when playing with a fidget toy'

He can have as many of the following as he needs:

• additional time 25%
• use of a laptop
• separate or individual room
• prompter (someone to tell him to stay on task)
• scribe (he talks they write)
• reader (they read the text to him)

There are a couple of other things but they are not usual for ASC (things like colour overlays)

They need evidence of need (medical diagnosis) and they also need to show "usual way of working" in school- so what does he actually need to do to have an accurate and fair assessment of learning.

Also important to note that the accommodations can be different for different subjects, so for some he may use the laptop, others a scribe, others maybe just additional time but that would depend on what was best for that type of exam.

And also check with him about what is useful and what he wants- his POV is often most useful!

Hi OP. I have a 13yr old boy. His adjustments are:

Dropped second language in yr8 and uses those three lessons for Senco support/study in library.

All staff have a checklist about him, what works well for him, what he needs more help with (eg. He can't do lists of instructions and forgets simple instructions really quickly, so teachers remind him and prompt him a lot.

He also has SEN issues which means he has extra time in exams, I will be asking for him to have a prompt in exams too.

Your son might benefit from rest breaks in exams, or a prompt or possibly extra time if he qualifies when he is assessed. (this is an external assessor who checks reading and writing speed etc).