GSCE English, anxious child, gothic horror

[StrongLegs]

Hi,

My ASD son is extremely anxious and would really rather avoid the gothic horror part of GCSE English. The teacher said it would be fine for us to pay a tutor for him to learn a different text. However she said that the exam will contain an unseen text, which from her experience tends to be pretty horrible (she gave the example of "the shooting of the elephant" by George Orwell, and then a train wreck in another year.)

We are seeking professional help for my son's anxiety. However, I just wondered if anybody knows of a different exam board that has a GCSE English qualification or equivalent that doesn't have a load of horror in it? Even the Scottish or Irish qualification board might be okay if we could access it from England. Alterantively, would the exam board have any way to help, with special provision? It's AQA for language and OCR for literature.

I really would like to avoid having my son exposed to even more horror as he's had enough. His ASD makes his life extremely hard, and he had a lot of forced medical treatment as a baby/toddler, and what with covid and all that, he's really had enough.

He's diagnosed level 1 ASD and is not eligible for an EHCP becasue he is doing fine (thriving even) in all other areas. He is at smart as a whip intellectually, and gets 7s, 8s and 9s in most subjects.

Thanks so much in advance for any ideas.

Thank you very much for all your kind help. I appreciate it very much.

What year is he in currently?
Do you know which Shakespeare he will do?
I think any time spent reading anything is good

Ds is in year 8 just now. Sorry it was a typo when I said year 8 and 10 before. I meant year 9 and 10.

He's going to be studying a shakespeare tragedy and I think they said it would be Romeo and Juliet. I think he's okay with that.

At the moment he reads the following:

Hamish books and previously David Walliams
DK science encyclopedias
popular science books like Humble pi and What if
A 1850s gardening manual on running an orchard.
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
Asterix
Lucky Luke
Peanuts
Calvin and Hobbes
World Trigger anime books
Dungeons and Dragons manuals.
Hitchiker's guide to the galaxy
And lots of other stuff

During home school he really enjoyed Mozart operas, and a bit of Henry James and really anything that was quite deep and subtle. He really dislikes anything that seems to have been written with a sledgehammer.

It's the same with classical music. He likes really subtle stuff, but not the kind of loud clamourous music that they choose for children's concerts.

This is what I would do.

Get the tutor (is that going to be an at home one?) to do the set B text with him when the rest of the year are doing J&H.

The 'rest of the time' (whatever that is) ask the tutor to do whatever his weak spots are for English Language and/or do extra work on the Shakespeare / book A / poetry when he is studying them.

How is he with inference, as I know that can be hard for some kids with autism? The English Lang has a fair bit of inference at times and poetry can be incomprehensible...

Don't 'waste' time studying an extra set text.

(Just so you know where I'm coming from. DD1 has dyspraxia, massively struggled with Eng Lang, DD2 has dyslexia & dyspraxia & anxiety but focused on germs/crowds not horror. They both have traits that overlap with autism.)

(My DD2 quite enjoyed J&H)

Hi,

Thanks so much for all the advice.

I just got the best phone call from the school. They're organising 1-2-1 tuition for DS so he can skip year 8 horror and GCSE Jekyll and Hyde, and they're going to let him choose the GCSE text that he studies.

I am so happy, and so relieved, and I could just hug the head of English.

Phew!

Thank you for all your help. It's been a Godsend.

Super.

Brilliant.

Do you have it in writing? As well as other evidence I would use that as evidence to support an EHCNA request. That will formalise support and open the door to support DS wouldn’t otherwise receive.

English lit lecturer here (19th century one of my specialisms). I think Pride and Prej or War of the Worlds are your best bets. The latter is violent but it's not the kind of intimate, interpersonal, physical violence that your DS seems to find especially upsetting. If he enjoys Henry James and his depiction of relations between people and esp men and women, I think he might like Jane Austen - there's some similarity in their ironies.

Just on James, and you might know this already, "Portrait of a Lady" is, while not physically violent, quite a brutal book in many ways - people are used, bullied and good people end unhappily. It's fantastic as a novel, but there's a lot of darkness. But if he likes James, get him to try Edith Wharton!

Your son sounds fab and with really mature sensibilities! I'm glad the school are supportive. I hope he does really well. The GCSE syllabus can be turgid at the best of times.

@ThomasWasTortured Thanks, that's a really good point. What sort of things would DS get from an EHCP? I did ask the Senco about it but she said it wasn't needed as DS was considered to be coping accross the board, except for this one thing. I really have no idea what an EHCP involves or what it helps with. DS's biggest struggles really are getting food that he can eat, and getting organised. I do a lot of specialist cooking and general organising, that I can imagine other families do not do for their kids, especially if they have several children.

@BusMumsHoliday Thank you that is really really helpful to know. I do see what you mean about War of the Worlds. DS is always really happy with robot violence, if you know what I mean. It's emotional violence that he struggles with. He always assures me that his computer games don't involve what he calls "perma-death". He means that although there is fighting, the harm is instantly fixed afterwards. I'm so much hoping that War of the Worlds will be okay for him. Crossing about 78,000 fingers. Also I'm going to try Edith Wharton myself. It sounds lovely. :-) Thanks for the tip.

There’s more to EHCPs than academic ability. DS may appear to be coping fine but he clearly has significant needs arising from his autism and anxiety and requires support to meet those needs. Some of that support isn’t what you would typically get in mainstream without an EHCP.

The process of the needs assessment itself can been helpful. It can highlight hidden needs. For example, we all thought DS3 had a brilliant memory, and he does have an excellent long term memory that was masking a very poor working memory which was contributing to some of his difficulties.

Then if an EHCP is issued it can provide therapies (e.g. OT, SALT, CBT, animal assisted, art…) he wouldn’t otherwise get, more frequently/for longer than he would otherwise get and without the need to sit on the normal waiting lists. It could provide support with assistive technology, organisation, preparation for adulthood. And also things like the 1:1 you mention - the school have been amazing at arranging that, but without an EHCP it could be removed at any time and an EHCP could ensure it covers revision too.

@ThomasWasTortured That does sound very helpful. The SLT would be particularly useful, and help with understanding social situations, which DS struggles with very much.

I will ask the ASD specialist that we are seeing tomorrow. He used to be a social worker and I think he will know a whole lot about this. Thank you very much for suggesting it.

I suppose the first thing I need to do is to list all the things that I am doing quietly behind the scenes to keep DS going. The Senco at school said he didn't need an EHCP because he was coping, but I don't think she realised how hard DS, DH, and I work to keep him coping, or how hard it is.

Even if the ASD specialist puts you off I would still request an EHCNA. Sadly, some professionals (not all, but not a small minority either) incorrectly say DC don’t need or won’t get an EHCP, but the parents go on to successfully apply themselves.

Some schools also see DC as coping or ‘fine’ when really they are anything but. DS’s anxiety, social and organisational difficulties, the extent he is masking and the amount of support and scaffolding you are providing shows he isn’t actually coping when you dig deeper.

Thanks, that's really useful to know. I just talked to DH and he worries that we will get trapped into "the system" and end up dealing with people who are underqualified and over-burdened, with too many kids to look after. Do you think it is like that?

We've had to do everything privately so far (ASD assessment, dyspraxia assessment, clinical psychology, wetting advice, and all that). But the flip side of that is that we get to choose good people. We have the work done at the time when it's needed, and on our own terms, rather than being dependent on other people's waiting lists and their systems of working.

I would be glad to know what you have found.

Also if an EHCP continues until the child is 25, does that mean that it helps when they are trying to become independent, rather than them being dependent on parents for an extended period of time?

I am diagnosed level 1 ASD as well, but it wasn't called that when I was a teenager and I just stayed at home until I graduated from University. That was very normal where I grew up, but it's much less common in England where we are now. I stayed in full time education to the end of a PhD, so like DS I did well academically, but was a bit random for life skills.

I think it can sometimes be like that, but if you ensure the EHCP is watertight and you are on the ball it isn’t as big a problem. For example, you can have qualifications/training/ experience of professionals detailed in the EHCP, and if the EHCP is properly specified and quantified the fact they are overburdened is much less of an issue. It is still possible to opt out of “the system” if you later choose i.e. you can still deregister and EHE.

I have 2 DC with EHCPs, both academically able, both receiving support including multiple therapies. It wasn’t a walk in the park to get to this point, but it has been worth it. Both DC have provision costing more than we could fund (DS1 has an EOTAS package costing over £100kpa. DS3 is in MS with support over £35kpa).

EHCPs can continue until 25, or 26 in some circumstances. It can cover preparation for adulthood. However, it doesn’t cover higher education. Support at university is covered by Disabled Students’ Allowance (a much easier system) and, if applicable, social care.

Gosh, yes that is a big thing to be able to have all that. I'm really glad that you have been able to organise that. It sounds so helpful.

I find it hard to know if DS needs anything like that tbh. I think that what he would really like is a card game club at lunchtime and a D&D club after school, and gluten-free sausages for lunch once a week.

And a lot less horror in lessons - for some reason it happens a lot in all subjects. We can't work out why.

I'm not sure that an EHCP would cover that though.

He already has a keyboard to use in lessons. They school were fantastic about that - they just phoned me up and said it was happening and life has been so much easier since then.

DS also needs help with PTSD from forced medical treatment in his baby years, but I think we will organise that privately as that is very delicate work.

The clubs are definitely something that could be supported via an EHCP.

From your posts, I would suggest DS would benefit from SALT, OT, MH therapies, preparation for adulthood support, looking further at assistive technology and 1:1 teaching for the parts of the curriculum he can’t access within class.

PTSD is really difficult to deal with, isn’t it? DS1 has PTSD related to a bereavement. He isn’t at a point where EMDR is suitable, but I so wish it was as I think it could help.

Thanks, I will ask the senco and the ASD specialist about it. That does sound really helpful.

The one that caught us out was drama in y9. They used to it cover some PSHE topics, so all of a sudden drama, which DD2 had loved, turned into pieces on knife crime, drugs overdoses and self harm. She complained how miserable it was.

Yes I think that is a huge part of it in a lot of subjects.

I wish they would do PSHE on how a lot of life is really quite dull and safe, and how most people are caring, and would help if asked. Nobody ever seems to mention that.