PDA and exams

[Unwisezebra]

Hi all,
I’m new here with 3 kids, 2 of whom have ASD diagnoses.

Youngest is 15 and shows some PDA traits though she masks highly so school are not aware of this. The demand avoidance is impacting badly on revision for GCSEs and although she was predicted high grades, she did much worse than expected in recent mocks.

Would be interested to hear from parents who’ve been through similar and to understand what (if anything) helped with getting through exams.

Thanks all.

I would start by speaking to the school. Did DD have access arrangements for the mocks?

Would DD find using tech helpful for revision? For example, Tassomai
Seneca, Quizlet and Duolingo.

Hello, @Unwisezebra as an adult who had this presentation when taking their GCSEs, i totally understand how difficult what you are going through is.

in terms of what helped me is taking a past paper in a familiar environment but removing the front cover to take away the demand element of the exam as well as having someone familiar being there.

could she also write down what it is that she feels is a block to her sitting the exam? it may be helpful for her to know that Exams are a test of knowledge, and
don't define her worth.

Otherwise, make the revision into a board game or find films/documentaries that are related to her subjects are two other ideas i have. Furthermore, chunk the revision into sections of 5-10 minutes then build it up and add a small reward like a gift card or a nail polish for example as an incentive to work towards.

Having the reward will mean the revision doesnt feel pointless, and like @BrumToTheRescue find out if DD has access arrangements, if not it is worth speaking to school. - Good luck x

Thanks both. She was able to sit the exams and complete them in the given time and she did have access arrangements for the mocks.

The main issue is revision, so having extra time as part of access arrangements for example, didn’t help much because she hadn’t revised properly so nothing in her head to write in the extra time . Revised subject for first exam probably 20% of what was needed over a few weeks, despite lots of parental involvement for previous 3 months before exams, and then was trying to revise whole subjects the night before or doing no revision for the next day’s exam because the task seemed too big to start. Would sit at the table to try to revise but couldn’t engage with the content and would just cry.

She does engage well with technology and uses Seneca and Tassomai but tends just to get through the questions as quick as possible without care, just to end the demand. Relevant films etc might work for her.

Thanks for the advice regarding past papers and reward based revision. Think with our older kids we have been quite lucky as they were independent and we just kept an eye on what they were doing and helped when asked. Youngest is a whole different kettle of fish!