High Functioning Autism Daughter struggles with sequencing

[littleme01]

My 8 year old DD is struggling at school with learning. One of the biggest problem areas is that she can't sequence. She can finally count up to 20 after learning it off by heart, but she can't add up, take away, understand language of maths ie. 1 less/ 1 more and and obviously can't do her times tables. She is just getting further and further behind and the school don't seem to know what to do. Is there anyone else out there having the same issues and that offer some advice?!

My DD had the same issues with sequencing Maths. At 8yo, she was at exactly the same stage as your DD. unfortunately, the primary did nothing to help her with this, and she left Y6 at exactly the same point.

However... She is now in Y10, still in bottom Maths set, still struggling and WAY behind expected levels for age, BUT she is 'functional' in Maths.

She has had a LOT of extra help with her Maths at Secondary, to the point where she dropped MFL in Y7 so that the school could work on her Maths and English.

She is now, at 15, just working on NC lvl 4 work, so around 5 years delayed. BUT that means she is 'functional' in basic Mathematics.

I have found that the 'MyMaths' site that they do almost all of their homework on in Secondary really helped her.

She is working her socks off in Maths, as she is desperately trying to get a 'G' grade in her GCSE, as she wants to actually achieve a grade, rather than get a 'U'.

DD can now add, subtract, do basic multiplications (she still has issues with 6's, 7's and 8's), do basic division, do simple fraction work, do simple algebra, she can tell the time (finally), she can measure and weigh things, she can name all the shapes, she can work out areas of a square and rectangle.

It's not all doom and gloom, even if the primary REALLY fails your DD, like my DD's primary did.

My advice is try to get her into the Secondary with the best SEN dept. and hold out hopes that if my DD can get to a 'functional' stage in Maths despite finishing Y6 still on p-scales, then it's not impossible that your DD will.

Is your DD dyspraxic? Because that CAN interfere with learning Maths, because the sequencing thing doesn't happen in some people with dyspraxia.

My DD still really struggles with 2-part instructions. That does make Maths hard for them.

I can't thank you enough for getting in touch. Just to hear that we are not the only one is a slight comfort.

We find it so draining as there doesn't seem to be much help for her with her maths. We have an incredibly expensive specialist tutor that she has been seeing for a year now and it doesn't seem to be making any difference. Someone suggested Cummon but it requires 30 mins homework every night and we struggle to get her to do her normal homework!

I don't feel she needs to be amazing at maths, i just want her to understand the basics, the value of money...to be able to go into a shop eventually and be able to pay for something and understand the change...

Good luck with your daughter. Don't give up - it sounds like you are doing a great job!

I felt exactly the same as you when DD was 8yo. I felt that DD was never going to be able to go to the shop and pay for things.

My advice is start looking for a Secondary as soon as your DD gets into Y5. Don't look at Ofsted ratings, a school with an excellent SEN dept probably won't get an 'Outstanding' rating.

Secondaries differ massively in how much they help DC's with SEN. My DD's Secondary have her 11hrs a week help (when she was on SA+). The next Secondary up the road was going to offer her 30 minutes a week...

Go to Secondary open evenings in Y5, as well as Y6. Go armed with a list of questions for the Maths teacher, the English teacher AND the SenCo.

It's down to the amount of help my DD has had at Secondary that she is functional at a basic level in Maths.

If you had told me when she was 8yo that I would be able to send her on the bus (paying for a bus fare) to the supermarket, getting her to buy a small list of items, and pay for them (herself), I would have looked very incredulous.

I first sent her at 13yo.

I couldn't afford Kumon, though aside from the homework, it did look like it would have helped - and as they go back to the beginning, and work from there, the homework might not have caused anywhere near the same level of fights and stress.

The fighting over homework says to me that the homework your DD is being sent home from school with is just too difficult for her. And she knows it. And is probably frustrated by that. Do you think her school is differentiating effectively for your DD?

If you can afford it, I'd give Kumon a try. I really thought it would help my DD, but I just couldn't scrape together the money for it.