Autism, homework and punishment for not completing.

[OfCourseThisIsNotMyUsualName]

So ds does not practise his spellings at home because he has autism. He needs his down time, he has been melting down again after school, he needs to do OT for SPD and physio and OT for hypermobility. I have been up front about this with his class teacher. At no point have they told us officially that they will miss golden time if they do not achieve sufficiently highly in their test, that is until the day of the test as he was going into school at which point there is sod all one can do about practising spellings. I did point out to the TA that he has not practised because of his autism and that if he were to miss his golden time then it would be as a direct result of his disability. She promised to pass it onto the teacher.

So today, ds has missed golden time to practise spellings. This has only come out later in the evening which is probably just as well as I may not have been as controlled as I would like.

I need links and ideas and information so I can complain effectively to the school.

I think you need to explain to the school better, "can't practice spelling because of autism" sounds like a very poor excuse, especially as other child with an ASD will be able to learn spellings, they have no clue what your child is like at home.
You need to explain in detail what is preventing him from learning his spellings, reasons why you are unable to fit in half an hour a week or so.
Send it in in writing and keep a copy for yourself.

Hi :)

Firstly, you need to have a chat with school and let them know to separate spellings and golden time, golden time is so important and their self esteem is easily knocked when they lose it. Could they use letters on paper to get DS to use those to spell the words or fridge magnets - they need to encourage him not punish him.

My DS is a pain with homework and it's on his my IEP (set by school) to do homework with him. They suggested using a pinger.

This week, I decided to do things differently and before we leave the house, I check and remember two spellings. On the walk to school, I ask him the spellings, we chat about word sounds and then when he can remember both of them, we chat about general stuff.

Okay, we also sing a couple of songs from Look and Read which is a fun way to keep phonics in his mind - and then we talk about general stuff.

The Look and Read episodes have been a lovely bonding thing for us over the last 2 weeks. We raced through three series but now are watching Badger Girl one episode a night before bed. If you're not familiar with them, they're a BBC program with a child-centered drama broken up with "intervals" of people who are "writing the story" and explore letter sounds by using songs. We keep singing one at the moment about the oo sound which repeats "oo oo" which is very fun to say/sing. The story is about the children saving the day which is fab because it's a positive and interesting story.

Sometimes you have to know your child and go at their pace. I'd definitely recommend doing two or even one a day at a time when you're both not stressed (I know easier said than done). I think that this has worked for my DS (who got 6/6 today!) because it stops it being a laborious task - two spellings, lots of praise when he gets them right (genuine praise as I am very proud of him) and then we move on. None of that, there's 4 more still to do, you can leave the table when I say you can rubbish. It also easily moves onto us finding rhyming words and making up rhymes. We also talk about other sounds that have a different spelling or the same spelling but different sounds.

I hope that helps, sorry it's so long I should really go to bed!

I see your point that he already finds the school day exhausting. Plus some children with hypermobility find it harder to hold a pen and it makes their hand tired.

I have been there with the homework battles with a child with ASD, so I do sympathise.

I would be trying to work with the teacher to find alternative ways he can practice his spellings at home, e.g. magnetic letters on the fridge.

No, don't pose on the primary ed board

If you do decide to pose, remember to name change first.

It is about the time issue.

he needs down time as he is not coping withthe transition to a new class and it is a time issue. he wants to do the spellings as he is scared of getting in trouble but it is not appropriate for him to be staying up late at night... will lead to more not coping and more meltdowns. he also should be doing physio and OT taking up time.

he is reading after school most days. they are also given a maths task weekly that can take a couple of sessions to finish. the reading works as he is obsessed with kipper et al.

does the school run a homework club where he could meet with a TA to do his homework?

I like the idea of you posing with a spell book on primary ed though perhaps not very useful. Homework in primary I think has been found to be pretty useless (but don't have a good evidence-based link for this). What level are the spelling words? Are they still common sight words? If so, could you read him slightly harder magic key books where the words appear with reasonable frequency and get him to point out, sound out and read those words as they occur?

I agree ask for a lunchtime homework club or if he has 1:1 or the TA to practise spellings in school time. The issue isn't the spellings it's doing them at home, they could easily build this into his week as a reasonable adjustment, at least in the short term. There will be many other children who would benefit from a homework club too. But using the golden time as a punishment seems harsh. Although personally I hate golden time and don't think it works for ASD. Frequent immediate rewards and consequences work better.