How can I help ds with learning difficulties?

[Eulalia]

ds starts mainstream primary (with auxilliary support) in August. He is 5 next month and as most of you know has autism and speech/language disorder. He has already had a few induction days at school and has coped well with the environment. We've had a few learning packs home which are just simple tasks. I can already see his difficulties.

Examples are - finding it difficult to copy examples - even simple things like shapes. Either isn't interested or wants me to do it for him (!) or I hold his hand to 'do' it. (However can draw quite well)

Dominos - doesn't see the point at all and tries to turn all the cards round so they are the same way round. Board games - also doesn't have a clue.

Doesn't seem interesed in letters or trying to read in any way. We had a school walk and the kids had clipboards with road signs/shop signs etc on them and they had to find them while we walked round. ds wouldn't even take his clipboard and paid no attention to what the others were doing. He is behind in other ways too - eg still can't (won't?) peddle a tricycle and is hopeless with throwing/catching.

OK maybe I am expecting too much too soon but it just seems that other kids with autism seem to be good at something. The only thing he did manage easily was threading coloured/shaped beads onto a string and matching the order with a diagram. I think a lot of it is he will do the task if interested and if not then won't even try. I worry that this reluctance in itself will hold him back.

Any tips on how to get him to overcome these difficulties - eg any tricks you know of or books which may help. I want to be prepared over the summer.

Thanks and sorry this is so long

do you not have a portage worker who could advise you?

sorry I have no idea myself and I face these obstacles every day!

Have you tried different ways of getting him to learn-perhaps try a more visual or aural way he probable is finding it hard to make the link. i notice you say he can follow a diagram is it possible to try using pictures (spelling?) to help him learn other tasks or to link what he does not like to things he does - does this make sense/help

Not sure about kids with autism being good at something. My son isn't. He's good a learning tunes but is nowhere near ready to translate that into something useful like learning an instrument. He remembers the names of letters and shapes etc but can't translate that into reading etc.

Copying is always a problem for autistic children. WOrk on it generally. At the moment our aim is to get my son able to attempt to copy sounds (so we can work on his speech) he is nowehre near ready to do that though so he has been taught to imitate pushoing a train, putting a toy tomato in a box, and tapping the table. Small steps as always.

I wouldn't compare him to the rest of the class - it is better to compare him with himself (so see how he's doing 6y months down the line).

have you tried tracing paper over a shape you have drawn this has worked with some sucess for me in the past

Thanks for the quick response. went away to bake a cake with ds and didn't expect anyone to have read this. I am sure I've read here that the autistic kids seem to have more talents than my ds but you are right I shouldn't compare. I think that whilst my ds may not be particularly good at anything, he doesn't have the severity of some areas that some autistic kids have. Of course he is still only young too and has time to develop talents.

I did feel that perhaps with his language getting better that he may improve in other areas. And that is true to some extent although it just seems that he is now more articulate in his ability to bark commands at me

I feel a like I don't even have time to think. ds is either constantly talking/shouting at me to do things or is shouting at dd to not do something 'wrong'. If they are playing well together then this consists in them trashing the room (eg they have just thrown a box of toys down the stairs as I type).

Anyway didn't want to turn this into a moan. Its hard to help ds with learning tasks because dd butts in and I don't know how I am going to help him with his homework etc. ARggh how does one juggle all these things?

Anyway keep the tips going, tracing paper is a good one gothicmama, I should have thought of that, if I had a chance to think as I say ....

better rescue the cake now...

Eulalia I have an autistic son who attends a unit attached to mainstream. When he started school I found the following things useful.

Ask the school for a breakdown of the school day, this will help you a lot as your ds will probably not tell you a great deal.

Ask if you can take photos of the school, the grounds, key staff etc to talk about with ds during the summer.

Make a photo diary of your summer for him to show when he starts.

Give the school a bullet point paper of any concerns or things they should know aboout ds.

Check that he can mamage lunch box etc.

Try to help him to learn that he will need to say "help me please" when he needs help.

Try not to compare him to mainstream children. My ds will only work on tasks that interest him.

I think my ds3 is good at lots of things and has made good progress, however he can in no way be compared to a mainstream child of the same age and I think do do so would just make me worried.

At the moment the most important thing is that he settles in well and is happy. Good luck

Ds1 has a set of wipe-clean books with shapes, numbers, letters etc in them. You can draw over the dots to form the shapes etc with a felt-tip pen and then wipe the page clean when you've finished. We're using them to help ds1 with holding and controlling a pen. As he's interested in these kinds of things we just decided to combine the two. If you have access to a laminator you could make your own sheets up with whatever you need on them.

Ds1 is also only interested in learning if it's strictly on his terms, so I can see this being an issue for us too at some point.

Thanks.

maddiemo - how old is your son?

coppertop - where did you get those books from? With his birthday coming up I am going to ask people to get things for school - nothing too boring though!

Well today we were looking at a book and he was pointing at the words 'happy birthday' and actually said them although it was pretty obvious from the pictures. Anyway he is getting interested. I just wonder if he'll be the same as his drawing and make a big step (went from drawing circles and lines to a whole bus with people inside in just one week)

I know there are lots of things online you can download, its just finding time to do it.

Eulalia He is five and has been at his unit for two years. He has made good progress and enjoys school.

We got the wipe-clean books a while ago now but I'm fairly sure they came from the Book People. I've just had a look at the books and it says they're published by "The Book Studio" if that's any help.

We've made wipe clean worksheets before. THere's lots of books in places like Smiths etc with simple tasks, like drawing a line between matching objects (3 or 4 down one side of sheet, 3 or 4 down other side and draw across the gap to the correct one), or circling things in same category (animals, vehicles, toys, food etc). Laminator is invaluable. Have also made "story books" using digital camera and he has to choose the correct word from small pile and velcro under picture (DS goes to the park, DS goes shopping etc). Maddimoo's advice is good

Thanks again dinosaur and Davros. He's not really got any obsessions as such except drainage ... like where the water goes under the sink, drainpipes etc and seems to like holes as well. However does like transport in general. The nursery teacher suggested writing in sand but I have my doubts if that will get his interest. But will keep trying.