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Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

16 year old completely disengaged with study

1 reply

plantlady · 16/01/2016 16:21

I'm at a loss what to do with my son and wonder if anyone else has any ideas/has dealt with this themselves. My 16yo DS2 decided last year that he wasn't going to work as hard as he needed for his GCSE's. he got a clutch of decent grades and is now in 6th form. The work would be easy for him if he decided to work, but he has decided not to. he turns up to lessons but doesn't engage, doesn't do course work. he says that he doesn't see the point of study for study's sake. It is all boring and as he doesn't have a life plan or know what he wants to do there's no point. Actually all he wants to do is a job where he's told what to do and doesn't have to think about it (he's actually bright and very capable). Says he doesn't see the point of life and it's all boring.

It doesn't help that he is Aspergers (diagnosed last summer), has quite a lot of anxiety and we think he may have depression (to be assessed soon). However what he is facing is failing his AS exams because he isn't motivated to work and being kicked out of his 6th form away from any friends he's got. That worries him but not enough to motivate him to work.

Any ideas on how we can get him to do even a bit of work (yes he might be rebelling against authority) and away from umpteen hours on computer if he's allowed to would be appreciated. Today he's been banned from computer, he's very bored and yet chooses not to do any school work at all because it's boring.

OP posts:
GasLIghtShining · 16/01/2016 20:47

I have no experience of Aspergers so not sure how much can be attributed to that but could he be anxious about failing. I know that sounds bizarre as he will fail as he is not working but if works hard and fails that is worse.

It is also difficult if they have no focus. Is there something he is really interested in that you can focus him on?

Hoping someone will come along with some better advice

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