Year 6 with ASD and very behind in maths, any experiences?

[TheLivelyCat]

DD age 10 starting year 6 in September, has an ASD diagnoses, and I just been informed that her Maths skills are extremely week, she still hasn't got a basic grasp of the foundations yet, working at infantSchool level . Her EHCP has suggested interventions to be put in place next year 6, 1 to 1 Maths programme.
My concern is she only has 1 year left till secondary school, and how will she cope then. Shes week in other subjects too, but Maths is the biggest concern, she cant tell the time, do double digit adding or subtraction, work out a quarter for example yet.
Anyone with experience of their child being so far behind and making progress to cope with daily Maths skills in life. (Realise she may never be strong in maths, but it would be nice if she was able to get to a point of getting by)
I'm not sure how secondary schools support children in this area.

Have they not discussed this before with you? I’d have expected there to be interventions in place already. Not sure why they are waiting until next year with or without an EHCP.

Autistic children can struggle with analogue time but manage digital time. She can be taught Life skills and functional maths and English skills.

Have you explored all options for secondary including specialist provision? You could look at special school or a unit in a mainstream school if available in your area.
If she’s working at around 3 years below chronological age she would benefit from specialist provision and support.

Have you met the SENCO at your chosen secondary to discuss her needs and see what they can offer? They may have small groups for core subjects for those working below age related expectations.

It might be sensible to look at secondary schools which offer functional skills in maths rather than/as well as gcse. It is done in levels and i think level 3 is the equivalent of a pass at gcse maths.

I taught autistic students in a secondary school.

some students at the level of your child transfer to special school. Others go to a unit attached to a mainstream school where they can access some lessons with mainstream classes and have some more personalised and smaller classes for things like life skills and various BTECs etc.

if your child transitions to a mainstream secondary and isn’t accessing a unit it’s likely they will either need a nurture group of students who are all working on a similar level or will need a TA working with them to modify the instruction to her level.

are you looking at Mainstream or special for secondary?

Has she been assessed for dyscalculia? Why are they only telling you about these problems (or the extent of them) now? Do you think she’s generally coping in mainstream?

I'd insist on school arranging Educational Psychology assessment.

We are looking at mainstream secondary school, no-ones suggested a specialist school. We are in a fairly isolated location so there isn't much in the way for children in-between support needs like hubs ect. So obviously she will need a lot of support. Shes fully verbal, and with the right support will find her own way, and do well. her journey may look different to her peers.
I've had to fight for years to get her the support she needs as it is. Its only now going into year 6 shes getting an EHCP.

We knew she was struggling in Maths, school called in the Educational Psychologist years ago. Its taken to the end of year 5 to be seen by them. dyscalculia has been suggested but not formally diagnosed.

Focus on the basics. Times tables and arithmetic. Practise every day even if it is 10-20 minutes. There are loads of free resources online. For some children things take longer to 'click' but maths is like learning a foreign language and it can turn children/adults off as thet think they are 'bad' at it or 'cannot' do it. There are usually common misconceptions that arise and can easily be worked on as long as you don't give up. With the age I would stick with standard written methods and practise, practise, practise!
In terms of telling the time put a cheap analogue clock (charity shops are good!) In every room and refer to them multiple times a day. Also look at things like bus/train timetables and car parking fees/return times.
Money, go to shops and use cash or involve them in online shopping and budgeting.
Get 2 dice (increase number when confident) and roll them and practise adding, subtracting or multiplying.
Card games and darts will also massively help.
A child can make so much progress between y6 and gcse but sometimes believing in themselves is the first step

Get this as a reasonable adaptation both day to day, and in the calculator exams (yes it is possible) https://dyscalculator.app/ Play with it as much as possible. The fractions on it are amazing!

Can they complete a times table grid? Don't bother memorising times tables if there are challenges with working memory (how are they at memory games? Remembering a list type word games), and they can write a times tables grid. If they can, That should be the first thing they do on a non calculator paper. Your aiming for it taking less than 10 mins. But I do know some children who still benefit at 15-20 mins. They stop doing it at secondary, its really important to keep doing it

In fact how is working memory?

Do they have one to one correspondence? (So when they count whatever does 1 match with 1, 2 with 2, ) when they do a simple addition sum, what does an addition sum look like when they are doing it? (Are they doing it in there head, do they use tallies) , do they lose track over the 10s

If you are doing stuff at home grab anything that is hands-on and gives a sense of size without numbers necessarily. Look into Cuisinaire rods and Numicon. If you are doing anything addittio and subtraction get them out.

What is the rest of the education looking like?

As well as getting her assessed for Dyscalculia I would also suggest getting her assessed for Dyslexia as they often seem to go together.

There is hope I promise.

my kid was working 18 months behind in maths and English due to her dyslexia. In a nixed year group, she was always working on the year below’s maths to keep her confidence high (doing year 4 she was doing year 3 work, in year 5 she was doing year 4 work…) and I was really concerned about what it meant for her SATS and transition to high school.

at the high school open days I asked that question and was told for everyone struggling they have 2 1:1 private lessons a week to catch up.

in March they did a practice sats test and her standardised score was 35. So we were absolutely terrified of what the hell was going to happen. We spent 20 mins every day for 2-3 months doing some maths with her, just little and often. We would get her to pay for things at the shops so she could figure out cash. We would constantly ask her questions about the time so she got used to it.

in her sats, her teacher said to me literally the day before the results came out “she worked so hard and I hope she reached 100 but I’m not sure” - the results came through and she got 101. It all clicked at the right moment. Her teacher said the entire school office did a huge cheer when they saw her results!

To what end? In all honesty, as a SENCO I've never read an EP report that states anything we didn't already know. The advice is always common sense - they list interventions that have been well-known for donkeys years or the most very basic of ideas, like daily reading with an adult.

I too would be starting over the summer holidays, getting her confident in the stuff she can currently access.

You've got loads of great ideas above. Two other suggestions - cooking and board games. And with the cooking, if you can double or half recipies, even better.

I am autistic, dyspraxic and have discalculia. I really struggled with maths but basically got ignored a sign of the times. I would suggest a tutor but try not too let her see the stress. She may struggle in secondary but try and get a specialist tutor online one evening. Play Uno, snakes and ladders, card games. Cooking recipes don't focus on the maths but make it fun. Try visual maths aids. Fun maths songs on Alexa about the time tables. My kids know more maths at 10 than I did as a teenager!

I have a child like this, he has just finished y7 in a special school. In y6 his maths age was around 5 or 6 (he struggles to focus in school so the work he could do at home was ahead of the school work but it was certainly low). We use an online scheme and sheets from Twinkl and I been tutoring him for 10-15 minutes a day for over a year now. We do it in the mornings when he is fresh. His maths age has gone up to 8ish, y3/4 in that time which is still pretty terrible but better than it was. We are aiming that he can do functional skills at least or gcse foundation- probably won’t be ready in y11 unless he speeds up a lot but at least in y12.

Numberblocks on the iPlayer, plus the songs are on Spotify- great for mathematical basic principles and genuinely enjoyable. As much as anything, she needs to see maths as enjoyable and interesting - constantly getting it wrong can take the joy out of it, try and add the fun back in