InThisTogether wrote:
He is so very frustrated. He's got a bright mind in his head, but because of his wiring, he feels as though he is facing constant failure. I remember being him. It was sometime during middle school that I decided I wasn't smart, after all. I stopped trying to get good grades. I settled for getting "good enough" grades. There is really no reason with my IQ that I shouldn't have gotten straight A's in high school. No reason except that I had ADD and no one realized it, so I was seen as lazy and unmotivated, which I eventually began to believe myself. I don't want the same thing to happen to him. It took me years to learn not to hate school. Years to learn that I actually am intelligent.
I wrote my earlier response without having seen how you've all pretty much already gone through all those points.
And this (what you wrote above) - yes, we have to keep our kids from giving up or learning to hate school. I think the rubrics fail not just special needs boys, but most boys. Do whatever it takes to keep the developmental gap from turning off your child. I think that having the school help you make up for the developmental gap until he grows into it is the way to go. Using academic support or a special period, having the school post assignments where you can find them each night, changing your son's folder system (we went to wide mouth loose subject folders in easily identified colors, so he could shove papers in through the side of his backpack) ... whatever works.
_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).
12 Jun 2013, 11:48 am
