Homework - attention / focus issues

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I'm a newbie in this forum, looking for advice.

My 16 year old son was diagnosed with aspergers ten years ago. Overall things have gone well, however he has always spent a long time doing homework. The reasons seem to be a combination of being excessive about assignments that interest him (over doing it) and inability to focus on assignments that bore him.

He's currently in grade 11, and typically spends 8+ hours a day on homework, often staying up well past midnight to get it done. Lately he has been so tired that he will fall asleep in the middle of an assignment, and not have time to finish assignments.

He does his homework in a room upstairs, where he says there are fewer distractions. However, this meals it more difficult for my wife and I to keep an eye on him. We don't want to hover over him, because that just serves to annoy him.

I'm looking for advice on how to help him focus on the homework assignments that don't interest him. He will sometimes let his mind wander for up to 30 minutes (by his own admission). What techniques have you found to be successful?

Thank you!

Welcome!

We had the same problem. What I do is this. While I am making my own (home)work I sit at the same table opposite my daughter. At the moment I notice she is not paying attention I snap with my fingers and ask her to continue doing her homework. This helps.

What also helps is planning the homework. Cut the evening into parts. So one hour Math max, then English etc.

Good luck!

Quote: The reasons seem to be a combination of being excessive about assignments that interest him (over doing it) and inability to focus on assignments that bore him.

this is exactly our problem! I feel like I've tried everything.

Same issue here. My son is 8, so I still get through it by hovering and refocusing him.

Is there any way that you could motivate him by having something more fun (video games?) that he could do for a time if he gets done by x time each night?

Some people get accommodations for homework, but it sounds like he really wants to do it (which is a good trait) and he may not want to be treated differently, especially at 16.

Interesting first post. Welcome. I see that you have just joined. Why not come on over to the new members section and introduce yourself?

I know this is an old post but wanted to chime in:

DS is now 13. We struggled with this for years, until middle school offered a free "homework club" in school. I made him go (protesting loudly) and he did much better with the teachers running it than with me continually poking him.

This year, somehow, somewhere - he's developed the ability to do it himself. We were able to drop the language class in favor of an in-school study hall which is really for SPED students to get extra support, but he just uses it as a study hall and gets almost all of his work done. When he gets home, it's schoolwork before video games, and he just goes and does it.

I wish I could tell you there was some magical parenting strategy that brought this about, but I think (aside from taking myself out of the equation - I do think that helped - maybe a homework tutor?) it was plain old development. This would be typical for my son, whose development looks like a flat line for years, and then he suddenly masters a bunch of stuff all at once on his own.

In short, I'd ask for help from the school for the time being.

Does your son have an IEP? If so, I would try to work with the school to structure his homework assignments in a manner that is more appropriate to the way he functions. Maybe he can have modified homework assignments if there is busy work to cut out. I would ask him what he thinks about his homework and whether it is all necessary. I tutored a 16 year old kid with Asperger's for a few months earlier this year who was having similar problems because he went to a very intense high school. When I asked him if he thought any of his homework was unnecessary, surprisingly he said no!

Anyway, my guess is that he puts too much effort into his homework and he has trouble focusing. Did you have psychological testing done? He may have a very slow processing speed too. I take a long time with my school work (well, more so in college than now) for a combination of these three reasons (processing speed, putting too much effort into the assignment, and trouble focusing on tasks I'm not fixated on). If your son gets psychological testing, you will know what type of IEP will help address this problem. But, ultimately, he may just take longer to do things. I always took longer to do assignments and tests all throughout my schooling but my work is always high quality. It is hard for me to do work that falls below my high standards--it;s like I just can't do it. Your son may have the same problem. Just work on it with him so that he is able to lower his standards a bit when necessary.

I hope something I wrote helps. I am not a professional, so I can only give insight from personal experiences.

It seems like he needs help predicting how long assignments should take, staying on task, and problem solving when an assignment is taking too long.

Perhaps before he starts you can have him write out his list of assignments and how long he thinks each on will take. As he completes the tasks he can write down how long it actually took and if they were not close, write a sentence about why (the assignment needed more time than predicted, hard time starting task, hard time focusing, getting stuck on details/perfecting, etc). Every once in a while you can pop in and check on him to go over his list and help guide him in how to get back on track. This system might help him learn how to self monitor and plan & execute tasks more efficiently. If it helps him, he can have a visual timer going for his goal time to help him stay on track better and have a visual sense of time if he doesn't really naturally have a good sense of how long something is taking him.

It seems like he needs help predicting how long assignments should take, staying on task, and problem solving when an assignment is taking too long.

Perhaps before he starts you can have him write out his list of assignments and how long he thinks each on will take. As he completes the tasks he can write down how long it actually took and if they were not close, write a sentence about why (the assignment needed more time than predicted, hard time starting task, hard time focusing, getting stuck on details/perfecting, etc). Every once in a while you can pop in and check on him to go over his list and help guide him in how to get back on track. This system might help him learn how to self monitor and plan & execute tasks more efficiently. If it helps him, he can have a visual timer going for his goal time to help him stay on track better and have a visual sense of time if he doesn't really naturally have a good sense of how long something is taking him.