Lying about homework and school work

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I am dyscalculic, and I'd like to do the same thing.

However, my parents, being typical Asian parents, want me to succeed in EVERYTHING.

Edit: Awkward sentence in bold.

Story of my life and still a problem for me.

If I say, "we start at A, then carry on to Z in the usual alphabetical order" I don't expect to have to explain myself further. I certainly don't see the point in mentioning every letter in sequence--surely this is something you can look up, if you need to?

My son hates that they have to go over things many times in class to make sure everyone gets it. His typical complaint is, "We did that already! Why do we have to do it again?" I told him to be patient, not everyone gets it the first time and he should give them time to catch up. Now that we have discussed his diagnosis he is much more tolerant. "Oh.... it's because they can't really concentrate because they are thinking about other things like who they like in class," he says.

Thankfully, the school is working very hard to help him. They now have a practice of letting him do the first problem on a worksheet and then the most difficult problem on the second page--if he demonstrates that he understands the principle, as he typically does, the excuse him from the rest of the set--they have seen that if he knows it, he really knows it. His problem is more with things that involve handwriting... he would take the shortest number of letters to express an answer just to avoid any extra writing...

To the OP, it sounds like the teacher has no clue what is going on in your son's mind. Ignore the "let him fail" comments, this is a path the leads to witless destruction of potential. Instead, be blunt with him: "you DO have homework, and I know what it is. Now why do you hate it so much that you are telling me it doesn't exist?"

There is some reason for this. I doubt very much it has anything to do with minecraft. Ask him what it is and then work with him to overcome it.

Adamantium, can you get them to let him type things instead? I am about a hundred times happier about writing something when I'm typing.

He can type some of the time, but sometimes not... Even better, he can dictate using the speech recognition software, and then go through and correct the errors--but only on some assignments. He is starting to really enjoy typing, though. That's working well for him.

Never did homework until college. I guess paying cash for school is motivational.

Even in college, subjects I found interesting I did well in and others I sort of squeaked by.

I can build, fix and/or figure out just about anything except math beyond algebra.

Secant, Tangent
Cosine, Sine
Three point one four
One five nine.

It rhymes and that's about it.

I use voice dictation to help get the sentences out of my head as quickly as possible before I forget them because of my lousy short-term memory.

I have almost always struggled in math, I could spend an hour or more doing something that could take the other kids 15-25 min. When that became homework that it could easily wipe out an entire night so I took short cuts, like not showing work that I often did not have to do anyway if I knew what I was doing, doing some questions then writing random numbers in the rest so I could get my homework completeion credit etc. I never told my parents what I got for homework becouse if I did I would have them standing over me making sure I did not take any short cuts. It could really help maybe to cut down on the amount of work and focus on learning the concepts and set an realistic goal for the course, in grade 12 my mid term mark was 38%, I set a goal of 50% and got 56% and passed, that class alone killed my honour roll chances though so as an elective I should have never taken it, I only took it so collage would be an option. What kind of math class is he taking? there are 3 different levels here and depending on where you see him going in life he may be able to drop down a level.

ughhh - I hate teachers like that. I'm no math genius, but I was always pretty good at math and hated to show steps that I didn't need to take. Fortunately in high school I had teachers who were math geniuses so they didn't care so much about showing computational steps. And I don't understand why course work is required in math anyway. Surely testing is better.

But...showing steps is actually a handy skill to have. And he will need those skills when they start doing geometry proofs (10th grade, 11th grade?).

I like one previous posters commentary - is it possible to do one or two problems where the steps are shown and then just put the right answer on the remaining problems? Also perhaps you could ask him to do some back-calculation. Basically, figure out the right answer and then figure out the steps they want rather than trying to work the problem THEIR way. Back-calculation is also a pretty handy skill -especially in chemistry.

In my own math career, I was too good for my own good. I was always slack in studying for it, but then figured it in time for the test. Bit me in the ass when it came to the calculus of trig, which requires memorisation as well as figuring out - which meant doing the homework. Grrrr.

i did the same thing when I was in middle and high school. the problem is (usually) that school just isnt the right environment for aspies. from my own experience school was too easy and classes would drag on at a slow pace when my brain had already picked up the information. i waited feeling useless while the teacher repeated lessons for the "normal" kids who had to learn by repetition. in math i never showed my steps because my brain did the math for me. Thus i got the correct answers faster and understood why i got that answer. and yet my neurotypical teachers would make me write out my steps to make it easier on them for grading. for people who are self motivated, sitting in class doing meaningless things is painful and depressing. thus this depression (feeling like i was forced to waste time) led me to gaming as an outlet.

from my perspective what your son is doing is trying to make more use of his brain and avoiding doing the things that feel pointless (like writing out math problems). since computer games do exercise different parts of your brain, he is getting more mental stimulation.

I don't have a solution for you. Schools need to change and start serving a better purpose. For Aspies, Not finishing school doesn't mean you are dumb, it just means you won't tolerate crap.

I went through very similar situation in high school. If your son really is bright I would highly recommend finding some alternative to traditional high school. Possibly get a G.E.D, or go to trade school, take classes at Community College. I feel like high school was a complete waste of time, and I have a mother who agrees. I developed a lot of really bad habits and coping mechanisms to deal with it. Came out with a horrible self image, and having a lot of trouble dealing. Eventually though all of my bad coping mechanisms I developed in high school came back to bite me hard.