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mhadley73
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13 Feb 2019, 11:42 pm

My 9 year old autistic son is bored in school. He will hide under his desk. Today he slid down the hall on his stomach to get to another class room. He is very smart and his grades show it.

What can I do to make things less boring and get him to behave in school? He loves using the computer at home. For now he has been warned. If he misbehaves in class, the computer is gone for the day. How can I make learning more exciting for him?



Noca
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14 Feb 2019, 1:21 am

Saying "I'm bored" was my way of telling my parents I was depressed when I didn't have a word for depression as a child. I would consider that.

There was this alternative school here where they let me work at my own pace and that was much more interesting and allowed me to challenge myself to complete work ahead of time or take advantage of my autistic hyperfocus and complete a whole lot of work all in one long sitting.

He could be bored maybe from a lack of friends. Or maybe he needs some extracurricular work to challenge him outside of regular classes. Maybe tie school achievements to prizes as motivation(a pizza for example).



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14 Feb 2019, 1:41 am

He may need more of a challenge at school. It is hard to stay engaged if things are way too easy.

Normal people can't comprehend just how fast a gifted Aspie can read with good comprehension.



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14 Feb 2019, 2:04 am

Help him prepare to study things he is more interested in during class time as long as he keeps up with the slow pace of the class on the side. It still pisses me off when someone repeats a point when I'm thinking they will move on.



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14 Feb 2019, 6:50 am

While I neither slid on my stomach, hid under my desk nor got extremely good grades, I too was bored sick in school.
I have no idea how they could have made it any less boring for me.


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shortfatbalduglyman
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14 Feb 2019, 8:30 pm

"bored"? So what?

Plenty of college majors and jobs are boring

Excitement is not always a good thing

Nor should excitement be required in school

Some of my jobs, I was flipping burgers, operating cash register



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14 Feb 2019, 9:25 pm

Maybe have his academic ability tested and see if he qualifies for gifted classes.


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15 Feb 2019, 5:29 am

Skilpadde wrote:
While I neither slid on my stomach, hid under my desk nor got extremely good grades, I too was bored sick in school.
I have no idea how they could have made it any less boring for me.
Same here. I really think most NTs are bored in skewl. Maybe it'll help if the kid had some kinda distraction/something else to do/focus on while he's in skewl. I actually focused better in high-skewl when I was playing games like Tetris on my graphing calculator. Maybe something like a fidget spinner would help. He might would need a doc/psych/some other professional to write a letter to the skewl with accommodation recommendations thou.


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15 Feb 2019, 9:11 am

The basic problem is that the smarter a person is, the fewer teachers are able to help. The duller ones are likely to likely to be busy concealing incompetence, and have no idea about how logic actually works. There are potential clashes when a teacher still has the authority, but the student knows the subject better. I'd advise your son to take people with a grain of salt, pick his battles, and learn to manage his own education.



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15 Feb 2019, 11:02 am

How can I make learning more exciting for him?

Homeschool - Allow him to plunge into those subjects that interest him



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15 Feb 2019, 11:16 am

For me, learning is a lot more exciting when it helps me make something I want.



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15 Feb 2019, 11:27 am

Stop worrying so much about his supposed intelligence and "boredom."

Worry more about his behavioral problems: a nine year old (third or forth grader) hiding under his desk and crawling down hallways on his stomach.



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17 Feb 2019, 6:57 pm

This was me! Especially in elementary school. I was really frustrated with how slow the pace of learning was, and didn't like to be forced to learn topics I wasn't interested in. Plus it's nigh impossible for me to pay attention to a lecture, even if I really want to.

I remedied this in two ways:
1) when the teacher was boring because I already understood the concept I would pull out a book and read - sometimes I got in trouble but as long as I was completing my work my mom always took my side.
2) when I was trying to listen but kept getting distracted I would draw, this let me actually be able to listen to the teacher - I never got in trouble because it looks like you're taking notes

My mom also helped behind the scenes:
1) she made sure that each new year I got into the class of the most understanding/best teacher of that grade level and talked with them beforehand
2) when I acted out she didn't punish me, she talked with the teachers and figured out why I was acting out and they came up with plans to engage me more - example: ten years old, colored art project totally black and went mute on why, I got to build and program lego robots during lunch, and took them up on the offer to redo my art project



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17 Feb 2019, 8:04 pm

Is that the grade for him or should he move up?


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shortfatbalduglyman
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17 Feb 2019, 8:49 pm

School does not have to be fun, exciting or interesting

Work sure doesn't



mhadley73
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17 Feb 2019, 10:37 pm

For the judgey people, as far as my sons behavior goes, I do not let it go. I do ground him when he acts out. I take away the things he likes each time he does act out. The desk hiding and stomach sliding is not a constant issue. This is new.

J learns things quickly. Once he gets it, he can’t stand the repetition. His anxiety with the overstimulation is being treated with medication. It helps a bit, but I don’t see it making a huge difference. Medicating children makes me very uncomfortable though.

I have sent in fidgets, but he does not care for them. J does have an IEP so they are already helping us to work on his issues. But as a mother, I hope to gain some insight from those with autism. People that do not live with Autism can not know what a day in that world is really like. I believe that until we can get into the heads of our beautiful autistic population, we will never be able to see just how amazing they truly are.