I can't handle Homework time anymore

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My theory is that most of it is an extension of the fact that children on the spectrum tend to overwhelm more easily and deeply. All sorts of children can have issues with homework, it isn't isolated to ASD kids, but as with everything else ASD, it turns more extreme because of the ASD. And then there is the sensory aspect: something like covering up part of the page relates to a sensory and processing issue; its weird, but it works.

The timing techniques I talked about worked super well with our more or less NT daughter, too; we never had to sing or dance for her between segments, or cover up problems so she wouldn't overwhelm, but she did need help learning to focus on the task at hand without freaking out over how long it was likely to take.

I never had issues with homework, either. I didn't like it, but I did it with zero help and zero supervision. My son is very different, and I think it varies with what flavor of autism you have. My son has ADD type tendencies that make it harder than straight AS.

My son's issues are:

1) It is boring. My son's hyperfocus does not work on boring. What we get is inattention and he continually has to be redirected from thinking about special interests during homework time.
2) He needs a lot of downtime to center himself, and hw takes away from both downtime and leisure time.
4) He does not understand why homework should encroach upon home time. Schoolwork, in his mind, belongs only in school.
5) He does not think he should have to practice skills he thinks he already knows.
6)He gets frustrated very easily when things are too hard for him or if they are tedious or require a lot of executive function skills.
7)Fine motor skill issues make writing a real chore.


I am sure there are more, but this will give you an idea. We have been working on it from an efficiency standpoint. Dawdling increases the amount of time hw takes, which decreases fun time. We constantly try to reinforce that to him. He knows it, but it is hard for him to follow through. HW must have a minimum quality, to discourage rushing through the work part, but I build in short controlled breaks to keep the dawdling down. I let him know that I am keeping him on task so that he is done within a reasonable amount of time.

Homework was assigned weekly as opposed to daily at school. I do the same, as a homeschooler, but b/c I cut out stupid busy work I can give him Thursday "off" as an incentive to do what he needs to do Monday through Wednesday. If he can do that all he needs to do Thursday is a fun math fact drill game for 15 minutes that he would play willingly, anyway, despite asking him questions he already knows, for practice and speed. Also the blur between home and school now, paradoxically makes it easier for him.

Yes, yes and yes, they are his issues too. I pretty much gave up this week. It ways 'wellbeing week' which is supposed to mean no homework but his class get it on a Friday.
He only has 3 weeks of year 3 left anyway. His little sister pulls out the math book he only used for I term at his old school last year for fun. I wonder if I can get him to do that?