How do you get homework done? | Autism PDD
I just had another battle myself last night. Every night my 9 year old says "I've told you a million times! School is school and home is home!" I tell him the grown-ups decide, and that's that. Every night he ends up doing his homework, but doesn't seem to learn that it takes so much more time if he fights.
Last night, the homework was reading 2 pages in his mainstream 4th grade class book. It seemed like the text size was too small and felt crowded, so next time I'm going to try and re-type it on the computer and print it out.
It also seemed like he would have preferred to read alone. He left the kitchen and went to the laundry room to read, and that would have been okay if he had read what he was supposed to, but he was flipping all over the book. Next time I might try and get him to read into a microphone and tape it.
Last night it occurred to me that no one likes to work hard while someone else is doing what they want or just watching them work. That made me remember a homework tip I once read, where the parent does "homework" like balancing their checkbook in the same room that the child does his homework. Thus, the parent is available to answer questions and help the child stay on task, without it seeming like "everyone else gets to have fun, but I gotta do my stinking homework."
You know kids, they don't notice all the hard work we do around the house, and think we grown-ups can do whatever we want all the time.
Good luck with your son's homework tonight. You're not alone in these battles!
Some schoolds have a after school homework program - is that a
possibility ?
Would rewards work? Candy? Pop?
It seems like he has issues with anger beyond the homework. Could a
behaviorist help work out a plan? Does the school have success in getting
him to do stuff and control his temper? If yes, what works for them?
The teenage years are rough and for some more than others. Hope you
are hanging in there.ARe they explaining the homeworkk to him clerly so that he understands what to do without the teacher? Do they let him do a little of it at school independently as a 'practice'? Maybe he is upset because he doesn't know what to do with the homework. Just an idea. It does not help if it is quickly explained to the class as a whole. He may need a guided practce.
My 9th grade DS gets EVIL
Our family cannot endure this stress for another year. My DH just says forget the homework, don't make him do it, and write a note to the teachers.. Fighting with him is making our family life horrible. However, I believe if he is capable of completing the assignment he should at least attempt it. Help. HI REWARDS OR BLACKMAIL HAS I LIKE TO CALL IT LOL WOULD WORK WELL I THINK IF HE DOES HIS HOME WORK HE CAN HAVE ??????????? Dorian has a resource class at school. The school is saying that he does not put forth good effort in class and spends resource just catching up on class assignments or working on homework for only 2 classes. Every day something in mentioned about all the A’s and B’s he had in middle school. To be honest, I never thought Dorian could consistently do A and B work. The aide bribed and babied Dorian, got the assignments reduced, took his homework home with her (yes – just to type it –we were told), or whatever it took to get a good grade. Dorian still gave the aide a hard time, but in the end, he always got come grades. We could never get much out of Dorian at home. However the aide worked miracles. Yes, Dorian definitely has an anger problem – anytime he has to do something other than eat and watch TV. We started Depakote this week after seeing an increase in aggressive behavior. He is also on strattera, abilfy, Prozac, and adderall. He has a doctor’s appointment today. We are just starting to work with a behavior consultant. We only get 4 hours a month. So this will be our first thing to work on. Most the time, homework is not hard – he just refuses to do it. I do not want to ask the school to reduce the assignments if we all feel he is capable of completing the work. He has modifications to extend the time or break it into pieces. So the homework can come home early. We do not do any homework on Fridays or Saturdays so he will have a break. Dorian is smart enough to try to do as little as possible. And he only has 4 main classes – English, sp-ed math, biology, and history. English, biology and history are REI classes – with both a regular and sp-ed teacher. The school does not want to put him in straight sp-ed classes. I don’t want to spend the next 4 years fighting every day. I think you have to determine WHY he's frustrated with homework and WHY he's hiding his books. Is the curriculum difficult for him???? Is there too much distraction???? Is mom pushing too hard? How much assistance does he need with homework??? I would start by setting ground rules for homework time, Write them down and let him read them. I would also let him do what he can by himself without pushing or interfering but also being close by in case he has questions. Also, in my town there is a homework help line, You can call and ask for assitance. I allowed my daughter to use it because we inevitably ended up arguing at homework time. I always stayed close by so i knew what her questions were. good luck to ya We struggle with homework, too. My son is 9 years old and insists that school is school and home is home and therefore schoolwork should not be done at home. I don't think you should let him drop homework. It is a way to practice both academic skills and general life skills of independence and responsibility. Even if your son is intellectually capable of the work, it still might not be appropriate for him in terms of quantity or the amount of time it takes him. Unfamiliar types of tasks might be too difficult. Also, if he has a handwriting problem, which many ASD kids do, this might make even math too hard for him. I would write a note to the teacher and ask for a meeting about homework accommodations. Consider including your son in the meeting. Sample accommodations could be: - the teacher could say for example 30 minutes of good effort each day - parents determine what accommodations are necessary for a particular assignment. - dictating answers instead of handwriting - less variation in type of assignment (my son did better with first grade homework, when it was basically only alphabet learning/writing practice in the same format each week. In second grade, there was something different each day, and both the frequency of homework and the variety of it made his stress level reach unhealthy levels). You might be interested in this parenting article about homework tips for the learning disabled. http://specialed.about.com/cs/learningdisabled/a/homeworktip s.htm Finally, since your son is going outside, it seems like he might need more sensory input after school, before trying to do more sitting still and thinking. Have you charted his sensory needs and issues? If not, here's a tool for that: http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processin g-disorder-checklist.html Good luck with everything. I'm with Woodsman on this one. I think just getting through school is hell enough and then having to come home and do more work sets my 13yo ds over the edge. There are no studies at all indicating that hours of homework every night make children brighter in a subject area. But anyways... study hall is what our IEP utilizes too. Last year he didn't bring homework home once! Not one battle! It was pure heaven. It was his personal goal to get all of his homework done in the resource room at end of day so he wouldn't even bring a backpack to school! Unfortunately, this year, his resource break is not last but two classes before end of day. DS panicking a bit but dh said why don't you do previous days homework for those two classes in next day's study hall. Another thing that came up in my support group is that schools tend to focus on what's missing rather than what's done. Kids get hassled about doing 0 out of 4 assignments, and still get hassled if they do 3 out of 4 assignments -- which is de-motivating, especially for a kid with autism. "Why bother? I still get hassled no matter how much I do" is how they think. I notice that my son's homework never seems to get looked at by his personal special ed teacher and assistant. Looking over his homework with him and praising him for it needs to be part of his daily school routine, and I'm going to talk to them about it.
Homework hassles have you down? Whether you need help with one lesson, a chapter, or the whole school year, we have it! Click on your child's grade below. Help your child develop good study habits with these tips and printable forms. Help motivate your child. Help your child study for quizzes with these tips. Use these strategies to help ease your child's homework pressure. Use these templates and tips to make schoolwork easier. Another thing that came up in my support group is that schools tend to focus on what's missing rather than what's done. Kids get hassled about doing 0 out of 4 assignments, and still get hassled if they do 3 out of 4 assignments -- which is de-motivating, especially for a kid with autism. "Why bother? I still get hassled no matter how much I do" is how they think. I notice that my son's homework never seems to get looked at by his personal special ed teacher and assistant. Looking over his homework with him and praising him for it needs to be part of his daily school routine, and I'm going to talk to them about it. This subject came up in my local support group last night. Everyone pretty much had the same problems, and for some with teenagers, the school had let them off the hook -- ie handled it as a problem between the school and the student and didn't expect the parents to battle for two hours every dang night. One mother had a good tip, though, and that was to get extra copies of the textbooks to keep at home. One less thing for the kid to worry about, and then he could never use "I don't have the book" as an excuse to not do homework. It is written in ds' IEP that he is to have an extra set of books at home. A lot of these classes are on CD's so the teachers simply give the CD's to load on our computer! Interestingly one Catholic private high school nearby this year bought every student a laptop. That was all they would use in school all day - no books. Each student took a set of books home for their homework. I think in years to come this will be the way most schools do it as laptops get more and more inexpensive. Our book fee for middle school was 0. Acer notebooks at Circuit City are 9. It's going to be cheaper soon to just get a laptop than books.
Of course, when in middle and high school they had studyhall, and i just did it all their, i refused to bring any work home, unless it was a big assighment like reasherch essay or project.
In elementary school I would flip come homework. I did good in school but for some reason I had a difficult time doing it at home. I think I had enough, 6 hrs of school and I was done for the day. Dad had to sit me down and help me, this resulted in quite alot of fighting, i resisted every night, what a struggle. I dont know why, other then the school work = school and home = free time logic as stated in another post prior.
Ya, the reward thing is nice, if he does good in school but struggles with the homework, parents usually have to step in and help, or he may need help afterschool doing it, as i needed some times.
Personally, I think we had similar issues, hes done with school for the day at that point, and when I came home the only thing I wanted to do was go outside too!! hehe.
Id recomend that if he has some free time in class and the work can be done during that time to just do it then, if thats something he can do, that was my thing, and it worked great!! in elementary school their was no studyhall.Q does good with homework if he knows that he can take a few 5 minute breaks during his homewrok.
jeeze, that reminds me of collage, hardly ever did I have a prof look at our assighnments on a regular basis.
regualr school however always seemed to make sure students were doing their homework. I think since you must have to work hard with your son to acomplish the HW everynight that the teacher should be looking at it to enshure he understands the material. Once ppl in my classes in collage quickly learned the prof did not check the assighnments, it was a way out for those who did not wanna do the work, i usually did the work however, just so I could ask questions and discover what I was doing wrong if i had an issue, collage for me was easier then high school (dorm life the exception).
Here's what I found at www.familyeducation.com:
Homework
Here are the resources you need to help your child master his homework – everything from printables to organizational tools. These resources will encourage your child to learn and will provide strategies and methods to improve his academic performance and organizational skills, so that he can successfully complete homework assignments.
Homework Relief Center
Get Organized
The Homework Toolbox
Memory Boosters
How You Can Help
Printables
Some our kids get through the year, sometimes weary and bruised. but we get up again for another round. Maybe they should research and find out what it is that keeps from doing something wild.
I know that if I didn't know that God is for us and cares for us, I would hurt someone a long time ago. I had to set a woman straight at school yesterday. She wasn't even Ben's teacher! And my little hero put extra energy into getting his homework done this morning. I guess his resilience helps to temper me. Hello!
That is very rough.
I have 9.5 PDD and she is in mainstream. Some days are great and some days aren't. She does well at the after-school program. They ice skate, then snack, and then have help with their homework. She also runs outside when she gets home.
At Home she WILL NOT do homework first. She always has to eat first. And then any extra she does before tv or computer.
I am concerned about you son going further and further away. As a parent of a kid that needs visual fence boundaries or she runs away, I don't want you to end up with your son missing. It is BEYOND terrifying!
the homework argument. My younger son would do his homework. But for some reason rarely handed it in. He would throw it in his locker. Then he would tell the teacher he did not have time to do it. At one point I had to email his teacher every other day just to make sure he was handing it in.
My older son loves to do his homework because the school has a reward system.He enjoys the extra treats every month.
I would talk to the teacher about the homework problem.
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