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Jackinbox

ripping work at school heeelp!!!

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Hi there any advice out there for my son who is at mainstrean school - juat hanging on in there by the skin of his teeth with a statement of 7 1/2 hours for asd. Diagnosed at 5 years old he has been " coping " just.

Now reverting back to refusal to work which includes ripping up his work books and work sheets. He is very passive and would prefer to hide under a table than display any aggressive behavior at school but school asking us as parents continually what to do when they indeed are the so called professinals !!

Sick of negative feedback :wallbash::wallbash::wallbash:

Any advice pleeease :pray:

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Hi and sorry that things sound tough. >:D<<'>

Are the school doing what they are supposed to be doing with the seven and a half hours ?

When did you have the last AR ?

Have you any idea if anything at school is contibuting to the refusal to work ? Eg change of teacher,difficulty with specific subject.

The difficulty in understanding the needs of children who are passive in school crops up here often so you are not alone.Karen.

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Hi and sorry that things sound tough. >:D<<'>

Are the school doing what they are supposed to be doing with the seven and a half hours ?

When did you have the last AR ?

Have you any idea if anything at school is contibuting to the refusal to work ? Eg change of teacher,difficulty with specific subject.

The difficulty in understanding the needs of children who are passive in school crops up here often so you are not alone.Karen.

 

Thanks for repling.

He has just gone into year 4 now and has the same TA who is not specifically assigned to him as the school are against 1 to 1 support. He had a wasted year academically last year to which the school has only just admitted and has involvement with local ASD team who have visited school and provided staff with training. Now in year 4 has had to adjust to different teachers for different subjects , moving classes and thus has had issues with not being with familiar friends in subject groups moving to new classes and seating .( one major issue is his class chair and he is distraught to think of another child sitting on it when he is out of class ! )

We asked for assesments last year from Ed psy and speech / lang and these were done with suggestions for the school to implement but as I forsaw it has all gone pear shaped for him again and his anxiety is increasing as last year.

AR was in July combined with transition Review although statement dated May. Have asked for update in statement from LEA after last years assessments but was refused any changes.

Sorry to ramble on but not sure where to turn now.

The school say it is not the level of work as he is more than capable of doing it and Ive tried explaining that he has had many changes to cope with as they keep on saying he is in mainstream and the behavior is unacceptable but what are we supposed to do as parents I have no idea

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Does your Local Authority (LEA) have an Autism Outreach Teacher?

As you say the school should be contacting outside professionals for advise, although it is also a positive thing that they are involving you as parents. But you can phone your LEA and find out if there is such a thing as an AOT. Otherwise the school would probably contact the Educational Psychologist and ask them to come in.

As he has a Statement I presume he has also been assessed by a SALT? If so what is your sons expressive and receptive language skills like? Can he follow auditory information and process it at the same time as everyone else.

If the 7.5 hours are being used, it maybe that that just isn't enough. When is the review date of the Statement?

Is he taught in whole class situations or is it small group work?

Have you asked your son why he is ripping up the work? School need to establish if is capable of doing this work. If so, is he capable of accessing it in the way it is presently being presented to him. By that I mean it is one thing to be intelligent enough to be capable of that level of work, but if you have language, sensory or distractability difficulties that mean you simply cannot do it in a whole class environment that means the environment or the way the work is presented needs to be altered. Or he may have planning or sequencing problems. Any of those difficulties could result in avoidance behaviour. Or it might be none of those and he may simply not want to do it or see the point of it. In which case motivation, prompting etc might help. Things that can help with that are building in rewards into his daily timetable ie. once he has finished his work he gets to spend 10 minutes playing with a puzzle (if that is his kind of thing).

But the ball should be in the school's court and they should contact outside professionals and if their opinion is that more support in terms of hours of support or staffing provision or therapy is needed then that has to be included in the Statement and funding for that has to be met by the school and the LEA.

Have you also involved your local Parent Partnership? They can advise you and go to any meetings with school or the LEA.

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Sorry our posts crossed.

It may be that he is not coping with the change. Assumptions cannot be made. Things he might have learnt in once class, with a certain teacher and peer group might not transfer into a different class or peer group.

My son also had problems with needing to use the 'same' chair and became upset and angry if anyone sat in his chair. This happened alot at his previous school as tables and groups changed per subject and even during each subject. He couldn't cope with the change and disengaged, threw things, crawled under the table, used repetitive behaviours etc to fill his day and become 'invisible' to the class.

They may need to up the amount of structure/predictability. Do they use visual timetables with him. Does he have to move or can changes be made so that he remains with the same teacher or in the same class? Can they work with him on the subject of 'change'.

My own son did grow out of this need for sameness (including the need for the same chair) once structure was at a level that he felt supported and confident and his daily timetable became predictable and understandable.

Sometimes professionals fear increasing the level of support because they don't want to increase dependence. But it doesn't work like that. At my sons new school (mixed mainstream and SEN) they seem quite capable of increasing support when needed and gradually reducing it as the child demonstrates they are coping.

I would also talk to the NAS and IPSEA about this, especially regarding the fact that you have had an AR, and that additional information was provided prior to the AR, but that recommendations made then were not included. If that is the situation as I have understood it. Also what the process is if your child is not coping under the provision currently supplied via the Statement.

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Does your Local Authority (LEA) have an Autism Outreach Teacher?

As you say the school should be contacting outside professionals for advise, although it is also a positive thing that they are involving you as parents. But you can phone your LEA and find out if there is such a thing as an AOT. Otherwise the school would probably contact the Educational Psychologist and ask them to come in.

As he has a Statement I presume he has also been assessed by a SALT? If so what is your sons expressive and receptive language skills like? Can he follow auditory information and process it at the same time as everyone else.

If the 7.5 hours are being used, it maybe that that just isn't enough. When is the review date of the Statement?

Is he taught in whole class situations or is it small group work?

Have you asked your son why he is ripping up the work? School need to establish if is capable of doing this work. If so, is he capable of accessing it in the way it is presently being presented to him. By that I mean it is one thing to be intelligent enough to be capable of that level of work, but if you have language, sensory or distractability difficulties that mean you simply cannot do it in a whole class environment that means the environment or the way the work is presented needs to be altered. Or he may have planning or sequencing problems. Any of those difficulties could result in avoidance behaviour. Or it might be none of those and he may simply not want to do it or see the point of it. In which case motivation, prompting etc might help. Things that can help with that are building in rewards into his daily timetable ie. once he has finished his work he gets to spend 10 minutes playing with a puzzle (if that is his kind of thing).

But the ball should be in the school's court and they should contact outside professionals and if their opinion is that more support in terms of hours of support or staffing provision or therapy is needed then that has to be included in the Statement and funding for that has to be met by the school and the LEA.

Have you also involved your local Parent Partnership? They can advise you and go to any meetings with school or the LEA.

Thanks for that. He has not said why he is ripping it up but is extremely annoyed about the class changes for subjects and his chair being sat on in his absence from the classroom for other subjects and the fact that none of the children are familiar to him in the subject groups.He is mainly taught in a whole class situation from what I can gather and if unable to cope gets to go out of class with TA where he may also refuse to complete the work and has on occasion missed playtime which has made him dig in his heels even further in regards to work.As far as i am aware he has no reward system in place again something I have been suggesting for the last 4 years ! The involvement of outside proffessionals has only been brought on by us as parents harrassing the SENCO Aand the school are not in the agreement that his statement hours need increasing or the statement needs updating at allwhich we tried to do as parents last year and had no luck with the LEA. Not sure of my local Parent partnership but will look into that.

Motivation and prompting seems like it could be an answer. The school has definatly run out of ideas and seems intent on feeding us with more negative feedback than positive as usual :angry:

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Sorry our posts crossed.

It may be that he is not coping with the change. Assumptions cannot be made. Things he might have learnt in once class, with a certain teacher and peer group might not transfer into a different class or peer group.

My son also had problems with needing to use the 'same' chair and became upset and angry if anyone sat in his chair. This happened alot at his previous school as tables and groups changed per subject and even during each subject. He couldn't cope with the change and disengaged, threw things, crawled under the table, used repetitive behaviours etc to fill his day and become 'invisible' to the class.

They may need to up the amount of structure/predictability. Do they use visual timetables with him. Does he have to move or can changes be made so that he remains with the same teacher or in the same class? Can they work with him on the subject of 'change'.

My own son did grow out of this need for sameness (including the need for the same chair) once structure was at a level that he felt supported and confident and his daily timetable became predictable and understandable.

Sometimes professionals fear increasing the level of support because they don't want to increase dependence. But it doesn't work like that. At my sons new school (mixed mainstream and SEN) they seem quite capable of increasing support when needed and gradually reducing it as the child demonstrates they are coping.

I would also talk to the NAS and IPSEA about this, especially regarding the fact that you have had an AR, and that additional information was provided prior to the AR, but that recommendations made then were not included. If that is the situation as I have understood it. Also what the process is if your child is not coping under the provision currently supplied via the Statement.

Yes they are saying that he has to move for certain subjects although they have kept him in his class for literacy which he finds difficult but the children around him have then changed even though he is till in his chair.There is a class timetable for him to check daily but he doesnt want an individual one as he says no one else has one.

Can you tell me what IPSEA is sorry to sound sostupid. I was in contact with NAS last year and we came to the conclusion to wait until he was transferring to secondary to alter statement but personnally I dont think we can hang on until then.

 

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It stands for Independent Panel for Special Educational Advice. Their website is www.ipsea.org.uk

Did you contact the NAS Educational Helpline? They should be able to give you direct and relevant advice. When I contacted the NAS educational helpline and left them my name, number and problem they phoned me back and told me what the schools and LEAs responsibility was. At the time it sounded rather militant, because at that stage I was just trying to be 'nice' and get support in place for a newly diagnosed child. However they were spot on. You don't need to become violent or emotional (although you often feel like that). But start always documenting events and requests in writing to school/LEA. Always send in a letter and always ask them to reply in writing. I presume you have a copy of the SEN Code of Practice.

You could send school a letter in the following terms:

"Further to our conversations of xxx and xxx about the difficulties my son is experiencing in class. I would like to clarify that school have informed me of the following instances:-

(List events as explained to you)

You have told me that my son is doing x, y and z and is not engaging in learning in whole class environments on a regular basis due to problems that maybe associated with 'change' or anxiety or stress. These are difficulties that are typical of his diagnosis, and although as his parents we will do everything we can to help, we would like you to contact outside professionals to come into school and observe and assess our son. The current situation is not working for my son or for school and has been escalating since the beginning of this school year. I think it would be useful to get input from the relevant professionals, presumably the autism outreach teacher and the educational psychologist.

Can you please let me know by reply letter what you have done and whom you have contacted."

 

Also copy that to the LEA.

 

If you feel that any of his difficulties are due to 'speech and language' difficulties either with expressive speech or in understanding auditory information, then include the Speech and Language Therapist as well.

 

The school should reply to that letter. If they don't send them a letter asking for their response. If they want to meet with you take along the Parent Partnership. But always try to send the ball back into their court. You are the parent. You are not an autism specialist and unfortunately neither is the school. School may themselves feel let down and under supported by the serivces offered via the LEA.

 

I would also look at the different schooling options there are within your LEA. Our LEA has one mixed mainstream and SEN school that specialises in ASDs. We managed to move our child to that school by going to Tribunal. But until I looked for that information no-one volunteered it to me, I had to find it myself.

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It stands for Independent Panel for Special Educational Advice. Their website is www.ipsea.org.uk

Did you contact the NAS Educational Helpline? They should be able to give you direct and relevant advice. When I contacted the NAS educational helpline and left them my name, number and problem they phoned me back and told me what the schools and LEAs responsibility was. At the time it sounded rather militant, because at that stage I was just trying to be 'nice' and get support in place for a newly diagnosed child. However they were spot on. You don't need to become violent or emotional (although you often feel like that). But start always documenting events and requests in writing to school/LEA. Always send in a letter and always ask them to reply in writing. I presume you have a copy of the SEN Code of Practice.

You could send school a letter in the following terms:

"Further to our conversations of xxx and xxx about the difficulties my son is experiencing in class. I would like to clarify that school have informed me of the following instances:-

(List events as explained to you)

You have told me that my son is doing x, y and z and is not engaging in learning in whole class environments on a regular basis due to problems that maybe associated with 'change' or anxiety or stress. These are difficulties that are typical of his diagnosis, and although as his parents we will do everything we can to help, we would like you to contact outside professionals to come into school and observe and assess our son. The current situation is not working for my son or for school and has been escalating since the beginning of this school year. I think it would be useful to get input from the relevant professionals, presumably the autism outreach teacher and the educational psychologist.

Can you please let me know by reply letter what you have done and whom you have contacted."

 

Also copy that to the LEA.

 

If you feel that any of his difficulties are due to 'speech and language' difficulties either with expressive speech or in understanding auditory information, then include the Speech and Language Therapist as well.

 

The school should reply to that letter. If they don't send them a letter asking for their response. If they want to meet with you take along the Parent Partnership. But always try to send the ball back into their court. You are the parent. You are not an autism specialist and unfortunately neither is the school. School may themselves feel let down and under supported by the serivces offered via the LEA.

 

I would also look at the different schooling options there are within your LEA. Our LEA has one mixed mainstream and SEN school that specialises in ASDs. We managed to move our child to that school by going to Tribunal. But until I looked for that information no-one volunteered it to me, I had to find it myself.

Thanks so much thats really helpful. The Autism Advisory Service in my area have been into school today to speak to staff although not with my son as far as I am aware so I am giong to try and get to meet with them as soon as possible. Iwill document what the school are telling us and write as you suggested. Thanks for taking the time to reply this is the first time I have used this website and its great .

Iwas going to look at schools also in my area but not sure how to go about this.Do I just contact them to arrange a visit whats the procedure do you know. I realiise that going down this path I will have another fight on my hands especially seeing the word tribunal...but it looks like this could be the best way forward.

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we have had that,and its no better,he wants perfection and if he sees a error or blemish,he wants it screwed up and in the bin. He was signing a birthday card for bro and signed perfectly,then he made a slight error on the envolope and was insistant on throwing it in the bin to get a new one,so i ended up taking it away leaving him :angry: In school he has screwed up perfect looking work,but sees a error or blemish and ends up fighting with teachers to get it in the bin. It got to the stage when he refused to do any work without scripting it himself, i have gradaully got him to go half and half,he writes the spelling words and i write the rest,he also gets obcessed over rubbers,he kept rubbing stuff out to the dispair of the teachers,so they ration him to say 3 rubbs for each time. Its a difficult one to overcome,because of his eye for detail,he even screwed up teachers writing because he was not happy at the style. :rolleyes:

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you can request a list of schools including special school, non maintained, private, independant schools from your local educational authoirties special educational needs department, also there is some great websites out there that will list schools that your interested in so it could be that you tick Autisitic Spectrum Disorder.

 

Just put in search engine special schools uk and there is quite a few that come up.

 

Some special schools dont mind parents viewing though some in my area wouldnt entertain us unless the LEA had told us to visit also many of the special schools especially for autism were full and parents were attending tribunal to get their son/daughter a place, I know that there is only a handful of places but many more than that require the placement.

 

I really do recommend NAS too and they also have a list of schools though Ive found out its hard to get in your area but you never know there just might be one in yours.

 

JsMumxxx

 

Edited by JsMum

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we have had that,and its no better,he wants perfection and if he sees a error or blemish,he wants it screwed up and in the bin. He was signing a birthday card for bro and signed perfectly,then he made a slight error on the envolope and was insistant on throwing it in the bin to get a new one,so i ended up taking it away leaving him :angry: In school he has screwed up perfect looking work,but sees a error or blemish and ends up fighting with teachers to get it in the bin. It got to the stage when he refused to do any work without scripting it himself, i have gradaully got him to go half and half,he writes the spelling words and i write the rest,he also gets obcessed over rubbers,he kept rubbing stuff out to the dispair of the teachers,so they ration him to say 3 rubbs for each time. Its a difficult one to overcome,because of his eye for detail,he even screwed up teachers writing because he was not happy at the style. :rolleyes:

 

I was trying to explain about my son's issues especially in year 3 and sesley has said it for me.

 

My son wanted his writing to look like what he saw typed in books - perfect, his pictures and everything else had to be totally perfect too. He couldn't live up to his own perfect expectations of what HE thought he should be doing. Everyone around him told him it was ok but he insisted it wasn't and so would rip or screw things up and throw it away when in class and at home. When the Autism Outreach lady was there doing her first observations of him she said that they all had to draw a rock that was infront of them and then shade it, he did a lovely drawing and had nearly finnished shading it when he then just went crazy and screwed it up and threw it away. The TA lead him off to the computer and let him do something on that involving rock which eventually calmed him down. What I will say is that there was a build up to it, he started muttering to himself then went red and was rubbing things out, he gradually got more and more agitated untill he exploded. This always happens with him, you can see it coming and there is always a build up to the end result. He didn't have his own TA but the class TA knew him very well and his teacher was very sensitive too. By the end of that year he refused to do any writing at all because he had convinced himself that he was so bad at it that there was no point! He spent a lot of time that year in the toilets playing with cars or figures he had brought in after wandering out of class. He was very passive up till then but home life was horriffic due to the release of his pent up anger and frustration with school. Once he started letting it out in school it was as if a release valve had been opened and he couldn't stop. Again, he is very bright and knows the answers to the teachers questions but couldn't record them - hugely frustrating.

 

What your boy's teacher or TA need to do is to catch him before he explodes, by year 4 they had managed to stop some things happening by reading his body language - twitching, fidgeting, muttering, going red, rubbing out crazily then rage. The class TA would just take the paper away and get him to do something else. The only times he would explode were when the class TA wasn't there (change) because he hated anyone who wasn't "his" teacher or when he was rocking or humming and he didn't know he was doing it so didn't know why he was being told off.

 

I really hope someone can come in and observe him in class and tell the teachers how to deal with this for you. Parent Partnership will be able to advise you and will come to meetings with you at school and also let you know your son's rights and what the school should be doing. They will also be able to tell you which schools in your area are ASD freindly - some have units attatched to them for this purpose.

 

I'm new to the system and how it all works but I hope this starts to change for you soon as I know how upsetting it is >:D<<'>

 

 

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I was trying to explain about my son's issues especially in year 3 and sesley has said it for me.

 

My son wanted his writing to look like what he saw typed in books - perfect, his pictures and everything else had to be totally perfect too. He couldn't live up to his own perfect expectations of what HE thought he should be doing. Everyone around him told him it was ok but he insisted it wasn't and so would rip or screw things up and throw it away when in class and at home. When the Autism Outreach lady was there doing her first observations of him she said that they all had to draw a rock that was infront of them and then shade it, he did a lovely drawing and had nearly finnished shading it when he then just went crazy and screwed it up and threw it away. The TA lead him off to the computer and let him do something on that involving rock which eventually calmed him down. What I will say is that there was a build up to it, he started muttering to himself then went red and was rubbing things out, he gradually got more and more agitated untill he exploded. This always happens with him, you can see it coming and there is always a build up to the end result. He didn't have his own TA but the class TA knew him very well and his teacher was very sensitive too. By the end of that year he refused to do any writing at all because he had convinced himself that he was so bad at it that there was no point! He spent a lot of time that year in the toilets playing with cars or figures he had brought in after wandering out of class. He was very passive up till then but home life was horriffic due to the release of his pent up anger and frustration with school. Once he started letting it out in school it was as if a release valve had been opened and he couldn't stop. Again, he is very bright and knows the answers to the teachers questions but couldn't record them - hugely frustrating.

 

 

SORRY ADDED THIS IN WRONG PLACE ITS A REPLY !!!

 

Thanks for all your replies it really helps to know that we are not alone on this. I do regonise that he likes perfection and this is one of the reasons he rips and destroys his work and also I think he gets fristrated at all the changes he is having to cope with at school with lessons etc changing rooms and to top it all his best friend has left the school to move to another area so he has had a load of issues to deal with on returning to school in september.

The Autism advisory team have been in to school today so I will be anxiously awaiting to see what they have suggested and ready to push forward with alternative plans if they are not seeming to relievr his stress and anxiety at school.

Your son seems to have very similiar issue ie thinking he is not good enough and his work is bad etc. I knpw the school have tried the 5 point scale which I dont think he has grasped the concept of fully . He is either 1 or 5 nothing in between and I think where he has such a small amount of support from his statement he is allowed to get to boiling point before it has been noticed.

Well Thanks again your support has been great.I ll keep it posted....

 

JACKINBOX

 

 

What your boy's teacher or TA need to do is to catch him before he explodes, by year 4 they had managed to stop some things happening by reading his body language - twitching, fidgeting, muttering, going red, rubbing out crazily then rage. The class TA would just take the paper away and get him to do something else. The only times he would explode were when the class TA wasn't there (change) because he hated anyone who wasn't "his" teacher or when he was rocking or humming and he didn't know he was doing it so didn't know why he was being told off.

 

I really hope someone can come in and observe him in class and tell the teachers how to deal with this for you. Parent Partnership will be able to advise you and will come to meetings with you at school and also let you know your son's rights and what the school should be doing. They will also be able to tell you which schools in your area are ASD freindly - some have units attatched to them for this purpose.

 

I'm new to the system and how it all works but I hope this starts to change for you soon as I know how upsetting it is >:D<<'>

Edited by Jackinbox

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The ripping up his work could be down to wanting it perfect, my son was similair and the TA gave J a white board and a whiteboard pen so if it was wrong he could wipe it clean and start again, J also had difficulties putting down on paper his thoughts so he had the TA scribe for him, it may also be down to deeper learning difficulties, proccessing, such as Dyslexia.

 

In Js early education once a teacher held up Js work to show the rest of the class and the teacher said to everyone I hope that others are producing better work than this, and she put his work in the bin, there is other experiences too where Js attempts of written work have been ridiculed and Js been humiliated and embarrassed, so it could be that if he has recieved punishment he maybe afraid of been punished.

 

Maybe more of a kenetic way of learning, hands on and practical, craft work and art, things that help him express and support his imagination.

 

He is also showing a lot of aviodant behaviour and this could also be down to fear of the work and his own confidence and self esteem, again aviodance behaviour needs careful management to aviod disengaged behaviours and like you have said more resistant behaviours from your son, I would defo request more assessments and observations.

 

JsMumxxx

 

Edited by JsMum

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Im thinking dyslexia or some eye problem here.

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Im thinking dyslexia or some eye problem here.

 

I too think Dyslexia but what you say about the eye problem is something to investigate, some children when they see text the words move or the format is distorted, it maybe there could be some visual processing difficulties but only an assessment would make sure, My son wears coloured filtered lenses for text work, and has said there is a marked improvement and it certainly helps him.

 

Good Points raised there.

 

JsMumxxx

 

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I too think Dyslexia but what you say about the eye problem is something to investigate, some children when they see text the words move or the format is distorted, it maybe there could be some visual processing difficulties but only an assessment would make sure, My son wears coloured filtered lenses for text work, and has said there is a marked improvement and it certainly helps him.

 

Good Points raised there.

 

JsMumxxx

I shall be pursing that one not thought of that before Thanks

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