Organizing an autistic third grader

And believe me the boy is fully capable of taking advantage!!!

it's a natural thing for kids to do though! I remember having to threaten mine with grounding if they didn't do their homework, this worked with my youngest because she was the outdoor type, but my eldest... she didn't like going out anyway... so her pocket money was confiscated

Something needs to happen. He's old enough to feed himself, surely he could do homework if he wanted to. But it's hard for him so he doesn't want to. What would Supernanny do, I wonder?

That would be interesting to know, has she ever worked with autistic children?

Well now you're going to be sorry you asked because I have a story.:-)

When I lived in Los Angeles, Supernanny hadn't aired here yet. I was at the mall with the kids and they were running around like crazy people not listening to my while I was ordering pizza for them. Somebody came up to me and told me this new show where they'd get me a nanny and pay me for it too. They got my name and later on somebody called me. As soon as I mentioned that Cary had autism he cut me off and said they weren't doing any kids with disabilities.

The following season they aired an episode with an autistic kid. lol

My kids were never as out of control as the ones on that show though, so I'm sure we wouldn't have gotten on in any case...

HAHAHA! If you get a response from supernanny email me immediately. LOL. You said your daughter has problems keeping up with it. Are they on the same mental level? At our house as soon as you come home from school we go through the backpack and papers to see what needs to be done. I look and then give the papers out. I will ask if there was any homework before I unzip the back pack just to see if she is keeping up with it. This is for a "normal" first grader. My autistic son is four with the mental capacity of a two year old. I know there wouldn't be any hope of him keeping track of homework. LOL Only you can decide what you can hold your son accountable for because of the autism. You need to guess at his mental level.

lol the Supernanny thing was over 4 years ago!

First problem, the husband picks the kids up. I get home and sometimes he has started homework with them and sometimes not. He generally doesn't look through the backpacks and by the time I'm home and dinner's over things are scattered all over the place.

But Cary's twin is more precocious than he is. She doesn't have the problems with language that he has. She's a year ahead of him, actually. And last year she did have a bit of a problem remembering things but there were consequences and she learned from them.

My son does have a good memory and I think he's capable of remembering with enough repetition (I hope)...

Well i hope the person that approached you got sacked! Maybe they did and then the show felt obliged to feature that particular episode

Oh it wasn't the person who approached me who turned us down, it was the guy who called us later. Anyway I'm sure they had NO idea!

Well at least you can say you had the chance to be a celebrity, but your children just weren't out of control enough. LOL

I'm just as happy that they weren't!

you are right... this kind of behavior is also true to kids with no autism so how much more those who are in this spectrum...they need extra patience to keep with their pace.
as a mom of two kids with autism, we need to be on top of everything and let them feel the need to be responsible---the process may be painful but let's always let them feel our love and care behind that being strict and imposing some rules for them to take and follow.
hugs for carey!

Well said MsFransico I have no idea how hard it must be for you mums with autistic children, but you've certainly got it right about letting them feel responsible

Yeah it's just sometimes hard to decide where to draw the line between making them be responsible and pushing them too hard.

I don't want to let him dictate too much or he will definitely take advantage!

Hummm I've read that autistic people are often extremely intelligent! I'm just concerned that pushing people too much can be negative and for those with autism it might be even worse. You're the expert though.

You are right, he gets upset and whiny if he's pushed too much. He needs frequent breaks and the approach makes a difference in how cooperative he is. But at the same time he can't be allowed to get away with too much either.

It must be very tough for you and him!

can be very frustrating....
Last night's exercise was "eat all your dinner". And his sister was targeted more than he was because she complains and barely eats any when we make 'real food'. So she had to eat all her chicken and peas and he had to eat all his mac and cheese. But when he started vomiting it back out, I had to concede defeat on that one...

Awwwwwwwww Yes you couldn't do much about that.

that is for certain!

Oh I hope so. Maybe instead of us reading the planner, we should make him read it and tell us which homework goes with today's entry...

I have no control over the arrival home, but I am going to suggest to Richard that he and Cary read what's in the planner together and that he have Cary find the homework for the day instead of us telling him what his homework is.

Yep they do...
Good to see you back!

We're going to make him read the entry in the planner and find the homework that goes with it before we start working with him. If we do it every day, hopefully by June he'll get it. lol

That is very true. My son is pretty high functional, so we expect more from him than from somebody who's non verbal, for example.

My son just turned 9. I know nothing at all about PECS. Google here I come...

If you have any questions about pecs feel free to message me and i can find you the links to learn more about it. Have a great day

I had a quick look. Is it more for kids who are non-verbal? I would love to have the links if you wouldn't mind. Thanks!

I am not familiar with that program, but any additional form of communication, like PECS or sign language just goes that much further towards helping in your situation. When we had inservices on Autism, we were taught that primarily it was a disorder of communication.

we may have to request that, but I'm going to try repetition for a bit first and then we shall see...