Help but does not take it.

[Wendyloree]

I am so confused and upset...our 15yr daughter has autism and is high function and will not accept help, guidance, tips and tools from her therapist, her teachers, her peer therapy group to help her maneuver through this crazy time and wants to figure it out herself.

Currently she is attending virtual school and is not doing well. At the start of her freshman year she did very well and made the honor roll. At the start of the nest semester all was progressing to receive top honors until the students broke for Spring Break and then covid hit and schools were closed fore the remainder of the year.

Students did virtual learning but it was not monitored or maintained by the Dept of Ed. As a results grades and given and our daughter received passing graded and moved to her sophomore year with her modified IEP.

Summer came and went with learning opportunities, summer reading and other activities to encourage further learning.

Now schools are back in and still virtual and it has been a real struggle for our daughter. Her teachers are doing the best job as they can so she can continue to learn by making adjustment in her IEP so her grades don't fall.

In turn she says that she can't get started on assignments and spends time how to not start a task.

Any suggestions? She has simples to-do-steps and guides but will take the complex and difficult path than the easy one before her.

Confused and upset mother

[Aspen797]

It sounds as though she may have difficulty with task initiation and maintaining her focus. Is she receiving executive functioning skills training through her school? This website has a lot of good information on the subject: crporegon.org/Page/280. We struggle with this too. I think it’s harder at home because there are more interesting diversions then there may be at school and less positive feedback for work completion.

[Wendyloree in reply to Aspen797]

Good evening and thank you for the reply. I will check out the website. She is receiving some executive functioning skills but with the pandemic and being in virtual school things are not being followed. Yes there are lots of distractions at home which makes it 2x harder. We are all in this together and thank you so much.

[Olddognewtricks]

Children with autism thrive on routines. Maybe the key is noting the steps, strategies, etc. that she used to successfully start and complete one assignment and providing for her for another similar assignment. That way she did figure it out, but just used previous strategies that make sense to her.

[Wendyloree in reply to Olddognewtricks]

Thank you so much. I am big on to-do list and our daughter detest them. Instead of calling it a, "To Do List" we call it a "Task List" and hi-light the simple daily task like feed the cats, hang her bath towel up, make her bed and clean the cat's litter box 2x daily. We also broke it down further Tuesday is Plant Care Day and Laundry Day is Friday. It seems to work but still finding that I have to remind her. Thank you again

[Wendyloree in reply to Olddognewtricks]

Thank you so much. We are looking at creating a visual Daily Task List it may help. Wish us luck.