Re: Aspergers Teens motivational tools

[Guest guest]

Sometimes not be helped and failing a test or 2 is great motivation. geo

- ( ) Aspergers Teens motivational tools

Does anyone have any helpful motivational tools for teens?    My  16-

year-old son who

has Aspergers refuses to complete his school assignments.   The trend started

two months and I am running out of ideas.

[Guest guest]

Vera, does your son drive? Does he get an allowance? Failing tests

did not motivate my daughter in high school she was depressed and

bored. Is he showing any signs of depression? This time of

high school seems to be a bump in the road forward sometimes.

Only going by my experience with my daughter. She started seeing

a counselor at that point, and some medications.

If he drives, that'd be a huge motivator. She would always do

ANYthing to get the car back after she learned LATE to drive.

She didn't learn till 18.

Jo

>

> Sometimes not be helped and failing a test or 2 is great motivation. geo

>

> - ( ) Aspergers Teens motivational tools

>

> Does anyone have any helpful motivational tools for teens?    My  16-

year-old son who

> has Aspergers refuses to complete his school assignments.   The trend

started two months and I am running out of ideas.

>

[Guest guest]

First is it only in one class? Is there an increase in anxiety?

Is he coming home with more outbursts?

First and foremost is finding out why? If there is too much

going on to process during the day then he may need the

evening to rest.

OK lets say it is not that or you are sure he can cope with

doing some work. It is just a habit of avoidance.

I am not an expert but I have had really amazing success

with my daughter working with Yale Parent and Child Conduct Clinic using Parent

Management Training.

You can start him on a behavior plan that he gets certain

priveleges for cooperation in certain area.

He went to school on time. Great. He gets 2 hours of TV/computer.

After dinner he does 30 min or 1 hour of homework he gets

another privelege he likes (whatever it is).

The idea is not to take away all his priveleges. Because

he is going to school on time, doing his work in school,

is emotionally sound (no yelling or demanding) ..

so this is just one area to fine tune.

good luck,

Pam

>

> Does anyone have any helpful motivational tools for teens?    My  16- year-old

son who

> has Aspergers refuses to complete his school assignments.   The trend started

two months and I am running out of ideas.

>

[Guest guest]

My son, now 19, went through a very bad time around 9th and 10th grade. He was not motivated to do any work. Nothing motivated him period. I believe now at that time he was depressed. I worked and advocated on his behalf day and night. He ended up getting an IEP at 16 because he was failing everything and on the verge of dropping out. He did make a connection with the high school music program and that became his motivation. He was given some accommodations like reduction in homework and placement for one period a day in a "support" classroom where he would connect with a special education teacher to get work done and now what he was behind in. He was also able to take many music related classes. Luckily he did a turn around in 11th grade, graduated with a 3.5 gpa and received an award at graduation (a surprise to all of us). I would meet with the school team to see what additional supports can be offered to your son. I found that we couldn't give my son the "option" of doing this or that...it had to be mandatory at first. Talk to your son and see what interests he has and what he is thinking about doing in the future. It is not an easy task to motivate a teenage and I hope you can have the same success I did. Pam

In a message dated 2/18/2010 1:32:06 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, vgamble103@... writes:

Does anyone have any helpful motivational tools for teens? My 16- year-old son who

has Aspergers refuses to complete his school assignments. The trend started two months and I am running out of ideas.

[Guest guest]

My son also crashed and burned in 9th and 10th grade. He got to the point where

he refused to go to school. I asked for tutors from the school and he refused to

cooperate and do any work. This was awful for our entire family, but in the end

it got him his first IEP, finally.

I found a private school for AS and he loved it from the first day. The classes

were very small and the assignments were adjusted to suit the AS mind. So not

much homework, but a lot of intensive work in class, plus lots of work on social

skills. He felt safe. He made friends right away. The school district agreed

that the private school was the appropriate placement for him and agreed to pay

his tuition.

Our school district had a long history of not following processes and so I think

they quickly agreed to what we wanted because 1) I kept a paper trail, 2) I got

an advocate and then a lawyer who looked at my paper trail and could see that

the school district had failed to provide my son FAPE, 3) the school district

knew that they would really be in trouble if I took them to court, and 4) the

program at his private school was much more intensive than anything they could

offer (and would cost the district less than if they had to provide the same

services themselves).