How do I help my daughter prepare for tests (sorry for the length!)?

March 4, 2011

My 8 year old was just diagnosed with AS last month. For the most part,her

school (she's in the 3rd grade) has been phenomenal about making sure she gets

the help/attention she needs; in fact, the school is the first place I ever

heard the words " Aspergers Syndrome " mentioned in connection with her.

Right now she spends the majority of her day in a regular ed class, and about 45

minutes per day in the special ed class. While her special ed teacher is

wonderful, this means that all (or at least most) of her testing is done in the

regular ed class. She has a very hard time taking tests, particularly those that

are timed, and I'm at a loss as to how to help her.

Her math grade has gone from a B last grading period to a D this grading period,

mostly because they have started doing timed multiplication tests each week.

They must complete the entire test correctly and before time runs out before

they can move on to the next level. We study like mad at home & she has all the

answers forwards and backwards. Then she goes in the next day to take her test,

and freaks out because she knows she's being timed. If the answer doesn't come

to her immediately, she just writes down anything, because she's so afraid she

won't finish in time.

I know that she knows the material, but her grade is suffering because of this

and I don't know what else to do to try to get her to relax before the test.

We've practiced her being timed at home, and she does fine, but still freaks out

at school. At this point, I'm afraid she's going to start failing because of her

anxiety about being timed! Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can do to

try to ease her anxiety prior to the test? Thanks in advance and I apologize

again for the length of the post!

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