I have been thinking off and on about this, even though my child is only in elementary school. How are grades decided ? Is in-class work graded at high school ? Or, does only doing the homework count ?
What about middle school ? And elementary school ?
Our experience has been that this is completely teacher/course dependent. Teachers even change from year to year in the same course sometimes.
One of the challenges I am having is that my child will not complete the work in class completely. I have asked him many times -- he says that the work is very boring. Occasionally, I think the way school is, is in direct conflict with the way he learns. He does not act out; he simply continues to work on whatever is fascinating to him at the moment (even if it does mean that work is not completed at school). I am really concerned that he will under-perform, and not care about school when he is older.
My first advice is, it's too early to think about what might happen when he's older and to try to second-guess how his teachers will grade in high school. It *is* really important, however, to understand what's happening right now and try to resolve an issue such as not completing work in class.
It's really easy to see a gifted child not completing work in class, have that child say it's boring, and determine that yep, he's not finishing it because it's boring. The first thing I'd recommend doing is determine - is that *really* what's up? Your ds had a low processing speed and low visual motor integration scores on testing (I looked them up just to be sure I remembered it correctly) - these are both indications that he might have a challenge that's making it difficult to actually complete the work. Not an intellectual challenge but a different type of challenge - maybe it's visual processing, maybe it's fine motor - but his test results point to *something* going on, and it might be something that's unrelated to his Asperger's diagnosis.
It's also possible it's some other type of challenge. For instance, different situation but just as an example - my ds is extremely organizationally challenged. He had difficulties for years getting his completed homework actually turned in. I didn't realize until he told me last year (in 9th grade) that he simply had no idea that if he didn't turn it in, his teacher would never see it.
How can you know if it's a challenge vs just not being interested in doing the work? Over the next few weeks, pay attention to when it happens and what types of assignments. If it's a challenge, you'll most likely see some kind of pattern.
If you determine that it's truly not a challenge other than being bored, then you need to help him understand that it's important to complete his work. It might be boring, but if it's assigned it needs to be completed, and it's important to stay on task with what's going on in the classroom.
Best wishes,
polarbear
