Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional A wee bit frustrated

So, at our meeting this year, it was decided dd(10,AS/GAD) should try 6th grade math on the computer. She's already accelerated in English & Science, and is generally more of a "humanities" type of girl, but we decided to give it a trial.

Much to my surprise, she's actually doing pretty well with it until she gets to the quizzes. Each one is 10 questions and the program allows 60 min to complete.(Education2020 program.)She's whizzing through the labs and pretests with normally 90-100%s, gets to the quizzes and usually misses at least 2. I have prompted until I'm blue in the face, "take your time", "check your answers" the usual litany. Her homebound teacher has done the same. She has not taken more then 10 minutes on any of them. Her higher grades are still keeping her at a "B" average, and part of me says it may be good for her. But it kills me because when we review the quiz, she can tell me exactly what she did wrong! Any hints? I don't want her in the habit of sloppy/quick work. Should I just let it go? Other than the "uh-oh Mom, I did it again", she seems pretty unconcerned about it.

I think, if my child was getting acceleration and is doing well, I'd let it go. Is it really about the grade or the process? Is she absorbing the information? And no one will really care later if she got straight A's in elementary. Maybe even push it along to another level because the test is too easy? If it was harder maybe she would slow down? Or double check the concepts against another cirriculum?

It is surprising to see her getting a B, in all honesty, but my concerns are 1. I don't want her to get into the habit of rushing through and passing anyway, then think it's fine; and 2. I'd like her to get into the habit now of working carefully, hopefully down the road it's a skill she's going to need.
I think part of the problem is that in the past she's always been able to coast, not have to study, etc, even with accelerated work. I mentioned above that she does homebound (due to another medical condition), she basically does 5 hrs of school a week, and is done. She might do another hrs worth of homework - a week, not a night. She pulled a 4.0 last year on this schedule, and is headed the same way this year (not counting the math, obviously). We have started doing some supplemental stuff, which helps, but even with the acceleration, she's coasting for the most part.

If there were a consequence that meant something to her, she would be more concerned. She knows she can do it. You know she can do it. There's not much potential for intrinsic motivation there.

Even in college, I often rushed through my tests very quickly, since after the test I could be free! Free! I just hated being in the testing room. If I were taking these tests at home, I might be persuaded to do better at them if I were made to stay at the computer for 20-25 minutes (or until I was done, whichever came later), but maybe with an iPod listening to some really good music that I knew wouldn't distract me, and maybe a snack.

Luckily for me, I have quite a collection of what I call "music for quiet productivity". This includes instrumental as well as vocals sung in foreign languages. The music has enough of a rhythm/texture to keep me buzzing on task, but nothing to distract me from the task at hand.

This might also be the time for some limited, positive extrinsic motivation. If she gets 10 consecutive A's on quizzes, she gets to go to ______ or do ______.

Just goes to show how different kids with AS can be. Many would be totally freaked out about missing some points.

I think your decision about letting it go or not should be based in part on whether asking her to raise her standards will raise her anxiety past a tolerable level.

In principle it's good to encourage "do your best work," and looking over and correcting are important skills. (Does she make the same errors in pencil/paper math? The computer isn't an inert tool; it changes the game.)

My DS (9, AS) generally whizzes through work he doesn't like, often with sloppy results; I have hovered over him to slow him down, and I urge checking of work, in hopes that this will eventually be internalized.

We also talk about a scale of "poor... OK... good... excellent" and have him examine his output to see where it falls on the scale. His self-concept doesn't match reality sometimes, and IMO it's good to have him check in with other people's standards for what constitutes adequate or excellent work. So far this has not made him anxious, so we're all good. If he became too anxious, I'd tone my process down.

HTH,
DeeDee

I hadn't thought about using a reward system, Beckee, and it's something we've been successful with in the past, so it may be worth considering. Music would be a major distraction for her, unfortunately, and making her sit for a certain period of time..I'm not sure, could possibly cause a blow-up or perseveration (asking me 30 times afterwards why she had to sit when she was done), and I'm not sure the trade-off would be worth it emotionally- for either of us, lol! I will keep it in mind as something to try though. Thank you!

It's funny DeeDee, because if it were a science or english assignment, much less test, she would be extremely freaked about the grade, because she loves the subject. Math is just "eh" for her to begin with. She does use pencil & paper as she works on the computer. The last quiz, once again, she missed two, we looked at it, and she says (in less than 5 seconds) "Oh, I forgot to use the order of operations." It was the same mistake for both problems.

I try not to hover over her, simply because I'm trying hard to let go somewhat and make her take some responsibility for her work. Last yr word study was a major problem, I had to redirect every 5 minutes for her to stay on task, it wore both of us out, and I decided I was not doing it this year. It may be something I need to do on a short-term basis.

I think I'll discuss the scale with her teacher and see if she could use it when they review the math lessons, she's hyperaware of anything she perceives as criticism coming from me, or sensing disappointment. She may see it more objectively coming from someone else, then implementing it at home as well.

Thanks for the help!

I hear ya. We've had good success with a task board for DD8, and I'm only half joking when I say we need a homework board that includes the following steps:
READ THE INSTRUCTIONS
READ THE PROBLEM
SHOW YOUR WORK
THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MOM'S MORALE IMPROVES (OK, that one's the joke, but DD would be amused.)

Mine can clearly do the work, but she never reads instructions, often pays no attention to the signs, and would rather spend 5 times as long doing the work in her head than have anything but the answer appear near an "easy" problem. She loses a ton of points for careless errors, because of those things.

I'd rather she come to an appreciation of those things on her own, so I'm letting her do her own thing for the moment. (And I remember when I was her age I did at least that poorly on homework, and I turned out OK and always show my work now!) But I'd go with a reward / incentive system, because those work well for her, if I felt strongly about it.

sidenote-but have you tried Post It Notes on the papers? My DD doesn't like when we write on the homework itself to show her something, I think it offends her aesthetically, lol! Anyway, I have a lot of luck with Post Its, which she just seems to enjoy and you can move it around and you didn't actually write on the paper...

My son (9) rushes through his automated math tests and often makes careless errors as well...mostly because he refuses to do any work on paper. (He thinks it takes away the challenge for him.) Since I can't convince him to "show his work," I am working on convincing him to mentally check his math. He seems to like the idea of this "double challenge." -- My math teacher friends say that he needs to learn to show his work because it will be required later in high school, etc. However, I'm not that worried about it right now.