Iep goals / accommodations for inflexible thinking

[Starshine970]

First off I am mentally drained. My child is a literal and often very inflexible thinker. 7 years old and in 1st grade. He has an IEP. No ASD diagnosis that’s a whole separate rabbit hole in it’s self. 
 

We have ran into several scenarios where he takes statements and can’t bend his thinking. He gets very fixated on what words are used and who said them. 
 

This is habitually making homework an utter nightmare. We are spending an hour to get two work sheets done. I have reached out to the teacher a few times. We are working on getting some accommodations put into place. 
 

The problem is my child won’t turn in his incomplete homework assignments. He absolutely tunnel visions on them refusing to do new ones in till he completes the first ones.  Unless the teacher tells him herself that it’s okay. He won’t accept my words and will escalate over it. He is very much a perfectionist. And is melting down over this. I’m pushing for no written homework. Because he just can’t handle it. 

[Lisa Lightner]

That is not an unreasonable accommodation until you have better solutions.

As an aside, we also know so much more about homework than we did just a couple of years ago. It's not very useful in most cases.

I would ask--what is the function of the homework, and then, can that be achieved another way?

https://adayinourshoes.com/iep-homework/

Now, about the rigid thinking. 

I would start with being able to identify when he is using rigid thinking. I'm hosting a chat with an EF expert on tuesday, on the Facebook page.

 

https://facebook.com/adayinourshoesiep

[JSD24]

Ross Greene's CPS protocol can help with inflexible thinking.  Here's more info:  

I would document how long the homework is taking.  If he spent 25 minutes on one worksheet & 20 on the other, write that on the worksheet.  Also, make sure you are communicating with the teacher in writing.  Send them an email:  XX spent 50 minutes on last night's homework but didn't complete it.  Please tell him he doesn't need to finish it or he'll want to do that before working on tonight's homework.  Can you tell him that it's OK to not finish the homework?  Better yet, can you tell him that after working on the homework for 45 minutes, he's done and needs to take a break & play?  He seems to perseverate on getting the homework done no matter how long it takes.  This creates an imbalanced 'work/life balance' for him.  I'm trying to figure out how to help him stop this cycle.