I have a great deal of difficulty getting my son to do his homework.

Homework can be very difficult for children with autism to understand for the following reasons:

• they find school stressful and do not want any reminders of it at home
• they do not understand why they are expected to do school work at home
• they might have difficulty with organisation skills and may find it difficult to remember to write down all the homework and remember deadlines.

However there are a number of tips which might help your son in the future.

Written instructions

If your son has more than one piece of homework (normally in secondary school), it may be useful to ask the teachers in each lesson to either make sure your son has written down the homework in his diary, or write it in for him. They may also need to provide written instructions to take home which breaks the task down further as well.

Doing homework at school

If your son finds it difficult to understand why he does homework at home, could he do it at school instead? Some children find break and lunchtime very hard and they may find it preferable to sit in the library or a quiet place in the school and do their work. Some schools also have after-school clubs or homework clubs, which your son may find of use.

For more information, please read the advice we gave to the parent whose daughter experiences anxiety during break and lunchtime.

Relaxation time and rewards

If your son cannot do his homework at school, he might need to unwind and relax when he first comes home, instead of launching straight into work. Giving him time to reduce his stress levels may mean that he then finds it easier to focus on the work later on.

Some children may also benefit from using either a reward system or a behaviour contract. If he successfully completes his homework every day for a week, could he get a reward at the weekend? Alternatively a behaviour contract could be drawn up with everyone in the family, with everyone agreeing to do one task every day - and it could be agreed that completing his homework will be the thing that your son will do.

Tony Attwood has written about the difficulty that children with autism have with homework, which may be of further help.