Q: “How Can My Child’s IEP Help Prevent Academic Burnout?”
“In your child’s case, an effective way to incorporate burnout prevention in his IEP is by ensuring that task analysis be done on all assignments. Task analysis — or breaking down a task into smaller, more manageable steps — is crucial for managing overwhelm.”
Q: “Recently, my son, who is twice exceptional (2e), experienced major burnout from the demands of his advanced placement classes. The school’s solution for this was a two-day extension on his assignments, which did not help at all. He has an IEP — how can we incorporate burnout accommodations into it to prevent this from happening again?”
First of all, I’m very sorry that this happened to your son. I remember going to an IEP meeting for one of my twice-exceptional students, a brilliant young man who had tremendous difficulty with written assignments. A lack of appropriate accommodations caused him to burn out, so we called a meeting. I remember saying to the team of teachers sitting around, “Are you literally trying to make sure this child cannot be successful in your classroom? Because that’s what it feels like to me.”
In your child’s case, an effective way to incorporate burnout prevention in his IEP is by ensuring that task analysis be done on all assignments. Task analysis — or breaking down a task into smaller, more manageable steps — is crucial for managing overwhelm.
[Read: “Are Your High-Achieving Students Burning Out? Why It’s Critical to Know.”]
With this type of accommodation, your child’s teachers can break down a big research project, for example, into smaller, concrete tasks that keep your child motivated. Step One can be identifying the research topic. Step Two can be submitting a list of resources and websites your child will consult for the research project. Step Three can be preparing an outline, then a draft followed by feedback and another draft, and so on until the project is successfully completed. Each step and corresponding deadline must be identified and laid out in your child’s calendar well before the project even begins. Checkpoints should also be worked in; these help to raise flags to teachers if your child goes off track and needs additional support.
How far apart to space these tasks will depend on their nature and how they relate to your child’s strengths and areas of need. Even then, extended time on a task — beyond a two-day extension — might be necessary for your child.
Especially in advanced classes, it’s often difficult for teachers to understand that the timelines they propose for accomplishing various tasks are not reasonable for every student. I’ve had teachers say, “If I give one student extra time, I’m going to have to give the whole class extra time.” My response, which I suggest you use: “What do you want? Do you want excellent, or do you want fast?”
Academic Burnout Prevention: Next Steps
- Read: When Gifted Kids Burn Out — How to Support Twice-Exceptional Students
- Read: Unlocking the Potential of Gifted Kids with ADHD
- Read: “I Grew Up Gifted and Autistic — and Suffered the Burnout of Twice Exceptionality”
The content for this article was derived from the ADDitude webinar titled, “Avoiding & Recovering from 2e Burnout: Support for Gifted Students” [Video Replay & Podcast #467] with Mary Ruth Coleman, Ph.D., which was broadcast on August 17, 2023.
SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.
