We use Time4Learning.
This is going to be a little long, but hear me out…
I’m going to make a recommendation you try something with your girl that you say likes to “Cheat”; for a time, try removing anything remotely resembling that concept.
I’ll put it like this: What’s the most important thing? It should be “Did you understand what you just learned, & do you have some form of retention?”
In a HS application what I would challenge you to do is encourage her, & yourself, to look at what you could consider to be “Cheating”, & instead make the focus be called “Researching”.
An example here is in T4L’s structure their curriculum consists of lessons based videography followed by problem solving. At any time they can go back & rewatch what they just saw, make notes, take screen shots, etc. It’s fluid information.
Now, what is the difference if what is learned, or understood, of what the lesson is about comes specifically from that video, or from somewhere else?
Do we mandate a monopoly of one thing being the only way to access & discover information? A mandatory “text book”, if you will, like in our days of school? Where sometimes what is being asked for an answer may be buried, or not fluently presented.
In our adult lives what is the danger to that concept & do we, as free thinkers, practice such limitational approaches to learning?
Was not the alternative to finding something out going to the library & spending time going from book to book on the subject trying to find what it was we were looking for?
We live in an age where so much information is so easily accessible at our fingertips in a matter of minutes, or even seconds. Never in human history has that been possible. We simply have that “Library” to be searched & scoured in fractions of the time right in front of us from anywhere we are.
So what then becomes the most important thing to dealing with the level of information access that we now have? I feel it’s 1) learning how to use it, then 2) Learning how to make sure what it is that is being given as correct information is, indeed, correct.
The first week our youngest started homeschooling we were going over some of lessons. As he watched the videos we would go over what was being presented, then when the question portion came & he didn’t remember an answer, I told him he had two choices, go back & scrub through the video to look for the answer, or look it up on his own.
He said, “So you want me to cheat?” I said “No, I want you to learn what is in front of you & do that in the best way that works for you. If that video didn’t make what it was that you were supposed to learn clear, then it didn’t do its job if you did yours & payed attention. Now find the answer on your own & learn it. In life it doesn’t necessarily matter how you learn something, so long as you are & are doing it yourself.”
The stipulation in this was that he physically right down what his researching it had found, so as to put it into memory.
He is pretty darn good at looking stuff up & was able to find answers once he realized what I was trying to get him to realize. That is, it’s not how we go about learning something, it’s that we actually do.
The concept of cheating is someone doing the work for you & giving you the answers without learning it.
Another way to look at it is to ask is it cheating to watch a YouTube video on how to do a particular maintenance on a vehicle or your house? How about tips & tricks on various types of welding or woodworking? Or should you be expected to go through life & struggle manually doing it all through absolute trial & error?
I think we have all done both, & sometimes the endeavor is the trial & error approach, but in my life I find that is best reserved for things I can’t find the answers to, what information is out there is lacking or incomplete, or my thought process or logic doesn’t accept what is currently available information.
Now, some people cheat because they are lazy, some because they have a hard time learning something, or they are simply attracted to the taboo of it. Removing the stigma & getting down to doing what it takes to actually learn solves all of those underlying issues.
I’m not saying it’s going to make the girl want to try, & I’m in no way an expert on autism, but I just wanted to share another perspective that maybe you can use to get her to learn. Remember Huck Finn when he got the other kids to paint the fence? Get her to paint the fence on what she thinks are her terms. Just get it painted.