Anyone homeschooling a special needs child, or a moderate to severe deaf child? Do I need a tutor for him?

Question

My son speaks pretty well, and I only miss a few words he says, but he uses sign language to make me understand the words he cant pronounce. He will keep going to speach therapy, but what else will he need if I homeschool him?. Do to abuse in the public school, I must pull him out. He was denied water as a form of punishment, which was admitted to my husband on the phone by the teacher. I no longer trust the teacher nor the principal since she hung up on me to protect my son. I keep thinking of the cold weather coming, and worry now they will let him get frost bitten. They didn't care if he dehydrated after he begged for water, so I am done with them. I need some advice on how to homeschool a special needs child. Please no answers with how I should try another school, because they are all ran by the same liberals. I have already homeschooled my older children for 5 yrs. and now homeschooling my youngest daughter, and oldest daughter.

Answer 1

I have a special needs child with more language problems than yours. It sounds like you wont need a special tutor but you might find a sign language course that you can all take together.

I think you will be find but the biggest problem I find with homeschoolers is that they provide too little. There is alot provided by schooltime other than just book learning. In particular, with your sons case, you will be doing harm to not fill those learning needs also.

Be sure to check for local programs and make sure that your child participates in them for socializing. Check with the local community centers, or sites like MeetUp.com. Support things that the child might want to do even if its not your cup of tea (concerts are fun even for the deaf, zoos, museums, fun parks, paintball, church, sports teams). You need to consider ALL of those things to be part of his general learning.

Make use of public programs for adding to his learning in anything to provide for some classroom environment. Such as  pottery, or CPR, or karate, or an exercise class. Even if you feel that you can teach those things, dont.

Answer 2

It will probably take just a little more of your time, but I think since you have already homeschooled your older children for 5 years then you should be able to do this. Who better to teach your son than you. Is deafness the only thing you are dealing with or does he have other problems? I say just start out real easy with things he can master. Have fun doing things like learning thru games and activities. Like with any special needs you have to accomodate and figure out how they learn the best. I wish you luck. Sorry I couldn't be more specific like curriculumn and so forth. I am more for learning thru everyday life.

Answer 3

My son has very minor special needs, they only impact his schooling slightly.  In general though I would say just be flexible.  Start out trying on your own, and if you find that you are having trouble getting an idea across to him because of his hearing disability, then hire a tutor for that subject.  ( I would think that the subject most likely to be impacted would be reading, since he can't hear the sounds of the letters and most homeschool curricula is phonics based.)  I would certainly try on my own first, then you don't pay for a tutor unless you really need one.

Answer 4

I'm homeschooling two autistic children, and while it's a little more work, it's totally worth it. Mine were in school for five years before I finally reached the end, so I'm so glad you have decided to pull him now!

If you've already been homeschooling, then you already know what to do! I'd think that speech therapy would be all he needs, and as you know, private is always better than what they get in school anyway. I've also noticed that we get better appointments since we can meet during school hours ;-)

I wouldn't imagine you'd need a tutor, it sounds like you guys communicate very well. Good luck!