Do you homeschool your child with autism?

Question

Please tell me why you decided to homeschool. What are the advantages and disadvantages that you have found?

Answer 1

I actually have my autistic daugher in public school (she has multiple special needs and ASD is only one).  I like to bring her home, but I cannot afford all the special materials she would need.

I do HS her older brother.  He's always been HS'ed.  We do what's best for each child.  We also re-evaluate each year to make sure the decisions we've made are still the correct ones.

There are Yahoo Groups for HS'ing ASD kids.  If you do a Groups search, you should find them.

Offhand, for *my* DD, she needs to peer modeling of her classroom peers.  It's a type of good peer pressure and not something I can give her at home.  She also needs extensive speech (she's functionally non-verbal) therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy and I cannot duplicate those at home, or by having her as an "outpatient" in therapy with the school district.  It's something her teachers and aides work on when she's not in pull-out therapy sessions.  She also has feeding issues and the peer models for eating are good for her.

It also helps that the school personnel are the "bad guys" and I'm not....I'm "just" Mom - after many years of being a nurse/therapist before she was in school.  I would be one grouchy mama and she'd be an even grouchier kid if we spent all day together.  But again, that's what works for *our* family.

All ASD kids are so different.  If you had a room full of them, you would not find one that acted the same as another.  So it's a very personal decision based on your family dynamics, your child's main issues, and the support, or lack of it, you have from your school district.

Answer 2

My son has Aspergers.  We pulled our kids from the system just over 4 years ago.   It was the best thing we could have ever done.

I did not want his social skills to come from kids who really had no clue how to properly act in the first place.    Swearing, teasing and bullying are not social skills I wanted him to acquire frankly.  

At home he's been able to model his dad and I.  Plus we are involved with a lot of homescholers in the area and he has been accepted without question by the groups.  In fact, as he's gotten older he's become one of the leaders of the group!  

We've let him bleach his hair and stay current with the fashions so he doesn't look "odd".  We find kids are drawn to him now.   Both homeschoolers and ps kids.  

He's been able to mature at home, at his own pace, instead of being pushed into something he's not been ready for.  

The disadvantages are that it can be trying for mom.   You need support and be very committed.    My husband travels a lot but when he is home I take advantage of that and go for coffee with friends and take some time for myself.

Answer 3

It's up to you as the parent and what you think it best for the child. I went to school with a girl with autism and it was great for her. If you start them young the children are very accepting and. I remember she had a birthday party once and everyone in the class came. She had a great time. I don't think she ever really felt like she was different from any of the other kids.

Answer 4

As both a parent and a professional, I have found public schools to be lacking in educating children with special needs.  I have watched many children graduate highschool from these special needs classes without the ability to read and write.

Answer 5

I fully agree with you! (your added details) If I had a child with autism, I'd probably give him a shot at public school to start out with, but I imagine it wouldn't last. I think you know what you're talking about here, and you should know it will only get worse as he gets older. If you are thinking about homeschooling, GO FOR IT! Look online. I can't remember any off hand, but i know I've visited quite a few websites about homeschooling "special needs" kids.

Answer 6

Despite the fact that I left a really good school district, I have not been disappointed in my decision to home school my daughter but not my son.

Background:  I have a daughter (13) and a son (11).  My daughter has high functioning autism.  My son has ADHD/Autism, has speech problems (sound production as well as content issues), and is on Ritalin.  My daughter has content speech issues but makes perfect sounds.  My daughter struggles to be sociable (she can do it but sometimes prefers to avoid peers) and my son is very outgoing and has many friends.

We have been HSers for 1 semester.  We decided to do it for 1 main reason: with 2 kids with disabilities in good schools, they were each spending around 2-3 hours EACH of homework a night, with my assistance most of the time.  It was not really a ton of homework for normal 4th and 7th graders, but their distractability and slowness to catch on made it take much longer for both kids.  So basically I did almost nothing but homework from 4:00 to 9:00 or later every night; we were burned out.  Life was no fun many nights, churning away at math assignments late into the night, reteaching, kids not getting it, getting frustrated.  The teacher's responses were to cut the assignments short, and on really bad nights I would.  But I'm a teacher myself, and I knew that if I did that all the time, my slower kids would just slide farther and farther behind.

Advantages of our situation:

1)  I get to control my daughter's homework.  If my son gets bogged down, I work with him.  My daughter doesn't fall farther behind because I can skip homework with her, or give her something like reading that she can do by herself.  I can postpone some assignments to the next day at will; I have more control over her pacing, which allows me to work harder with my son when necessary.

2)  She is less stressed because we don't have to do math homework at night unless she's up to it.  If she balks (and she rarely does any more because the assignments tend to be shorter), I can push it to the next day.

3)  She has become a LOT more self-reliant.  She knows the routine, and she THRIVES on routine.  I know, most kids like variety, but not her.  Her autistic tendencies go very well with a structured routine, with assignments always following a predictable pattern.  And, it makes lesson planning easier as well to go along with this.  Before, her homework might be a project, a worksheet, a book assignment, an analysis--she never knew what to expect, so she always waited for me to tell her what to do.  Now, she gets started even if I'm not there.  She loves the EXACT same routine, and she gets going herself because she knows (and can predict) what assignments and pages to do next.  We use 1 book, and every chapter follows the same pattern.

4) Having a life - Less homework, of course.  But now she can do things in the afternoon if we want, and we have joined a home school group for socialization.

5) Flexibility -  If something (a course, a book, etc.) doesn't work out, I can bail out and try something else.  She is not locked into a class for 16 weeks or longer being frustrated by every assignment that she can't get, that just gets harder.

6)  She no longer has to get up early.  That has allowed me to pursue substitute teaching (which also has helped her self-reliance).  Also, she did not like riding the bus--too rowdy for her taste, although she did handle it for 7 years.

7)  School resources are still available, although this is not always true in every circumstance.

8)  I was able to select novels for her to read which she could handle.  By 7th grade, they were getting too difficult for her to understand the subtleties of characters and theme--VERY FRUSTRATING.  I have been able to adapt the curriculum to truly teach to her understanding, and go slower when needed.

9)  Less wasted time.  No "school time" burned changing classes, riding the bus, doing fire drills, listening to announcements, no homeroom, locker fiddling, etc.  It's almost all instruction time.

10)  She did not miss any instruction time when we had to go out of town for a wedding.  We made up the time later.

11)  No commitments to volunteer at school, no candy to sell, no paperwork to wade through on a daily basis, no confusion about what the homework assignment says.

12)  PE - She can do what interests her.  If she doesn't like football, we can swim, bike ride, take a ballet class, etc.  Also some autistic kids have locker room issues, which she did not.

Disadvantages:

1)  LOTS OF WORK - I mentioned that I am a teacher.  I have to lesson plan everything, and I like to have everything just so.  I have to read all of her textbooks.  I use her for help when I can (she is learning to type, so I have her type up study guides to practice and to help me).  So the way I do it, I have 5-6 hours a day in classwork, and writing tests, study guides, etc.  Actually, I should say that SHE spends 5-6 hours a day.  I often let her do math or read on her own while I do housework.  I am AVAILABLE, but there is plenty that she just does on her own.  Other things, like writing, I have to sit with her the whole time, helping prodding, etc.  It depends.

2)  Social time - Her neurologist was not happy to hear that she would get less social time, but social times for others was not usually used by her for that reason.  She opened up to very few kids.  Adult contact was her main outlet, so that has decreased.

3)  Loss of services - Some places maintain IEPs when you leave for Home School, but they don't always have to.  We lost speech services when we started, and I was told it was perfectly legal.  I don't have the time to pursue this even if it weren't true.

4)  Cost (?)  Hard to calculate this yet.  We don't spend $50 for school supplies any more, but I have to buy some textbooks.  No lab fees or materials.  Lunch is probably cheaper.  HS can get pretty expensive if you buy a curriculum package, but I end up spending the time to do my own.  I do offset this by finding used books on the Internet, and through a local Homeschool support group which has a Buy/Sell materials web site.  Look for one in your town.

5)  Loss of expertise - She doesn't have the access to a "real" science/history/art teacher, but I don't worry about that.  Her social studies teacher last year said that she didn't learn anything from lecture type classes.  Even with a full time aide, she only got so much from traditional classes.  I was having to make flashcards and drill her at home anyway, so I think that being able to tailor the curriculum for her needs outweighs any loss of expertise.

6)  PE - She sometimes would benefit from a traditional class, because I lack the materials, facilities, and teammates for certain activities.

I know this is a lot to read, but I hope you find it worth your time.  Good luck with whatever you decide.  And whatever you do, get help and support wherever you can find it.