I homeschool two boys who are on the autism spectrum and one who is not. All three have ADHD in the bargain. I threw the IEP away and just focus on meeting their needs on a daily basis.
When my husband and I decided to homeschool, it was because even with IEPs for all three boys, their needs were not being met in the school system. The schools spend months putting together an IEP for a kid, and they come up with all of these grandiose plans, and then every few months they call the parents in for an ARD meeting to tell you how much progress is being made, and the progress is invariably none. This started getting old after a while.
We decided to pull the boys from school and see if we couldn't do better for them here at home. And you know what? We have. In the past two years, our boys have developed far better social skills, have exceeded their educational goals, have blossomed in their artistic and musical skills, and are happier, more well adjusted, and far less anxious and stressed out than they were when they were in school and constantly being teased, bombarded with too much outside stimuli, and pushed by teachers.
Best of luck to you and your boy. :)
2007-03-03 02:03:50
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answer #1
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answered by j3nny3lf 5
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Well, there are plenty of books out there on how to design a program for autistic kids. If you already have an IEP from school, just look at each individual goal, and think about how to teach that goal. It really depends on how functional your child is and what the goals are. We followed my daughters IEP for about two months, by that time, we achieved every single one of the goals that they had worked for nine months on!
For example, my daughters goals were mostly social. The academic ones included stuff like 'listening to teacher and responding with appropriate answer', 'will read a story and answer questions', or 'will attain own workbook and follow instructions on math sheets'. So step one was to get a math workbook, and practice just getting the workbook. Then step two (once the first was mastered) was getting her to look at instructions, then when that was mastered making the connection between the instructions and the workbook and following through.
We have a really great psychologist who helped us figure out ways that she learned, and using those strengths to teach. So my daughter is very visual, but with math concepts it is hard to do higher maths visually. We have our psych and also our ABA trainer who is a natural at breaking down tasks for teaching.
Who do you have helping you right now? Where does your child get therapy? Those are the best places to start. Try to start with changing what the school was not doing well. Sometimes that is a big lesson right there!
You can mail me if you want to talk more. It's in my QA profile
2007-03-05 18:17:25
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answer #2
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answered by ? 6
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I am beginning to homeschool my child, but I won't have an IEP with him, so I can't help much there. I know what his needs are, and I meet those as they arise. But, I'm on a group on Yahoo for homeschooling parents of special needs kids, and I would strongly recommend going there. There are a lot of parents of autistic children there, and some of the parents have been homeschooling since the 80's, so I'm positive you'll find help there. Just search the groups for HS-Plus, and good luck to you!
2007-03-02 16:38:57
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answer #3
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answered by Angie 4
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my daughter goes to a private school so I guess that's kind of close. You could try going to a school in your child's district. They have the appropriate resources and know how to meet your child's iep needs. We meet every 3 months at a school in the local district even though my daughter does not attend their school. The reason being, your taxes go to a local school therefore they are required to help you meet your child's iep needs without your child attending their school.
2007-03-03 12:31:32
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answer #4
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answered by jmcupp2000 2
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i don't homeschool, but i do after-school tutoring for a child, in which i find/create my own materials. i just used the iep goals as a curriculum guide and started eveloping materials i knew would help the student achieve the goals. for example, one goal is to memorize addition facts with sums of up to 18, so i started doing adding with manipulatives and we're now working on "skill drill" for memorization. talk to other teachers in the school and other members of the special education team to get materials and ideas.
2007-03-02 14:53:39
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answer #5
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answered by moondancer629 4
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