Homeschooling and Special Needs
by Mimi Rothschild
Ask a homeschool parent why they chose homeschooling over more traditional means of educating their children, and you will get a wide range of answers. “Public Schools are scary,” along with “I want to be in control over what my child learns” will be some common responses. One you might not expect to hear, but will occur often enough, would be “because I have to.” While many homeschool parents may feel strong enough in their other convictions that “I have to” seems like the right response, others have less freedom in their choices. Parents of special needs children are often faced with a mountain of work to get the right kind of education for their loved ones through the public and private sector and, faced with that, decide instead to put the extra push into homeschooling.
In many situations homeschooling is, quite literally, tailor-made for the special needs child. For every government, community and Internet based resource for homeschooling in general, there seems to be an equivalent for special needs based homeschooling.
Getting started on a homeschooling program takes a large amount of research, footwork, and planning; it makes sense to add the “special needs” of your child into the equation. Odds are that you already have made certain adjustments and enhancements to your home to account for many needs; adjusting them or adding new ones would be needed in order to plan for the academic portions of your child’s day.
What constitutes a special needs child? There are many different kinds of challenges children face when it comes to learning, and as many different kinds of solutions and resources to answer those challenges. Adaptive and Assistive Technology exists for many situations, such as Ezscreen Touch screens and voice recognition software for children who have trouble manipulating keyboards and screen magnification for the vision-impaired make computer use possible.
Alternative approaches to teaching make it possible for parents of Autistic children to get results at home, rather than depending solely on special education professionals, even if there are the right kinds available. One approach is TEACCH, Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped children, developed by the University of South Carolina, and routinely available and supported online.
Homeschooling has always been a community of individual families, available to help when called upon. Parents of special needs children also depend on the experiences and wisdom of other parents with similar challenges. When placed together, homeschooling and special needs children just make sense.
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