Homeschooling Children With Special Needs
By Mimi Rothschild
Sometimes parents may observe that their child has difficulty with certain subjects or elements in homeschool. For example, the homeschooler may have difficulty staying focused, may have difficulty producing speech and text accurately, or maybe the child is performing in homeschool at an academic grade lower than he or she should be. Such situations are, understandably, of great concern to parents; concerns which beg some questions. Does my child have special needs? If so, what extra support is needed and what should be done in home school to create it? The following is intended as a primer on the more frequently asked questions regarding home school and children with special needs, and cannot claim to be a comprehensive guide or response. If you truly suspect that your homeschooler has special needs, it is probably a good idea to seek out further information.
One of the most frequently encountered questions has to do with academic grade level: Does my child have a learning disorder if he is working within home school curriculum a grade level lower than his age says he should? The answer at this point is an extremely tentative “maybe”. A number of tests need to be done before the diagnoses of learning disability can be applied. However, that is already jumping too far ahead. To begin, the problem may be as simple as eyesight or hearing. Some people with poor eyesight adapt as they grow, and can go for some time before they or somebody else realizes they need glasses. If academic performance in the home school diminishes, this is one possible reason why. Another has to do with the simple and inevitable process of growing up. Part of maturity is mental and cognitive development, which progresses at a different rate for everybody. It is entirely possible that a homeschooler is either too challenged or not challenged enough by the material. A learning disorder or an attention deficit disorder should never be assumed.
That said, suppose for a moment that your homeschooler is diagnosed as having special needs. What then? This of course depends on the needs in question. For example, a homeschooler diagnosed with ADHD will require a greater degree of flexibility, more frequent changes in activity, and methods of learning both engaging and fun. In other cases the homeschooler may have what is known as a problem with Auditory Processing. This means that the homeschooler hears fine, but words sound jumbled and unintelligible to his or her brain. In this case, you will want to investigate programs and specialists for addressing such cases.
Working with special needs children, whether in a home school environment or elsewhere, can be both challenging and rewarding. The key is not only patience and support, but also the wisdom to avoid the temptation of “doing everything” for the child in question. Stress the ability in disability, and encourage the homeschooler with special needs to focus on strengths, and not to dwell on limitations.
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