Homeschooling an Autistic Child in the Community

Home schooling an autistic child can be challenging. You need to be parent, teacher, therapist and psychologist. You need to understand your child’s strengths and weaknesses. You need to be able to engage your child in the learning process, every day.

I have learned a few things that have helped me home school my son. He has limited fine motor skills and is nonverbal. He is also extremely stubborn, and there are days that I can not get him to sit at the table to work. His writing skills are slowly developing. He is slowly learning how to independently write letters and numbers.

Because there are a lot of things that my son needs help with, I arranged for a private speech and occupational therapist. Allowing them to work on communication and hand writing gives me more time to work on academics. I still work on the same issues that the therapists work on; however, I don’t have to spend as much time on them.

I use Boardmaker Plus, a software program that allows me to create intricate communication boards and use them on the computer with a touch screen. I created a series of interactive boards that my son accesses by touching the computer screen and selecting picture buttons. I have found this to be a key part of our school day. I use TapToTalk, a communication program that runs on the Nintendo DS, for basic communication. TapToTalk allows me to take school out of the home.

This is what has been the most important part of our home schooling. When my son decides that he will not do any work at home, I take school out of the home and into the community. I’m working on getting my son to independently point at things when asked. He prefers taking my hand and directing it to what he is selecting. He has responded well with using a stylus on the computer and on the Nintendo. However, I would like to se him use his finger to make selections.

At any store we go to, I can ask him to point out items by request. I can also have him find things in the store. This may not seem like academic learning to you, but the skills he learns during these activities are important life skills. Plus, the skills we work on in the community reiterate, or reinforce, what we do at home. If you take a walk up and down the aisles of K-Mart, you will see a lot of opportunities to use products at a store as a learning tool.

The toy aisle can be a hunt for animals (including dinosaurs), a treasure hunt for items that are determined by answering a question, or a lesson in math. The key is to turn whatever environment you are in, (a store, the park, a hiking path), into a learning environment. School does not have to occur only at a table. You can leave the house and continue your teaching in an environment that your child considers fun. Be creative, be adaptable, and always remember that you are only limited by what you determine are your limitations.