Talk Autism by Debbie
Let's talk about Autism. The ups and downs for guiding an individual that is on the spectrum. Let's not forget about the parents and other children during out talks.
Talk Autism by Debbie
Empowering Choices: Homeschooling Success Stories and Practical Support for Autistic Children
Is homeschooling the right choice for your autistic child? Discover the transformative benefits and potential challenges, as we tackle common concerns like overcrowded classrooms, underfunded schools, and the lack of specialized training for educators. We'll reassure you that choosing to homeschool is not a sign of failure but a practical and personalized approach to education. Hear inspiring success stories and get practical advice on setting achievable goals to effectively track your child's progress.
Plus, don't go it alone—uncover various support options available to make your homeschooling journey smoother. From hiring tutors to finding educational resources, we emphasize the importance of external help. Tune in to learn about our exciting plans for a resourceful podcast series dedicated to homeschoolers, and join our growing community by tuning in weekly, spreading the word, and sharing your thoughts and questions. Together, let's create a supportive environment for homeschooling families!
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Good afternoon everyone. I hope that today is going well for you. School started back up, so my schedule is getting a little bit better. So I'm going to be planning doing weekly if not a couple times a week a podcast. I know it's been kind of lacking. Summer was extremely busy. So I am back and today we're just going to do a short little video about people that may look down on other people that are doing homeschool with their autistic children. So I just wanted to talk a little bit about schools and your feelings about homeschooling and try to address some of the issues with that.
Speaker 1:So first of all, let's talk about schools. Why did we pull our child out? A few reasons, and this is no means anything to do with the teachers. It just really is not. It's not their fault, even though we sometimes put the blame on the teachers, but there's just other issues that are going on that the teacher has no control over. So we kind of have to remember remember that, and one of them is our schools are don't receive enough money and our teachers don't receive enough money and and we don't have enough staff to go along, we put too many kids in a room and it's just too much, too many kids in a room and it's just too much. Lack of training is another thing. Maybe that teacher doesn't understand autistic or their para if they have a para, a general one or even a one-to-one that they haven't received the training that's necessary to work with our kids that are on the spectrum.
Speaker 1:And overcrowding is another thing. You know, when you have two people in a room and you got 17 kids or 15 kids, it's impossible. Think of all the things that is required for your child. Well, they've got 15 more that needs the same thing and there's only two people in the room. Sometimes you have three, you get lucky and you get three people in the room. But even that that's a lot you should only have. They should only have about five, six, seven, maybe nine at the tops. But to me that would be at the very, very top. But we don't. We have kids that are just poured into the rooms and we're always out in the back 40, and nobody seems to care most of the time. I'm not saying all schools, because that's not true. I've had some very good principals that do care and have been very helpful, but they only have so much control too.
Speaker 1:If you've got overcrowding, then it leads into not being able to service your child to all of their needs. And it's just impossible because our day at schools are very busy You've got lunch, you've got recess, you've got specials, you've got this, you've got that. And then in between all that you're trying to address all of the goals that are on the IEP or any behavior issues or anything like that you're trying to to address, and it's just very impossible to do so. I know that you may have a teacher that maybe didn't handle the situation right or you had a para, but just remember she's probably overworked, underpaid, not enough supplies, buying out of her own pocket, and it is a very hard job to do and trying to meet everybody's needs that are on the list. And it just gets to you and you just try to get do your best every single day. So now, when somebody says to you, oh, you're homeschooling and he's not in school and try to make you feel like you're not doing your best, that's not true. You are doing your best. If that school is not providing and, like I, I'm not blaming this on the teacher If that school is not able to provide for your child because of overcrowding, not enough support, not enough training.
Speaker 1:Whatever the reason is, then homeschooling is a good thing. I've seen great results from homeschooling. I have a parent right now that is homeschooling her child and I work with him every morning and on his exceeded all his IEP goals. On his IEP goals, when they made them the teacher said this will never happen. And all of them have happened so and it probably wouldn't have happened. In her room she had 17 kids and one para that fell asleep a lot, so it made it kind of difficult.
Speaker 1:So what are some of the benefits of homeschooling? Well, one of the benefits is more time, more one-on-one. It's less distractions in the classroom. If you've got 17 other kids that all are on the spectrum or have behavior problems and stuff, there's a lot of distractions through the day and it's hard for your child maybe to concentrate. So that's another good thing about homeschooling you can go at your child's pace and you can also give materials that will help your child that are geared for your child and not just what the school gives you or say you got to do this and do that and do do this. You can monitor or make it so that you accommodate those kids that are on the spectrum a little bit better than maybe you can even at school. What I've seen is the progress is usually much faster and so that makes it a lot easier for them to move up and gain the academics that they need daily.
Speaker 1:So don't let others make you feel bad about homeschooling or don't second guess yourself either. If you are also on the other side saying I don't know if I could do this, you know you can do it and you just have to pace yourself and set daily goals and set weekly goals. So like if you tomorrow, you get up and you say, okay, I want us to learn these three problems and we're going to learn how to do, uh, read this, set a little paragraph and we're going to write out a simple sentence. You know sets a few, a few goals for that day and then by the end of the week you may say okay, we're going to end up doing 15 problems through the week and we're going to write three sentences all on the same topic. It just depends on what level your child is at. Maybe it's just learning their letters and learning the sounds of their letters and repeating the letters and know their numbers one through 10 or one through 30. So just set those simple goals and as you go along, you're going to keep increasing and increasing and one day you'll just sit there and hear him read, like two weeks ago, the child that I was working at that didn't read and the teacher said it will never happen. He took his first reading test and passed out of 25 words, he got 24. So I was really happy, and he took a spelling test Now, granted, it was all the AT, you know, like fat cat, those kind of things, but still he was able to do it. He sounded it out himself and he wrote himself, and I was really, really, really proud of him. So he did well.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, that's all I wanted to do today. I know it's a real short one, but I'm going to be doing some more. So I just wrote up this one. And the reason I did this one is because I saw on my Facebook of a parent that her child is doing really, really well, but somebody made her feel bad about homeschooling, and to me, the person that made her feel bad is just ignorant to understanding what homeschooling is and that it's not an easy thing for a parent to homeschool their kids and get the resources that they need.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things I wanted to also add on to this is also, if you are homeschooling you know, don't feel like you got to do all that stuff by yourself. You know seek out other people to help you, to find out if you are eligible for some home people to come in to help tutor or read to him, or something like that. There's a lot, of, a lot of ways you can set up stuff so that you don't have to do it all, and maybe I'll do some research on that and do a podcast this coming week on that. So, anyway, I hope you guys have a blessed, blessed day. I am back. I am going to be doing this every week again and I hope that you will stay tuned and listen to my podcast and spread the word, and I guess we also on my podcast. You can do like fan mail and stuff like that. If you want to drop me a line, you are more than welcome. So, anyway, have a blessed day and I hope things are going well for you.
