Special Needs Students

It has been brought to my attention that children with special needs are being missed over by all the new laws that are governing how to educate this population.
As a mother of a child with Autism it can be difficult to homeschool this child more so than a so called normal learning child. So many factors play a role and the school district wants to make sure that the way they interpret the law is the right way.
Well I beg to differ. School districts are to provide speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy services for your child at no costs to you. There should be a special program within each state that is for early childhood development.

In my state of Michigan it is called Early On. The link to this Early Childhood Development program in Michigan is; http://www.earlychildhoodmichigan.org/index.html

Another link to check out is Bridges for kids at; http://www.bridges4kids.org

This organization will link you up with many special services in your area that you may not be aware that exist and are willing to help you for no fee at all since they are run by your local government.

Another link is Project Great Start and you can contact your Intermediate School District for this program and here is the link;
http://wwwmigreatparents.org

You local Early on Coordinator is for children ages birth to three years this program is for children with developmental delays, any type of disability or health conditions that your child might have. The link is;
http://1800earlyon.org/About/EOcordinator,php

Local Project Find Coordinator helps with the special education system in Michigan that helps children from birth to twenty-six years of age receive services and any other help they may need.
http://wwwprojectfindmichigan.org

Head Start is a program that is national program which provides comprehensive developmental services for America’s low income family’s ages three – five years old.
Http://wwwmhsa.ws/

The Michigan Zero to five advocacies Network will help younger children also receive services;
http://bridges4kids.org/ZFAN.htm also you might want to check out http://www.bridges4kids.org/counties/Wayne.htm this is the link for Wayne county Michigan

All of these links can be found off the main link site at the top of the blog.
I know that it may seem to be a bit overwhelming to check out all the links that I have provided but these services are not being used as much by the homeschooling community and they are also available to us. These government programs are not just for children that are in school. If they say they are then find an advocate in your school district that will help you out.
Most of the services are being offered and need to be taken advantage of. All children with special needs have issues that need to be addressed. So many parents feel they can do everything themselves. Well I know that feeling but at some point you will need help or you can crazy.

Homeschooling a child with any type of disability can be emotionally draining and time consuming especially if you have other children you are also teaching. These are things I used to do with my children. I would teach certain subjects together like handwriting, math and art. These subjects seemed to flow better for our family together. Even though the age’s difference posed an issue I was able to do both at the same time. Then when I worked with my autistic son on reading comprehension I had my other child working on independent studies. Like reading history, science or religion and then answering questions. When I was done working with my son one on one I would go over and check on the work that my daughter was doing and how far along she was and if the work was correct. Then we would do something fun like play a game or something that pertained to phonics or puzzles.

It seemed to work smoothly for us and since I only have two children it was easy to go back and forth from child to child. I was unable to leave my son work independently but my daughter was more than capable of reading on her own and me helping with the questions. I also would try and alternate subjects matter each day and not have the same subjects every day. I really feel that alternating the subjects was a plus. I still continue that routine as of today. I also have used the topic of discussions that my son loved to talk about like NASCAR or basketball. We used the driver’s numbers, a player’s numbers or laps done for math. We used spelling names, terms related or any other words that pertained to that subject for spelling.

I will be posting a second part to this blog telling you how I worked on reading comprehension, main theme, word problems, sequencing problems, and many more!

Good Luck in your homeschooling journey and remember U2can Home School your child with any types of needs!