Resources about homeschooling a non-verbal five year old?
We're not in the USA and local public schools are rather different, for one thing they decide whether they accept your child or not. Most children start at age 2! And there is no special education or autism centered ones, also corporal punishment is standard omnipresent and informal,even the few private schools for special needs kids the staff hits the kids. They claim they don't, but I've heard from multiple parents with experience hopping from one to the other that they all do. Children are hit for incontinence(if the school will even take them if they are not 100% potty trained) they are hit for not sitting still at their desk, they are hit for making noise or stimming, irritating the staff, you get the picture. Also that it is basically nothing but daycare, they focus on spanking kids to get them to sit still on a desk for hours.
Their advice is to give up and leave and go back to the USA, which we intend to do and are working on.
I was just putting that first to explain the situation we're in. School here seems to me that it would not only set him back but horribly traumatize him for basically no gain.
Anyway me and my wife do freelance work so at least one of us is able to be home with our son every day, we have been doing unorganized teaching since he was born. He loves watching ABC and counting vids on youtube, and vids about different vehicles and such. Also working on him writing the alphabet and such. Right now his biggest issues and accomplishments are basic life skills like toilet training, we managed to have him 100% toilet trained on urine but number 2 is still a work in progress heh.
I was curious if there are any books or programs for organized homeschooling in a non-verbal child of his age?
If home school is allowed
You can trade home schooling with each other and maybe pay the baby sitter extra to work
My child is verbal but didn't speak in full sentences till six
I don't know if this will help you but here are some ideas that helped me.
I have part time homeschooled my child because of lack of resources.
1. DVDS: Signing time DVDS really helped my child with communication. The DVDS were pricey but worth it. Right now you can get the episodes free on Netflix. This really helped build speach with my child but even if it doesn't build speech it teaches communication.
2. Book. Playing, Laughing and Learning with Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Practical Resource of Play Ideas for Parents and Carers. I gave my copy to another parent who needed it.
3. Website: http://www.starfall.com/ I found star fall very useful. I just sat my child on my lap and we worked on this site together its free but they do have a more advanced version that is reasonably priced.
4. Reading to your child books:
5. Flash cards: I know some people hate flash cards but they can be fun. You make a face on a box and you can feed the flash cards to the face when answer is correct.
6. Showing the child real life objects and just naming them over and over again.
7. Books: I don't if scholastic ships to your country but they have amazing solection you might have to pay a bit more since you will be doing the club as a homeschooler but many homeschoolers say its worth it http://www.scholastic.com/home/
8. DVD: Baby Babble I think there are two of these DVDS. its like Baby Einstein only made by speech patholgists.
9. Website: http://pbskids.org/ free educational game
10. http://www.hoodamath.com/ free math games but I wouldn't do the games alone I would do manipulative
such as counting toys, flash cards and workbooks. If you have dollar stores in your country they sometimes have cheap workbooks. Workbooks can also be bought on amazon.
11. You have thrift stores in your country they can be full of amazing educational things.
12. There many ways to teach colors, bath tub crayons, flash cards, food.
13. Music Piggy back songs: Its where you take on old tune like Twinkle twinkle little star and create new educational child specific words. ABC is a classic Piggy back song.
14: DVD: Good eats: I found the show good eats as a good way to teach about different foods.
15 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/ I have not joined this site yet but plan to soon its a site that parents and teachers and homeschoolers can buy curriculums and educational ideas, downloads. Some products are free.
16: Book: Engaging Autism: This is a therapy book where you plan lessons around your child's interests other than a typo about what dyspraxia is, I found the book useful.
17. If your child likes app games on an Ipad, or android memory games might be useful. There are lots of cheap and free educational games for kindergartens on ipad and android. On ipad I suggest Mr. Wolf teaches time and Amazing coin. Also for older children I suggest sushi monster.
I second the recommendation for 'Engaging Autism' by S Greenspan (I think that's the author). Floor time-type play therapy was so great for my son. It was the first home therapy we really did and it was great. It helped me engage with him and I learned so much about him by joining his world in play and it brought us a lot closer together which helped us accomplish so many other things.
Also, there is a book published by HANEN called "More Than Words" that was really helpful when my son was younger and speaking in mostly echolalia. I think it would be more useful for non-verbal children actually. It's a lot of activities that help with engagement and communication and helping possible first steps towards speech. We used that one and
moved on to "Talkability". http://www.hanen.org/Guidebooks---DVDs/Parents.aspx There is a DVD that comes with the book for more $$$ that was moderately good. But if you are tight on cash, the book is great by itself. You can even email Hanen and ask them what specific resources would fit your situation. When I did, they put me directly in touch with Fern Sussman who is the author of the books I mentioned. She was incredibly helpful and gave me so much insightful information after really listening to my description of my son's challenges and skills.
If your son likes videos, youtube can be a great resource. My son and now my daughter love everything from KidsTV123 https://www.youtube.com/user/KidsTV123 . It's a huge collection of short music videos on basic educational stuff and kids tend to love it. The videos and subject matter are clear and repetitive and the guy's voice and music is actually soothing and pretty calm while still holding the kids' attention. I get annoyed at the flashy and loud stuff out there for kids. Also on youtube, there are videos of people reading children's books in a circle time / story time kind of format that are great.
I also second the iPad recommendation. There is so much great stuff out there for young kids. I can PM you a list of apps with info about them that my husband put together a while ago. The iPad and youtube have been really useful in opening my son up to the world around him and leading him to so many special great interests.
We have always been big readers around here too. Just reading a lot to him is a great start. And having lots of interesting books around for him to look at whenever he wants. Find out what kinds of books he likes, what kind of pictures and subject-matter excite and interest him and follow his lead.
Are you homeschooling in English? If you live abroad where it's tough to find English books, you can find almost anything at [url]thebookdepository.com[/url] - they deliver literally everywhere, for free. Their prices are generally a bit higher than what you see on amazon but when you take into account free international shipping, it's a great deal. We have found great educational materials (workbooks, etc) there too.
I've read a few books about homeschooling children with autism (the ones that come up when you search on amazon) and honestly did not find them helpful at all. A lot of the information and suggestions were geared toward older children and the books also contained lots information about supports and resources available in the US (useless to me, living outside of the US). A couple of the books recounted parents' personal experiences homeschooling their children and these were minimally helpful as well.
Good luck.
I am also officially starting homeschooling in the fall with my son who will be turning 5 in July.
Sing-along Songbooks are joyful multi-sensory ways to building the eye to mouth pathways supporting language (http://www.4mylearn.org/Bookshelf/BooksSong.html ). This develops reading, verbal, and interaction skills. When put on a large screen tv, you can position yourself between him and the screen, so your face is near his. Start by singing to him, and encourage him to make up hand and body gestures (like rolling along, put your right foot in, shake all about) to increase imitation and joint attention skills. The song Bingo develops very important response inhibition skills. If he enjoys it do it every day. He is likely to make noises to the music which evolves into words. At the minimum it increases gesture communication. These songs are very well enunciated to build language and reading.
http://www.4mylearn.org/Bookshelf/Phoni ... nicsK.html, a full multi-sensory Kindergarten English Language Arts program for visual and kinetic learners (including kids with dyslexia, ADHD, ASD and other labels). Click on one of the units to see the kids page.
Once you move back to the states you will need to know something about the Common Core and other educational standards. The following links provide summaries of the standards:
http://www.4mylearn.org/CCSS-Math.html
http://www.4mylearn.org/CCSS-ELA.html
http://www.4mylearn.org/NEXT_GENERATION ... DARDS.html
http://www.4mylearn.org/C3_FRAMEWORK_FO ... UDIES.html
This site is dedicated to kids with neuro-immuno developmental challenges, including ASD, and their families. There is much educational material designed for them. Even more importantly information on how to address the immuno/sensory medical causes of ASD with aware trained professionals. See http://www.4mylearn.org/Model/NewLabel.html for a jumping off point.
Best of luck.
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