Homeschooling Kids with Special Needs: 4 Tips to Get Started

Homeschooling Kids with Special Needs: 4 Tips to Get Started

by | Aug 13, 2013 | Different Dream, School/Education, Special Needs Parenting

Homeschooling Kids with Special Needs: 4 Tips to Get Started

Homeschooling is an option for parents of kids with special needs to consider. The decision is personal and depends upon factors specific to each family’s circumstances. Veteran homeschooling mom of kids with special needs, Sylvia Phillips, is here with 4 tips on how to get started if you choose the homeschooling option.

Thinking About Homeschooling Your Child with Special Needs?

The new school year is right around the corner. As much as I love summer and hate for it to end, I still get excited about and enjoy planning new educational activities, experiences, and learning opportunities, even after 29 years of homeschooling. This year I have only two school-aged children to plan for, though at one time I was homeschooling six children.

  1. Check out the Homeschool Legal Defense Association: Whether you’re  contemplating homeschooling one child or nine, the first thing that I always recommend new families who are thinking about homeschooling to do is to check out Homeschool Legal Defense Association. Joining HSLDA will guarantee that you have legal representation if you should happen to have any negative  issues with your school district concerning your right to home educate your children. Also check for your state’s homeschooling laws on HSLDA’s My State page.
  2. Inform Your School District: The next step would be to inform your school district of your intention to homeschool your child for the next school year. Do not ask permission. Simply let them know that your children will not be attending school in the fall. If your child has any special needs it is your choice if you want to mention it to them or not. If my child with special needs performed at grade level and had no problem proving that on tests, I personally wouldn’t divulge that she had any special needs at all. However, if your child will need special accommodations, does not perform at grade level, or does not perform well on tests then I strongly advise you to inform the school district of your child’s special needs. In most states schools are required to offer your special needs child educational and psychological evaluations,  and any special services your child might need such as speech therapy, physical therapy, or occupational therapy. You will not be required to accept such services even if they are recommended. However, you may be required to prove how you will be providing your child with equivalent services.
  3. Complete the Necessary Forms: Upon receiving your letter of intent, the school official in charge of homeschooling should send you all the necessary information you’ll need and any forms you may be required to fill out. In New York we are required to send in a description of our courses of study, also known as the  Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP), attendance records, and quarterly report cards. We are also required to give our children standardized tests every other year beginning in fourth grade and every year beginning in ninth grade.
  4. Choose Your Homeschooling Materials: Now comes the fun part:  deciding on your homeschooling method,  searching for curriculum ideas, and planning exciting learning experiences for your family! A great place to start researching homeschooling styles and planning curriculum is the Christian Book Distributors’ Homeschooling Catalog. Here you will find an abundance of the information you’ll need to get started on your exciting brand new homeschooling adventure!

 

For a brief description of several homeschooling options you might want to stop by Homeschooling Methods Explained. I hope your child has a great school year wherever you decide to educate this fall!

Your Homeschooling Starter Tips?

Are you homeschooling your child with special needs? What tips can you add to Sylvia’s list? Your advice could help another family have a successful homeschooling year, so leave a comment in the box below.

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Special Needs Caregivers Online

Special Needs Caregivers Online

by | Aug 12, 2013 | Books and Resources, Different Dream, Special Needs Parenting

Special Needs Caregivers Online

Caregiving in the U.S. is on the rise, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center. The poll found the number of adults caring for a child or adult with significant health issues is up from three in ten (30%) in 2010 to almost four in ten U.S. adults (39%) in the summer of 2012.

Special Needs Caregivers R Us

 

Who are the caregivers? Turns out, they look a lot like us.

  • 40% of women and 37% of men are caregivers.
  • 39% of white people, 40% of black people, and 32% of Hispanic people are caregivers.
  • 46% of parents of minors are caregivers. 36% of non-parents are caregivers.
  • 36% of people between the ages of 18 and 29, 42% of people between 30 and 49, 44% of people between 50 and 64, and 30% of people 65 and above are caregivers.

Like I said, caregivers look a lot like us. For a closer look at the statistics, go to Family Caregivers.

Special Needs Caregivers Look for Health Information Online

The most telling statistics were those about caregivers and their search for health care information. Caregivers are more likely than non-caregivers to look for answers to their health-related questions both offline and online. This held true whether they were asking doctors or other health care professionals, friends and family, or someone with the same health condition. The statistics are broken down further at Family Caregivers and Health Care Info. They are also much more likely than non-caregivers to check online reviews about physicians, hospitals, and treatments, as well as post health care reviews about their experiences.

Special Needs Caregivers Are Wired for a Reason

Caregivers like us aren’t surprised by these findings. We know how hard it is to get out of the house to meet face-to-face with providers or ask about treatments. We know it’s much easier to do an online search than to buckle kids into car seats or help an elderly parent to the car and stow the walker in the trunk. That’s why blogs, like this one, that disseminate resources about parenting kids with special needs, are all over the web.

What Special Needs Caregiver Information Would You Like to See?

Which segues beautifully into today’s question. What kind of information would you like to see featured at DifferentDream.com? More guest posts? Fewer guest posts? More practical how-tos or fewer? More or less attention to faith-based issues? More or fewer special needs book or product reviews? Something else altogether? Leave a comment so this blog can better serve wired caregivers like you.

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop-up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

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Jolene Philo is the author of several books for the caregiving community. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. Sharing Love Abundantly With Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and Amazon. See Jane Sing!, the second book in the West River cozy mystery series, which features characters affected by disability, was released in November of 2022.

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3 Apps to Encourage Picky Eaters

3 Apps to Encourage Picky Eaters

by | Aug 7, 2013 | Books and Resources, Different Dream, Special Needs Parenting

3 Apps to Encourage Picky Eaters

Picky eaters can make meal time a nightmare for the entire family. Kids with special needs often have good reasons to be reluctant eaters—sensory sensitivity issues, food allergies, or oral aversions due to feeding tubes or invasive oral medical procedures. Whatever the reason for pickiness, parents need lots of tools in their toolbox to help their children learn to enjoy food.

Preschoology Offers Help

Stefanie, blogger at at Preschoology, a mobile app company devoted to helping young children learn social skills, reviewed 3 apps designed to encourage picky eaters. The reviewer is a school psychologist who tested the apps on her young clients. For each app, she answers the following 3 questions and gives 1 opinion:

  • What does it do?
  • Who is it for?
  • How would I use it?
  • Why I love it.

3 Apps to Encourage Picky Eaters

Here are the 3 recommended apps and a summary of Stefanie’s review of each.

  1. Toca Kitchen Monsters by Toca Boca: Though this app wasn’t specifically designed to aid picky eaters, it allows very young children, even under age 3, to explore food in a non-threatening, fun way. The app graphics are gorgeous and engaging and very intuitive to use.
  2. Choose My Food by Haymachine Entertainment: This app was specifically designed for kids with food sensitivity issues. It allows them to choose foods from a selection of food visuals and earn virtual stickers by eating real food. Stefanie ends the review by saying, “the designers of the app are in touch with the the fact that certain populations of children avoid even the most basic of foods.”
  3.  LaLa Lunchbox: Children can use this app to plan what will be in their lunch box each week. It can help children communicate the foods they like and don’t like with their parents. It’s a useful tool for preparing shopping lists and can help families get out of menu ruts.

What Picky Eater Apps Have You Found?

Do you know of other apps that encourage picky eaters? If so, leave a comment for the rest of us. Happy eating!

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up-box and the second at the bottom of this page.

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Jolene Philo is the author of several books for the caregiving community. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. Sharing Love Abundantly With Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and Amazon. See Jane Sing!, the second book in the West River cozy mystery series, which features characters affected by disability, was released in November of 2022.

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5 Ways to Help Kids Improve Reading Comprehension

5 Ways to Help Kids Improve Reading Comprehension

by | Aug 6, 2013 | Different Dream, How-Tos, Special Needs Parenting

5 Ways to Help Kids Improve Reading Comprehension

August has arrived, and that means school is just around the corner. Guest blogger, Erica Fener of Progressus Therapy is here with ideas about how to help our kids maximize their ability to understand what they read.

5 Ways to Help Kids Improve Reading Comprehension

If your child with special needs has difficulty with reading comprehension, you can help improve it. Following are five ways to help your child increase reading comprehension.

Read Short Segments

Your child’s reading comprehension will increase if you break down the story into small segments and then discuss what happened before continuing the story. Read one or two pages, stop, and talk about what has happened so far. Discuss questions such as:

  • Who are the characters in this story?
  • Where does this story take place?
  • What do you think might happen next?

As your child thinks about and responds to these questions, he or she becomes more engaged in the story, taking an interest in the characters and what happens to them. Also while reading the short segments, ask questions about a previous segment and repeat some of the questions already answered. This helps cement retention in your child’s mind.

At first, it’s okay if you get through only a small portion of the story or if your child has difficulty remembering details. Reading comprehension is a skill that is built slowly. Focus on gradual building of comprehension rather than instant improvement.

Relate Story to Real Life

As you read a story, ask questions related to the plot such as, “Does this remind you of something?” or “Have you ever felt that way?” or “Have you ever gone to a place like that? What did you do when you were there?” When your child connects what’s happened in the story to his or her life, details are easier to understand and recall. This skill strengthens over time as your child practices it more and more.

Use All Five Senses for Reinforcement

Increasing reading comprehension involves more than just reading text. Oftentimes, children with special needs learn best if they use more than one sense at a time. Listening to an audio CD of the book while following along on the written page gives children both the ability to “see” the text and to “hear” it at the same time. If a book is also available on DVD, your child may benefit from acting out the story along with the characters on the screen or acting out some scenes in the story immediately after they’ve been read.

Use Art to Reinforce Plot

Making construction paper cutouts of scenes from the book, coloring pictures that depict events in the plot, or making figures out of clay or play-dough also aid comprehension while also being very enjoyable. Such exercises are more concrete than simply reading about what happens to the characters.

Repeat

Repetition is one of the most important ways to help your special-needs child increase reading comprehension. Whether that means reading the same story every night and/or simply going back within the story and rereading a certain segment to clarify what’s happening, repetition is key. Repetition increases comprehension, both when your child is read to (and allowed to follow along) and when he or she reads to you. Not only does this establish the plot in your child’s mind, but the words used in a particular story become more familiar, too. Finally, doing this “story repetition” at least in part at night before your child goes to sleep is a great way to increase retention. Research has shown that “sleeping on” information encourages retention.

How Do You Support your Child?

How about you? What strategies do you use to help your child with special needs improve reading skills? Leave a comment to share your ideas.

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop-up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

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Erica L. Fener, Ph.D., is Vice President, Business Development Strategy and Analysis at Progressus Therapy, a leader in connecting their candidates with school therapy jobs and early intervention service jobs.

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Advocacy, Special Needs Style

Advocacy, Special Needs Style

by | Aug 1, 2013 | Advocacy, Different Dream, Special Needs Parenting

Advocacy, Special Needs Style

Advocacy is part of the job description for parents of kids with special needs. But how do we advocate effectively for our kids when we’re busy caring for them? How do we spread the news about the needs of our families?

Advocacy 101 Workshop

Earlier this summer, I attended an Advocacy 101 workshop at the National Foster Parent Association National Conference. The workshop presenter, David Sharp, encouraged parents to advocate right where they live. Though his audience was foster parents, the ideas he offered are good for all parents of kids with special needs.

Advocacy: 6 Ways to Be More Effective

Sharp gave several tips to increase the effectiveness of parent advocates who want to increase awareness amongst the general public. Here they are:

  1. Be motivated. This is the most important thing. If you as a parent aren’t motivated, why would anyone else be?
  2. Choose doable strategies that send the most effective message. Simple is better than complicated.
  3. Be persistent! Keep at it. Advocacy takes time.
  4. Join an organization of parents. You appear more credible when you’re speaking on behalf of other kids, too.
  5. Send mail, fax, and email to spread your message. Urge recipients of the alert to send it to their networks, boards, staff, coalitions, volunteers, and media contacts.
  6. Speak to community groups, statewide conferences, neighborhood associations, civic groups, service clubs. Raise awareness by telling everyone who will listen that you are the parent of a child with special needs.

Advocacy for Your Child: How Do You Do It?

How do you advocate for your child by raising awareness about kids with special needs? What advice would you offer to other parents who want to advocate? Leave a comment.

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop-up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

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Jolene Philo is the author of several books for the caregiving community. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. Sharing Love Abundantly With Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and Amazon. See Jane Sing!, the second book in the West River cozy mystery series, which features characters affected by disability, was released in November of 2022.

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Special Needs Accommodations as Easy as 4 Tennis Balls

Special Needs Accommodations as Easy as 4 Tennis Balls

by | Jul 29, 2013 | Different Dream, School/Education, Special Needs Parenting

Special Needs Accommodations as Easy as 4 Tennis Balls

Special needs accommodations. Speaking as a former teacher, I can attest to the fact that those words can send shivers up the spines of educators grappling with teaching duties that exceed the time required to complete them. So it’s always fun to read about simple accommodations with a lot of bang for the buck—the kinds that make a big difference for students and are easy for teachers to implement.

Special Needs Accommodations at KIT Blog: The Inclusion Potluck

I recently ran across KIT Blog: The Inclusion Potluck, a site is packed with special needs accommodation tips and advice. The post that led me to the site was by a long-term substitute teacher working with a sophomore who couldn’t sit still. He moved his chair constantly, scraping the tile so noisily it distracted everyone in the classroom. Her repeated requests for him to sit still frustrated him so much, he threw the chair. For awhile she let him sit in the teacher’s roller chair. That stopped the noise, but resulted in him rolling the chair in a distracting manner.

Special Needs Accommodation by Tennis Balls

Thankfully, she was reading a book by inclusion specialist Paula Kluth at the time. The substitute said the book gave her “the opportunity to reflect on this situation, assess and adapt the environment to my need to stop the screeching of a metal chair on the tile, and to help Fernando resolve this problem of needing to move his chair so frequently.”

So, she went to the store and bought 4 tennis balls. Here’s what happened the next time the student asked if he could sit in the teacher’s chair:

I told him that I have something better that he can use in his other classes and gave him four tennis balls. He gave me the cutest smirk in an attempt to hide his confusion. I put the balls on the legs of the chair and demonstrated how quiet the chair became. He was so relieved and this completely eliminated all problems associated with that chair. He used the balls in the other classes and, after school, two of his other teachers thanked me profusely. I learned that he has been sent to the office several times by teachers who could not tolerate this behavior. This is the perfect example of how well assessing and adapting the environment helps students and teachers alike.

Simple Special Needs Accommodations You Love?

How about you, teachers and parents? What accommodations have you used or seen used that are easy to implement and effectively meet student needs? Leave a comment if you like.

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop-up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

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Jolene Philo is the author of several books for the caregiving community. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. Sharing Love Abundantly With Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and Amazon. See Jane Sing!, the second book in the West River cozy mystery series, which features characters affected by disability, was released in November of 2022.

Author Jolene Philo

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