Homeschool Facts

You have found out that your child is on the autism spectrum–he or she has Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism. Autistic kids can be on the odd side of normal, or they can be pretty seriously impaired. Your child with Asperger’s is somewhere in the middle. Now, how can you help your child move toward being more normal? Work to aid his self-confidence, and shield him from those who would discourage him.

Your child can study music. He may even discover that he is gifted at it, as many autistic people are. He may have perfect pitch, as many autistic people do. Music lessons in childhood can bear fruit for a lifetime. But finding the right teacher can be a challenge. The typical teacher may be wary of an unusual student like yours. But a music therapist wouldn’t, or perhaps a family friend or family member. Your student will require special patience and also a reward system for practicing. But you need a reward system anyway to get your child to do chores and homework without whining.

Children with Aspergers need to learn social skills–they don’t come naturally. It is your job as a parent to find teachable moments and use them well. These moments may not start arriving until middle school, when the child is becoming more aware of those around him. He may figure out that he is isolated, and may not like it. When this happens, it’s your turn to pull him aside and tell him how to replay a particular social situation, this time with a better outcome.

Steps you can take are:

* Group sessions with other kids for the purpose of learning social skills. These may be led by a speech therapist, a social worker, or a teacher.

* Teach him skills yourself, planning the session out beforehand. You can set aside time every day to work on conversation skills, for example.

* Putting him in a special-needs school that will give him social coaching. Your child needs special help. Placement in a regular mainstream school situation may expose him to bullying. Instead, he needs to be taught how to interact with others.

Speaking of bullying, this is one of the most damaging situations for your child’s feelings of self worth.

Your child if mainstreamed may be getting a lot more negative interactions than positive ones. To find out, you may want to volunteer at your child’s school. If your child has an aide shadowing him, you can talk to the aide and ask him or her to protect your child from negative interactions with peers. Unfortunately, some negative teasing and bullying are tolerated in our culture. But they will be especially bad for your child, who can’t defend himself.

* You may want to look into homeschooling. For advice, you can search the Internet.

* A private special-needs school may be able to protect your child by controlling most interactions between peers.

To summarize, be sure to do all you can to protect your child’s feelings of self-worth.

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