Teaching foreign languages to an Aspie/Autie?

[SproutMamaK]

I'm trying to decide what to do with the boys next year. They haven't touched on foreign languages yet in school, and I don't know anyone who's even thought enough about it to bother teaching another language to a child on the spectrum.

 

How difficult is it? are there any good programs out there for Auties/Aspies? I'm considering Latin or Mandarin - possibly both if we can find a program that works well for them.

[chiguirre]

I'm working on some Spanish with dd and ds. Ds knows lots of words in Spanish and can understand a bit when we're in Venezuela, but he doesn't know enough grammar to answer yet. I plan to start a more formal grammar program in a year or two when dd's and his English reading and spelling is better grounded. I wouldn't attempt to teach a child who wasn't speaking their native language well, although even my oldest does know some words in Spanish and understands more than I would have expected.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

My child does not have an official diagnostic, but many tell me he's Aspie for sure, while others say he's not. If he is, he's not a heavy case.

We started foreign languages when he was 5. It was with English, French being our maternal language. At 6, he was in Latin. He chose to try Greek at 8. At 11, he started Spanish. He did drop Greek, but not the others.

 

My child loves codes, secret codes. and he's equating foreign languages with mathematical codes to be broken. (this one especially worked for Greek because of the alphabet). He's bilingual English/French, and getting there with Spanish.

[dsmith]

We are doing Latin and Greek. Greek was his choice - he thinks the alphabet is cool. He also likes learning Latin and Greek roots. We are taking our time with these. He would like to add French and Spanish, and possibly German in the future. Latin, we started with Prima Latina. It isn't overwhelming and the texts are very clean looking with only 3 colors and no illustrations. We have moved on to Latina Christiana 1, but I think we are getting a bit tired of it. We are looking at Latin for Children, which looks a bit more upbeat. I think he will like the chanting. For Greek we are using Hey Andrew and we are not far into it. I've been looking at The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, which looks like a lot of fun.

[elise1mds]

We're doing a light Latin program this year and my son wants to continue Latin and also take up French next year. He loves languages and has a really good grasp of grammar (he has a harder time with math), so I'm enjoying it. Mine seems to do very well with just hearing it and speaking it; he is an auditory learner. :)

[Mom22ns]

We're doing Spanish with Rosetta Stone. My ds on the spectrum picks it up faster than dd or myself. I haven't had Spanish before but had French in high school and college. I thought it would be hard for him. I was wrong!

[sparrow]

My 9 yo aspie is doing just fine with Lively Latin. As with all of his subjects, he has days when he grasps it very well and days when everything he has learned seems to have flown out the window. I try to remember my Scarlett O'Hara mantra on the bad days: "Tomorrow is another day." If we close the book on a bad day and come back to it, invariably he excels.