longnightmoon Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 I'm starting homeschooling my 5yo dd this year. I really could use some help with resources on teaching. I struggle with breaking down concepts, especially abstract concepts, so that she can understand them. I often feel like we're not connecting much of the time and she's not getting it. Of course, that is often because she's fixated on something else but I often feel like I'm hitting a wall in her level of comprehension. I want to do better and I need to understand her better because I'm losing my patience and that's not helping anyone. Does anyone have any suggestions or resources they would recommend? I'm new to this so I'm all ears. I would be so grateful any suggestions and insight. Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Hello Edie :)! I noticed you did not get any replies so I thought I would bump this for you. I started this thread a while back with resources for ASD kids: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=395573 Are you looking for curriculum suggestions? I am not sure! I would say that curriculum wise, it is something that is going to mostly be trial and error. You will most likely find that you need to tweak pretty much everything that is out there, more or less. I feel that your best option right now is to focus more on educating yourself about autism so that you can better understand what you need to do in order to tweak materials that will work for your child. The one I highly recommend is Temple Grandin's book "The Way I See It". I don't really have any advice to give you. We are new to all this also. I do hope others will jump in that have more btdt advice to give you, though :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 (edited) I would not try to hard at 5. Just work on extreme basics at this age and do more play (legos, coloring, mazes, etc) Also, check out Developmental Math. My HFA son is doing AMAZING with this. He is almost 8. I REALLY wish I would have found this sooner and seriously looked at it. Its perfect for him. Do number of the day activities to help her with the concept of numbers = quantity. Choose a number- in order is usually best, show her how to write it- maybe trace it on colored paper and have her cut it out and past it onto another color of paper, count up to that number, learn addition facts to that number (for the smaller numbers ofcourse) and whatever activities you can think of. Maybe what day of the month is that number on? This would help with days of the week. Have her finger paint the number if she is ok with of finger paint on her hands. As for phonics, I would get foam letters, or magnetic letters and go SLOWLY. Start with basic sounds. Then 2 letter blends (with the letters- moving them slowly together making each sound until you have the blend, etc) Writing. Just start slow. Do letter of the week activities. Have her write the letter with her finger on the carpet, in sand or salt, on sandpaper (not not rough of course) then on paper. When you start on paper have her trace what you write for quite some time before having her attempt on her own. (Seriously- don't worry if you are doing this until 6 or 7. I still do this at times with my almost 8 year old!) Just take it slow. Take cues from her when she needs a break because that is HUGE! Edited September 6, 2012 by wy_kid_wrangler04 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longnightmoon Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 Thank you for your kind responses. I appreciate it! Marie, I will take a look at the thread - thanks for the suggestion. In answer to your question, I'm not looking for curriculum suggestions as much as an overall approach to communicating more effectively with my dd. I'm not too worried about the academics part right now and we keep things light and informal. But I am finding frustration because I feel like she's gotten into the habit of saying "I understand" things and she really doesn't. And it's not really academics as much as general daily life stuff like following instructions, consequences, and right vs. wrong. I blame myself because I'm failing at meeting her in a place that she can understand and that's what I need to improve. Wy_kid_wrangler, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I will check out Developmental Math. It's so nice to know what has worked for other HFA kids. And thanks for the reminder to take it slow on the handwriting. We haven't gotten started "officially" with handwriting but I'm anxious about it. She still has a remedial grasp and I know it will be a struggle - she doesn't want to give it up! So I appreciate the reminders to take it slow and give breaks. Thanks for your kind advice! Thanks again for your thoughts and insight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer-72 Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Is she receiving any speech therapy? Do you know where she stands as far as her receptive and expressive language? You can look at getting some materials from Super Duper or Great Ideas for Teaching. Great Ideas for Teaching has some great materials for auditory processing. They have been very helpful in ds being able to comprehend and execute multistep instructions. I have always used the Hanen approach to language with ds. You may find the Talkability book helpful. Paula Kluth has a few books about educating children with ASD. I have never read them, just flipped thru them at the library. They may give you some good suggestions for helping break things down more for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longnightmoon Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 She isn't receiving speech therapy but I wonder if we should pursue it. She works a bit on language in OT and her social skills group but your question makes me wonder if more targeted speech therapy would be really beneficial. I think I've had a misconception about speech therapy being more for the enunciation of words, rather than the usage and expression of language. She definitely is very scripted in her language usage - spontaneous speech rarely happens, if that makes sense. I suspect there are some issues with auditory processing (she didn't respond to questions until the past year) but it has never been tested. Do you know if that can be done through the school district? The Talkability book you recommend looks excellent! It addresses so many areas that we struggle with - thank you so much for the recommendation. And our library has some Paula Kluth books so I'll take a look. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond, Jennifer. I've been wondering if we have gaps in the team of help we're getting for my dd and speech therapy might be really helpful. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your insight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer-72 Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 I am in Canada, so I can't answer about evaluations for speech through the school district. I was just thinking from reading your post that pirate talk at super duper might be a good way for you to work on her language skills while waiting for evalutions. Super Duper is running a 30% off sale till the 9th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 (edited) Marie, I will take a look at the thread - thanks for the suggestion. In answer to your question, I'm not looking for curriculum suggestions as much as an overall approach to communicating more effectively with my dd. I'm not too worried about the academics part right now and we keep things light and informal. But I am finding frustration because I feel like she's gotten into the habit of saying "I understand" things and she really doesn't. And it's not really academics as much as general daily life stuff like following instructions, consequences, and right vs. wrong. I blame myself because I'm failing at meeting her in a place that she can understand and that's what I need to improve. I wasn't sure if it was curriculum suggestions you were looking for or how to strengthen weak areas. I figured clarifying it might get you some posts :). I am glad to see Jennifer here :). I have bought several of her recommendations or read them from the library. One of her book recs "Does My Child Have Autism" helped me to figure out how to approach my 3 1/2 year old. It was a simple tip about how to approach the child and play along doing what the child is doing, playing at their level. Once the child allows you to enter his/ her play, you can then introduce different ways of play, in order to keep the child growing and trying new things. What I am trying to say is, that by reading, you can find even one little gem in a book that may help your child in some way. My one year limited experience of researching autism has taught me that it won't be one single thing that will help a child, but rather a combination of things that will work together to help the child overcome what is limiting him/ her in some way. You have to tackle things from different angles. Keep in mind that I do not have evaluations and am just following my instincts on what I feel are some autistic traits in my boys. It is why I hesitate to give any kind of advice. My limited experience does not qualify me to advise others. It is said that autistic kids are primarily visual. This is a strong point for them. With my boys, even before I knew anything about autism, just knowing that our family is visual/ tactile made me make everything very visual for them. If I wanted to help my oldest understand something (I had some comprehension issues with him when he was hyper-focused on his interests) I made sure I made it hands on. I showed him, either practically, or through you tube videos, pictures (online or through books), I made flash cards etc. The visuals always helped him focus. It was the way he learned (and still does) best. I started homeschooling my oldest when he was 4. If the materials were not visual enough, then I made them more visual. I broke down tasks and did not assume that he should know how to do something. I followed the philosophy behind Montessori and just did something (patterned it for him) so that he could see how to do each step and I spoke to him about what I was doing. Whatever you do, try not to get hung up on curriculum and what everyone else is using. I got caught up in that trap for a couple of years and had to go back and adjust my thinking process and approach. Some will tell you, tackle things right away, while she is young. Others will tell you wait, relax, these kids will more than likely always be developmentally behind anyway. Both sides will be right, for their own family ;). Do what you feel is best for your child and research, research, research. A couple of months ago when I wanted to see where our issues with my little guy were from (articulation or communication/ social), I got "Teach Me How to Say It Right" by Dorothy P. Dougherty. Since I knew nothing about speech issues, this book was just what I needed at the time. It helped me figure out that we did not have articulation issues or receptive language issues. Here, our issues appear to be social and sensory related. I don't have the outside help to help me figure things out, so I do that on my own, one step at a time :). Forgive my rambling. All the best to you and your little girl :)! Edited September 6, 2012 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 (edited) Paula Kluth has a few books about educating children with ASD. Jennifer, you did it again! At least a couple of Kluth's books need to find their way into my home library ;). Too bad my library does not carry them so that I can take a closer look, in the meantime. Anyway, I put them in my wish list. I think they would be good to add in the ASD resource thread, but I will leave that up to you ;). Edited September 7, 2012 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longnightmoon Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 Jennifer, thanks for the PirateTalk recommendation. My dd loves to play board games. This looks really ideal for her. Love the 30% off, too! Marie, thank you for your kind response. I appreciate your thoughts and insight. I will check out the Dougherty book you recommend - it looks like it could be a good fit for some of our current issues. Thanks again. Thanks again for your responses! It's given me a lot to ponder. All the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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