11yo Aspie

[ellebro]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post ever, so hello! I have an 11yo ds with Aspergers/ADHD/OCD. He is extremely bright and perceptive in some ways, but he has issues with working memory, processing speed, motivation, and concentration. He is a reluctant reader and writer (and has difficulty with math computations due to processing issues.) Oddly enough for an aspie, he is also extremely creative and will go on for literally hours telling stories about the wild creatures he imagines on other planets (his latest fixations are exobiology and manga drawing.) 

 

He was in ps for a few years, but 4th and 5th grades were mostly a bust -- they just didn't seem to be able to teach to HIM rather than to the class or to the test, and he really needs direct, specialized instruction for things to sink in. He was struggling all around, failing math and falling farther and farther behind by the day.  So around Thanksgiving I decided to take the plunge and homeschool.  

 

I am concerned that he seems to have many gaps in his basic academic skills so that is my main focus right now. 

 

For math we are doing Teaching Textbooks 5 which seems like a good fit so far.  He doesn't love it, but I think it works. (He is not a big fan of "doing school" in general.)

 

 He is probably reading and spelling at or slightly below grade level.  I'm going through WWE level 2 with him, because he really needs practice with the basics of copywork/narration/dictation.  I started teaching him typing and cursive (which they hadn't done AT ALL in ps.) We will be starting GWG this week because it seems straightforward and would be at least one thing he could do somewhat independently.  I'm also doing Logic of English, hopefully one lesson per day if I can get him to go that long.  I ordered the "Reading Pathways" book which has phonics blending exercises and word pyramids for fluency practice. Sopris Rewards looks SO good, and that really seems to be his biggest challenge is multisyllable words.... but I've already spent so much money and it's so pricey...ugh.   I'm going to start him on Vocabulary from Classical Roots as well, and possibly a monthly poem to memorize.

 

I'm not doing very much in "content" areas because I want to focus on skill building right now, but we are enjoying reading SOTW together (seems to work best if I read it to him while he follows along in the book.)  He will be taking a science (biology) co-op class on Fridays and I might let him pick a few experiments from "Creepy Crawlies" here and there, but that's all I'm planning for science.  He probably knows more science than many high school kids at this point anyway due to his series of science fixations starting at age 3.  

 

Is there anything I'm leaving out?  Am I doing too much?  Could I do Sopris Rewards after Reading Pathways/LOE (if I can ever find it used, that is) or would that be overkill?  I want to get him on track and build his confidence and skill level, but I don't want to burn him out either and that is a hard balance to achieve because he is so resistant.  Sometimes it's hard to tell when he needs me to push and when he needs me to back off.  

 

I've been lurking for quite a few years now....it's nice to finally post something.

:-)

[SweetMissMagnolia]

I have an 11yr old ds aspie also....mine isn't  a fan of written work but will do computer things all day....loves to make worlds in minecraft and has big plans of computer video game programming.....

[dbmamaz]

Wow, you are hitting the language arts pretty hard!  But hopefully it'll pay off - just be careful not to burn him out too much.  Working on skills is good, but some aspects are developmental.  The only thing that jumped out at me, unfortunately, is also LA - his stories.  Have him dictate them to you, and once he's typing, have him write them himself on the computer.  My reluctant writer is now very attached to the fan fictions and game idea stories he writes.  He is both reading and posting to the fan fiction website (fanfiction.net, maybe?) and its a great way to help him see that all this writing work is something that helps HIM, because he can start to record his own stories and share them.

 

I think going easy with content areas is fine.  We sit on the sofa and I read History of Us and bring in occasional movies for history, and science my 10 yo is free-reading from a bin of science books.  I hope to go heavier on topic areas starting next year, when his older brother is in community college.