Curriculum for logic stage kids on the Autism Spectrum

[Night Elf]

I know we have a special needs board but feel there is a greater chance of responses on this board.

 

What curriculum are you using for your children on the high functioning end of the Spectrum? My son Jeffrey (12) has Aspergers. The curriculum that has worked well for him is a heavily modified K12.

 

My DH wants Jeffrey to have a structured day with school work, not necessarily a heavy load. So I'm looking at curriculum possibilities and wondering what subjects to do and what expectations to have. Here is what I'm thinking so far:

 

Math: Singapore and Life of Fred - Based on placement tests, my dh put Jeffrey into Singapore 4B. I've ordered the first two books of Life of Fred math because traditional type drill programs like Calvert and Saxon drive Jeffrey crazy.

 

History Odyssey The Modern Age Level 1, beginning with lesson 11 which is WWI. I've been reading the Hakim History of US series aloud with Jeffrey and we're up to WWI. I like the idea of History Odyssey because it has an assignment checklist. He'll have reading assignments, mapwork, and writing assignments.

 

I'm not sure about giving him any other LA right now. He's naturally talented at spelling, grammar, and punctuation so those types of LA lessons are just busy work to him. He really doesn't care to read things he hasn't chosen himself so I'm worried about that. He prefers me to read everything aloud but I'm working full-time and need him to do some things independently. When he was younger, he was very independent with his work. My DH doesn't like that Jeffrey has grown so dependent on me to get his schoolwork done.

 

I'm curious as to what works for other logic stage Aspies. Jeffrey really hates busy work and repetition. He complains about writing because he doesn't know what words to use when he writes. When I push him to get the writing done, it's always really good. We've used IEW and he liked it but he considered it a separate subject and didn't really write in other subjects. I'm hoping the writing assignments in History Odyssey are enough, like writing prompts maybe.

 

We want Jeffrey to use an accredited correspondence program for high school and need to get him ready for 9th grade. DH is worried that Jeffrey won't be able to handle the work in high school but I believe he can. We're thinking of putting Jeffrey back into K12 but want to transition slowly from doing no school work to a having a full load.

 

Thoughts?

[AngieW in Texas]

Funny, your kids are almost the same ages as mine - 10yo, 13yo, 15yo.

 

My Aspie is 13yo and in 8th grade. She is academically advanced, but I have to walk a fine line with her. Programs have to be right at her level, not too easy, but also not too hard. She also hates busy work and repetition.

 

Math: Singapore worked great for her. After Singapore, she thought Jacobs Algebra looked too intimidating, so I tried Kinetic Books Algebra instead. The only problem with KB was that many of the problems had immediate feedback. She collapsed into a sobbing puddle on the floor every time she missed a problem - and sometimes it was worse when she knew what she did wrong because she was so disappointed in herself for making a mistake. After doing one chapter in KB, she asked to try Jacobs instead. She missed problems in Jacobs as well, but since I checked her work several hours after she did it, she wasn't as emotionally attached. She liked the instruction in KB better though, so she asked to use both programs, switching back and forth at the end of each chapter. She did this until she got to exponents in Jacobs (ch 8) before she got to it in KB (ch 9). She really needed immediate feedback for exponents. She decided to drop Jacobs at that point and just do KB. She is better now about missing problems. She doesn't melt into a puddle unless she has missed several problems or she is sure that she really understands but is still getting the problem wrong. She has a very hard time using one of the best features of KB, the step button. It will step you through to the answer, but then you don't get points for that problem. She can't stand to miss points. She will sometimes use this feature, but not as often as I'd like her to. Since she was using two complete programs all of last year, it's going to take her 1.5 years to finish Algebra I. She'll use Jacobs Geometry next and then move on to Kinetic Books Algebra II.

 

History/literature: We've always used SL and it has been a good fit for her. She's doing Core 100 spread out over 8th and 9th grades and is also listening in to Core 3 and 4 history and readalouds with her younger sister. I try to always give her at least two readers to choose between. She is a fast reader, but not as fast as her older sister. My oldest typically reads twice as many readers as SL assigns, but this dd reads only a few more than SL assigns. She starts to get panicky if her reading assignment takes too long. I typically assign her 30-40 pages/day.

 

Science: Science is my Aspie's passion. We are using Prentice Hall Science Explorer. My dd actually found the program at Half Price Books and begged me to use it with her. I used Prentice Hall Biology with my oldest last year for 9th grade and hated it. I'm leaning towards Holt Biology. My oldest didn't care that she didn't have a clue what her science book meant, but my Aspie CARES about everything. She MUST understand everything or she'll implode. I am using Spectrum Chemistry with my oldest, but I'm not sure it has enough to it for my Aspie. I'll definitely use Kinetic Books Physics.

 

Language Arts: My dd's skills are much stronger on the science/math side than on the LA side. She uses IEW for writing. This year she's using US history-based writing lessons. IEW has been wonderful for her. She is using Megawords for a combined spelling and vocabulary program just 3 days/week. It is perfect for the way her mind works, because it's very logical without any fluff. Once she finishes the worksheet pages for a list, she almost never misses any of the words on the list. She is also using Word Roots on cd-rom, but that program sometimes makes her collapse into a sobbing heap. Levels A1 and A2 were okay, but level B is VERY difficult for her. She does just one lesson in Word Roots each week. For grammar, she uses a combination of Winston Grammar and Fix-it Grammar. In Winston Grammar, I go over the lesson one day, and then she does the worksheet over two days. She does WG 4days/week. She does Fix-it Grammar on Mondays only. I have her do the editing on the computer and she does a full week's worth in one sitting. She enjoys Fix-it and it has started to help her issue with their/there.

 

Foreign Language: We've had a lot of difficulty with this. She has difficulty with making inferences. She cannot learn foreign languages by immersion. She can't learn them conversationally either (the way most seem to be set up these days). She needs to learn systematically. Rosetta Stone was a nightmare. We are using Easy Spanish Step-by-Step right now, but I'm not very happy with it. I would like to try Visual Link Spanish with her, but she is very leery of computer-based Spanish after her experience with Rosetta Stone.

Edited November 2, 2008 by AngieW in Texas

[Night Elf]

I've never heard of Kinetic Books before. I've bookmarked that for future reference. Thanks!

 

Jeffrey used to love Science but he's lost interest completely. I have the Prentice Hall Science Explorer books but he doesn't want to use them. He is fairly knowledgeable in most science topics so I'm not going to push it if he doesn't want to study it. But I did explain that he'd have to do all the Science courses in high school regardless of personal feelings.

[Rhonda in TX]

I'll let you know what's working for us. I'm pretty sure you want secular (right?), so I'm not sure how much of this would be a good fit for you.

 

Math - CLE Math - He balks at the amount of work at times, but he's learning. I've also learned that he will always complain about the amount of work, even if it's just one page. I haven't decided what to do about Algebra. Maybe Teaching Textbooks. I've looked at Life of Fred, but I'm concerned that the story will get the in the way of his learning by distracting him. I'm very intrigued by it, though, so I reserve the right to change my mind.

 

History & Literature - Ambleside Online. He's on Year 5, but I've had to trim it down to a more manageable level. He's loving history this year, though, so that's a good thing. He says it's his favorite subject.

 

Writing - IEW is a good fit for us. Have you looked at their history lessons? Would that help with the resistance to writing in other subjects?

 

Language Arts - We are using Total Language Plus, which is Christian. I plan on using Junior Analytical Grammar later this year. For reading, he does best if I give him a selection of books to choose from. That way, he gets to choose, but I direct the choosing. I ask him to read a certain amount of time each day (30 minutes or so).

 

Science - the bane of my existence. It doesn't get done much here. He reads lots of books about different subjects, but no formal study right now. He loves the Eyewitness books. We also watch a lot of scientific shows on Discovery and TLC.

 

I don't know how much help I've been, but there it is. :)

[JennW in SoCal]

With my ds, who is a borderline Aspie, I never used any pre-packaged programs of any kind with him throughout the logic stage. He just doesn't fit into any box of any kind, a situation that was made worse by the roller coaster hormone-ride of puberty.

 

Math: He really needed uncluttered, just the facts math. Math-U-See with its clean work book pages was great until mid-way through Algebra when we hit the section on graphing equations. Clean workbooks turned to cluttered nightmare. So instead we used a combination of the "Key To" series, "Algebra Success in 20 minutes a Day", and other Algebra for Dummies type books and work books. I also relied on a tutor as it was a frustrating subject for both of us. He really enjoyed Geometry however, using Jacobs and the key to books (that was in 10th grade).

 

Language Arts, Science and History: I would have a plan in place, and occasionally tried to use text books with him, but what worked best with him was to just follow his interests. Aspies tend to have pretty obsessive interests, so I used that to my advantage by having my ds read everything even remotely related to his passion. He learned to enjoy reading the business page, following the stock of a favorite company, reading biographies of key figures in the business. I'd have him draw and explain in writing his own design ideas, plan imaginary trips around his ideas, complete with budget and itinerary.

 

I also assigned school reading, but not a heavy amount. I expected written narrations on his school reading, but maybe only once or twice a month as the process also included editing and rewriting. As long as there was improvement, I didn't push for more. To me it was just a slow and steady approach to writing which is paying off. We watched lots of NOVA and Discovery Channel shows, he built all kinds of engineering project kits, we went to museums and did some traveling. I read aloud quite a bit, we listened together to audio books and discussed it all, looked into historical facts and geographic locations that were part of the books.

 

He needed structured time -- even when I used his interests as school there was a time that was "school" and a time that wasn't. I found outside volunteer work for him where he has been ever since, becoming a trusted and respected leader. He is graduating this spring, and will start community college in the fall studying this same field he has been interested in for years now.

 

Other subjects: He LOVED logic -- the Dandylion series, Mind Benders, Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox. We used Rosetta Stone for Spanish, tried a class, tried some Latin with mom and none of it was successful. I wanted him to do ASL as it seemed something he would be better at, but to no avail.

 

Oh, about working independently. The logic stage years are the puberty years and you just don't know what effect it is going to have on your kid or when it is going to hit. Change is hard for an Aspie and these years are nothing BUT change -- to their bodies and minds and in their school work and expectations from their parents. Add to that the increasingly abstract nature of school work of the logic stage and you'll find you've got a kid who may need you right there next to him for almost everything. Reading material gets more complex, math certainly does too. It's one of the reasons I liked using my son's interests because he happily would read and research on his own.

 

In my experience it was a very labor intensive period but the payoff on the other side is well worth it. We're sharing the house now with a wonderful and responsible 16yo. Just don't ask me about driving....