Curriculum for Autistic Child

[Joanna H]

I realize that every child is unique and so is their autism, but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas. My daughter will be 4 and she enjoys music.

 

She is the youngest of 6. We have used Math-U-See, Shurley, Diana Waring, Apologia and tons of Critical Thinking for the others. I have collected some of the Classical Conversations cd's to use and have some other music type resources.

 

Any ideas for the future? Thanks for your help!

[chiguirre]

I've used lots of different things with my 8yo. It's a matter of trial and error. For a ready 4yo, I'd try Leap Frog Letter Factory and Word Factory, R&S ABC workbooks, ETC primers, Singapore Earlybird Math, Five in a Row, Sonlight P 3/4 and HWT. These all worked well for ds at some point between 4-6 yo. But, unfortunately, your mileage WILL vary.

 

Good luck!

[Joanna H]

Thanks Julianna! I really appreciate you sharing what worked for you. It will help so much just to have more ideas especially if something doesn't work.

 

I have done ETC and Five in a Row before too so I will definitely try those with her. I will check out the Leap Frog Letter Factory too.

 

Thanks again!

[Mom22ns]

My AS kid is very visual and not an auditory learner at all. I think this is the biggest thing I have to keep in mind as I choose materials. I didn't start homeschooling until he was older, so I don't have specific suggestions for a little one, but we are going to try math-u-see next year. My son is an exceptional reader and we make sure he can always put his eyes on words or pictures, lots of book centered curriculum. We use almost no workbooks because small motor is an issue and writing is torture and that is very common for AS kids. I let him do a lot of verbal answers and have a lot more direct interaction with me than his younger sister requires. We constantly want to be in his world and bring him into ours. This isn't really an issue anymore, but we never give him a chance to slip back away.

 

I don't know if any of that helps or makes sense, but it is my criteria for picking curriculum rather than the specific curriculum choices.

 

Debbie

[Linda S in Canada]

I know all kids are different, but I have had the opposite experience with my ASD son. He has no problems with gross or fine motor skills and enjoys physical activity of all kinds. He cannot, however 'imagine' a story, so reading to him doesn't help a lot. We still do it in an effort to encourage further learning, but he requires a much more hands on way if he is going to learn things efficiently. We have found Leapfrog products and videos great for him, as well as a toy called the 'Word Launcher' that is a leapfrog product. We try to make as many learning activities sensory - writing words in finger paint and pudding, for example. For times when he needs to concentrate and can't, our son's ot recommended he sit on a yoga ball. For some reason when he is rocking on this ball a little he seems more able to focus. All kids are different, and that certainly applies to the ASD ones as well.

[dtsmamtj]

For us, here is what has worked:

 

MUS - we are currently at level Epsilon

Growing with Grammar

Megawords

Word Roots

various books from Linquistics for vocabulary

Help books levels 1 & 2 so far

 

When our son was that young though he would just be with us when his older sister was doing her lessons and we focused on number recognition, art, etc. He learned so much by just listening - I was amazed. He loves music and listening to auditory stories. HTH

 

T