Sonlight for PDD-nos (mild/high func. autism)

[Guest AHJ2003]

Hello everyone!

 

My ds will be 5 in June. I really like the Sonlight approach, but a consultant voiced concern that the literature based approach is a problem for ASD kids. While my son does have some receptive/expressive language (comprehension problems), I don't see him overcoming this if only rote concepts are taught. With Sonlight, I don't care if it takes us 2 years to get through the kindergarten core as long as I'm making sure he's understanding and talking about the material along the way. He likes read alouds and is so thrilled with himself now that he's learning how to sound out and write words. I wanted to avoid a formal workbook style program partly because I'm not sure how much actual understanding and language development happens and because his fine motor skills are significantly delayed. The consultant suggested that I just fill in the answers for him, but I think he would still be very bored. I'm thinking its worth a try this year.

 

Here's my plan:

 

Sonlight Core K

Sonlight L.A. w/ Readers 1 (it looks like he's progressed beyond their K)

Right Start Mathematics (promotes understanding of math concepts, Montessori style)

Handwriting without Tears

 

Any thoughts?

[chiguirre]

I use SL with my HFA son. We've never used the comprehension questions, but I've always asked him questions on the fly and had him narrate the stories we've read. At his 3 year reevaluation for speech services, he actually managed to score in the average range for receptive language. This is a big turn-around from 3 years ago! His expressive language is still delayed, but his speech therapist and I were very pleased with his results. I'm hoping the explicit grammar instruction in Rod and Staff English will help his expressive language (but he's only 8 so we've just done a bit of English 2, this is a project for the next few years).

 

I would recommend going with Core PK 3/4 to start. I've always used SL at the highest age listed in the range for a Core with ds and K ranges from 5-7 at the start of the year (grades K-2). I'd wait to do K when he's 7 so counting back 2 years, I'd do PK 3/4 now. To give you an idea, most of the read-alouds in PK 3/4 are listed for children up to 2nd or 3rd grade in the SL catalog, so you will not be shortchanging him by starting slow. I have a younger child to combine, but especially with a language delay, you're better off starting with shorter stories and building up. By Core K, you'll be doing some fairly heavy reading (The Apple and the Arrow, Egermeier's and Hero Tales are especially challenging). Actually, there's not that much of a step up from Core K to Core 1 IME. This year has seemed easier than last year.

 

To use SL LA1, your dc has to be very comfortable with CVC words and reading several sentences on a page. Neither of my kids could do this at the beginning of first grade reading and I did Learning Language Arts Through Literature with both (combining with Pathway readers with HFA ds and Calvert 1st grade with dd). We did enjoy the Dr. Seuss, Little Bear and other early readers SL uses at the end of 1st grade. ETC was a big hit with ds and helped his phonics and spelling a lot.

 

We used HWT and ds can FINALLY fill in a worksheet. Next fall I plan to teach both my hsers Italic instead of cursive and use that for copywork.

 

We bombed at RightStart with both kids. I think it just doesn't jive well with our family. It is a great program and you may have better luck. If not, MUS may work well with a visual learner. My ds has had a rough time in math lately. He's lost 1 to 1 correspondence, so we've had to back up to counting 6 to 10 objects. He still can skip count and knows quite a few of his triplets, but until this piece is back in the puzzle we're stuck. I think his math regression is just a fluke because it happened at the same time that he made a huge leap forward in spelling. If this happens to you, don't panic, just go back and reteach (at least I hope I shouldn't be panicking :D).

 

Be prepared to switch if you need to. This applies more to math and LA, but if your ds hates SL, you may have to change that too. It can be hard to find a good fit, especially with a quirky learner. Don't beat yourself up about curriculum hopping or being inconsistent. You just have to realize that hsing is a bit of an experimental science sometimes. You'll get a better feel for what works as you go along.

 

Good luck!

[Guest AHJ2003]

Hi Julianna,

 

Thanks so much for replying.

 

My desire originally was to use P4/5, but my dh was thinking that it would be unnecessarily holding him back (at which I have explained that its the age ranges that matter most combined with how well the actual material suites where they are).

 

I also have a 3 yr old nt boy who will be 4 at the beginning of Oct. I was wanting to teach them together whenever possible.

 

I have no problem with trying out different things. I'm a homeschool grad myself, so I'm well aquainted wuth the curriculum-hopping world :D Gotta start somewhere. I'm trying now to do a dry-run with my son with the various approaches in the curricula I'm investigating, so hopefully before its time to order I'll have a better idea if somethings going to totally bomb.

 

Thanks :001_smile:

[homeschool_mom]

I think Sonlight is a great choice for your son.

This is what I did with my son who used to have difficulty with comprehension. I gave him the questions before he reads—so that as he reads, he can fill in the answers. This will help him to recognize important themes. After he could do that comfortably, I would give him a list of what to look for in the chapter and I would ask him the questions afterwards. After he mastered that, I would then ask him the comprehension questions after reading an entire chapter. Every once in a while, I would ask an inference question that was in the story that he could relate to.

With this approach, he will initially be copying the answers from the book, but with practice (and imitation), he will learn to express the ideas in his own words.

With Sonlight, you don’t need to read every book. Although my son could read very well, he would get stressed doing too much work at one time—which meant we took a lot of breaks. We only read about half the books suggested, but I still think he learned what he needed to learn.

We also did handwriting without tears. My son hated it. I stopped that and started having him write a little more each time. So maybe he would right one word of a sentence and I would write the rest. Then he would write one sentence and then I would write the second one. I slowly phased out me writing anything.

For cursive, we used the book initially just to learn how to do it, but then I would have him write some of his assignments in cursive. Although he does write some things now, I’m encouraging him to type, since that is probably what he’ll use most of his life.

[chiguirre]

I also have a 3 yr old nt boy who will be 4 at the beginning of Oct. I was wanting to teach them together whenever possible.

 

 

 

In that case, I'd highly recommend using PK 3/4. I started Core K when NT dd was 5 and ds was 7 and it was a bit difficult for dd. She couldn't follow a few of the longer, more involved books at the beginning of the year (The Apple and the Arrow and Hero Tales). By the middle of the Core she could keep up. We'd done PK 4/5 and lots of FIAR books, so it really was a developmental thing and not a lack of experience. SL is challenging for typical kids at the lower end of the age range. It really is better to use the Cores at least in the middle of the age/grade range, not at the very youngest unless you're combining kids. I'm not sure how to make that argument stick until you've seen the books. Perhaps you could get some from each core from the library and test drive them with your kids and dh. My dd still loves the fairy tale books in Core PK 3/4 and they are not too simple for her at all.

 

Since the Parent's Guide for PK 3/4 and the IG for PK 4/5 are so bare bones, you really don't need them to be successful. I just made a list of stories in Xcel and checked them off as we read them because it was easier to manage than checking the official guide. Most of the books are available in the library and you can start off having a read-aloud time with your sons using the SL selections from 3/4 and 4/5. The meat of grade level work is in LA and math anyway so it really will be enough for a well-rounded K year. It will also make your life much easier to set the pattern of doing content subjects together. You will not be short-changing the elder and you will have much more fun if you can study history, science and literature together.

[Mom22ns]

I also agree that sonlight is a great choice. I think workbooks are a terrible choice for a HFA/PDD-NOS child. While it is true they are literal, they don't pay attention to things that bore them and workbooks typically fit that category. If your ds likes listening to you read and you have good math and handwriting to go with it, you are set for K. If you don't feel like he is retaining much, change it after a year, but I would definitely give it a shot.

 

If he is more hands on, you would try something like Winter Promise. I've never used it. My HFA/PDD-NOS kid is not the crafty hands on type. He is a book worm and we'll be doing sonlight core 100 next year for 7th grade.

[Misty]

I think Sonlight will be fine. I've used it with my Aspies in the past and I still follow their read-alouds. They do fine with it. I think you have a good plan.