Special Needs Hacks
May 29, 2019
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Deborah Wuehler
Embracing Our Special Children
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Diane Heeney
Empowering Our Struggling Reader
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Hal & Melanie Young
Struggles and Gifts
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Tracy Klicka
Teaching the Special Needs Child—You CAN Do This!
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Embracing Our Special Children
Want to hear some encouraging news? You
can teach your children at home successfully, even if they have special needs! So many can testify to that!
One of our children tested positively for Asperger's. However, she passed the graduation requirements for our state at an earlier age than most “regular” kids. I know without a doubt that keeping her home was why she was successful. For her education, we had to only focus on what was important and required and then cut out everything else. After high school, she went on to obtain a certificate in equine massage. She then became a purchasing manager and now is a full time pro-life missionary. Life is not as cut and dried as we want it to be. We don’t know where our LORD will lead His children.
God has plans that we don’t know or understand when our children are young and challenging. I was only thinking academics when she was younger and pushed those hard to the frustration of both of us. I didn’t even know what her special needs were called or what to look for but kept researching and praying and leaning hard on God and His wisdom. Over time, and through faith in God’s Word, we continued on, ever seeking Him until He guided us where He wanted His special daughter to be. Was it rough? Sometimes! But we have a faithful God Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith and of our special children.
Whatever the needs of your children, they are made uniquely by the hand of God to be used for His purposes. If they are fighters, they can be trained to be warriors in God’s army. If they are quiet and compassionate, they can show forth the mercy and love of God. If they are very childlike and innocent, they may be those who are “pure in heart” and will see God. If they are extremely intelligent or extremely talkative, they can be useful movers and shakers and orators for the Kingdom of God. Each one is God’s “poema”–His workmanship–created in Christ Jesus for good works. God desires to use all of our special needs for His Glory!
In nearly every issue of
The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, we focus on special needs; so check
www.tosmagazine.com, and if you also want the printed issues coming to your mailbox every summer, fall, winter, and spring, you can
subscribe here. Many of you asked for us to return to a quarterly printed magazine and by God’s grace, we have done just that.
~Deborah
Join me next month at the
SCOPE Conference June 7-8 as I will be speaking on
Homeschooling the Rebel. Also coming up in June, my daughter, Hannah Wuehler, will be taking a group of high school and college-aged students on a West Coast pro-life tour. If you have young adults who would like to be trained in Biblical ethics, apologetics, and pro-life evangelism, this would be a great opportunity for them. E-mail Hannah at
[email protected] for more information.
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Looking for something fun for your whole family? Check out these great ideas including vacation spots, engaging activities, and a variety of summer learning curriculum choices with the "Travel / Adventure / Learning Fun" Resource Guide in the
Spring 2019
issue of
The Old Schoolhouse© Magazine.
These resources will keep you engaged and active all summer!
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Empowering Our Struggling Reader
I noticed our son’s reading struggles early on. I saw the typical interchanging of
d
and
b
,
p
and
q—
he hated to read! His handwriting was difficult to decipher. It was concluded that we were dealing with dyslexia.
I met with his teacher with very little real success. I explained to my husband that it was like our son's brain was in one of those human gyroscope contraptions they use in training astronauts. So, I decided to remove Michael from the IEP vortex and homeschool him, scouring the internet for help.
The materials our son had used previously for phonics were so jammed with color, cartoons, and multiple fonts that all it did was distract him terribly. He needed a more streamlined, simplified approach. Even if that meant I took content and made my own worksheets. Our journey was long before Channie’s was available; so we used graph paper a lot because it organized and spaced his writing evenly.
Early on, Michael would gravitate toward books in a comic strip format, almost exclusively. Pages full of text overwhelmed him. The speech bubbles made it easier for his mind to focus on one small portion of text at a time. He liked one particular series called
Missile Mouse
. The illustrations were fairly simple, the action straightforward. We bought the whole set for him for Christmas. That was the first breakthrough for him. It helped him to feel empowered!
Since Michael enjoyed reading in comic strip format, I printed off some free templates I found online and had him do some stories and writing projects that way as well. He loved it. Victory number two!
I began selecting some simple chapter books for him with large print, very few pictures, and engaging content. I taught him not to point to each word as he read but rather to use a straight edge under complete lines of text at a time, so that his brain would begin to work with groups of words rather than single syllables.
Reading comprehension was another challenge for Michael. In the beginning, he had to put so much concentration into slogging from one word to the next, that by the time he’d finished a short story, he could not remember the plot at all. We used sticky notes on each page, so he could jot down main ideas. He was soon connecting ideas as he read, and he began to enjoy it!
Some other tactics we used for our son’s education were:
- Plenty of review—I used lots of free sites for him to play games with spelling words and to also make worksheets.
- Helping him organize his subjects in notebooks and folders. Order is crucial. He loved checklists.
- Practicing simple right/left brain exercises like “Lazy Eights” and “Double Doodles.”
- Having him write just three summary sentences every day for his daily reading. I would correct them, talk with him about the edits, and have him rewrite as necessary.
- Teaching him note-taking skills. I’d create listening/reading guides to help him to discern and look for key ideas.
As Michael got older, he learned keyboarding. It was, by far, the most freeing thing we’d ever done. By mastering the QWERTY keyboard by rote, he was able to completely bypass the human gyroscope machine in his brain. The first writing assignment I had him do on the computer revealed to me that he had a very creative literary mind . . . and I’d never seen it before because he was shackled to pen and paper.
Another tool we employed in later years of schooling, especially when Michael had extensive text to read online, was a text-to-speech converter. This stimulated the senses of sight as well as hearing. He retained content much more easily, and he became more open to reading books on his own—even recreationally!
Michael’s diploma was hard-earned. He graduated in 2018, and he told me he was so grateful for the time and effort I had put into his education. He is already employed full time and has been promoted! All the hours of brainstorming, surfing the web, and trial-and-error were so completely worth it.
Diane Heeney
is a graduate of Bob Jones University, where she served on faculty for ten years. She has been Assistant to the Director of Advertisng Sales at The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine since 2016. She’s homeschooled her three children over the course of the past 18 years, having graduated their two oldest. Diane, her husband Patrick, and their youngest child, Katie, reside in eastern Wyoming.
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Struggles and Gifts
Special needs? The term just didn’t seem to fit our kids. We thought we knew what special needs looked like, but we were wrong. We’ve had kids who were gifted, kids who were struggling learners, and kids with health struggles. Those are all special needs. Here are some things we’ve learned along the way:
You might want to
ignore the well-meant advice,
“Don’t let them label your child.” In the institutional schools, that may be the case, but at home you can use the information to actually help. In fact,
a
diagnosis
can really help you know what you are dealing with and how to address it.
What’s more, you know (and always need to remember)
your child is not a case, but an individual
with both struggles and gifts. It’s easy to let the hard things become the only things in our thinking, but many kids with learning challenges have talents in different areas. Our dyslexic son has a sharp mind for business and a gift for public speaking. While we worked on his genuine disability, we also helped him develop his
talents
.
Don’t worry yourself to death about how much extra time this child is taking.
Remember, your children, all of them, were placed in
your
family with the mix of children you have. We worried about that, too, but those kids benefited from the compassion and diligence they learned during that time.
Give your child accommodations
like extra time on tests, audiobooks, scribes, or other adjustments to help your child with school.
“Isn’t that cheating?” some ask.
NO!
Hal has had accommodations since he was in the 3
rd
grade—his glasses. He could have sat on the front row and squinted at the board, but why do that when a simple adjustment allowed him to concentrate on learning instead of compensating? Proper accommodations allow your child to do the same!
Today, our seriously dyslexic and dysgraphic son is a successful college student—on an academic scholarship!
So, don’t despair if your child seems to have a hard time. Find out why, and then see what you can do to help him succeed!
In Christ,
Hal and Melanie
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Teaching the Special Needs Child—You CAN Do This!
When my twins were born back in 1995, it wasn’t long before I realized that my smaller twin, Amy—only 2lb., 13oz. at birth—had some type of special need. Testing later revealed her to have very mild Asperger syndrome as well as a math processing disability.
Most of us, no matter how much we are doing for our children, feel like we’re not doing enough. This feeling is perhaps exponentially greater when it comes to helping a child with disabilities or learning obstacles. Does the thought of trying to teach a child with special needs make your knees weak? Feel dazed and incompetent?
If I could sit down with you right now, I’d look you in the eye, mom (and dad) and tell you—
with God’s help, you can do this!
You are the best advocate your child has. You know him (or her) better than anyone else. You love them with a sacrificial, dying-to-self kind of love.
Not only that, but homeschooling can often be the very best means to providing just what your child needs to grow holistically with confidence:
- Unconditional acceptance by family.
- Physical, emotional, and mental safety.
- Supportive setting to try, fail, and try again.
- Flexibility—in their schedule and educational pace.
- Realistic expectations based on their ability.
- A safe place to stretch them and gently push them to go beyond their comfort zone.
- Creative educational environment that takes into account multiple pathways of learning.
- The freedom to switch directions/try something new mid-year if something isn’t working.
- The joy of having fun while learning and growing in independence and responsibility.
Of course, these same things benefit all of your children, whether they have an educational need or not!
Is this calling easy? No way!
Can it make a lasting, positive impact on your child? Yes, a thousand times, yes!
When I started teaching my daughter Amy, I was at first a little overwhelmed at how I was going to best address her needs, but I prayed for God to guide me to the best answers. It was through a combination of sources that I found specific support for her educational and developmental needs—I researched online tools and advice from educational experts. HSLDA, where I work, has a whole section of their website dedicated to helping you with your
struggling learner
.
Besides this, I spoke with other parents whose children have similar educational needs. I purchased hands-on math materials and played a lot of games with Amy, hoping to reduce the amount of tears and angst math workbook pages created.
When she was starting to take community college courses, I sought out a safe, clinical psychologist who could test her and provide an official diagnosis that would enable Amy to receive math accommodations. She is close to getting her associates degree. This is quite an accomplishment, considering it took her three years just to get through Algebra I!
The most beautiful result of teaching my special needs child at home is the confidence and strength of character she has as a young adult woman. Her faith in God is deeply genuine. Her compassion and care for others is so very evident. And I am proud of her—and so very thankful for the challenging gift of giving her a whole education with God’s generous help.
Tracy Klicka
, the widow of former HSLDA attorney Christopher Klicka, is a homeschooling mom of seven adult children. As a seasoned homeschooler and gifted writer and speaker for over 22 years, Tracy has addressed thousands of parents at homeschooling conventions and women’s events, has contributed to Christianity Today, regularly writes for national homeschool publications, and has contributed to her late husband’s books on homeschooling. She serves as the Director of Development for HSLDA, through which their Compassion Program helps families homeschooling through hard times. She can be reached at
[email protected]
.
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Idaho
Look What’s Happening!
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Pennsylvania
Look What’s Happening!
CHAP - Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania is holding its Annual CHAP Convention on June 14-15, 2019 in Lancaster, PA. Please visit their website for more information and registration:
https://conv.chaponline.com
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From a nineteen-part program to help parents of children with language delays or deficits, dyslexia, difficulty with math, or other challenges, to dozens of encouraging articles full of practical tips, the
Special Needs Resource Center
for members of
SchoolhouseTeachers.com
is packed with incredible material. Come take a look at the resources we’ve created and assembled to equip you to help your children excel.
If you haven’t joined
SchoolhouseTeachers.com
, come give us a try! If you or someone you know would be interested in teaching or writing for us, let us know. You can email me at
[email protected]
. Discover the wealth of materials available right at your fingertips at SchoolhouseTeachers.com.
Bonnie Rose Hudson
Director of SchoolhouseTeachers.com
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