Home ed with a new diagnosis of ASD

[InYourDreams]

My ds has just been diagnosed with ASD. We are considering home ed as he much prefers one to one. He is currently in yr 5. We know he will have huge problems with the transition to secondary school.
Our question is will autism outreach and SALT still help our son if he is educated at home? We currently don't know what help is available to us. His school have said nothing will change at school. He already has an IEP.
Everyone has recommended he stays in school so he can have the relevant help and support but I'm not so sure there is any support. We are very confused now.
Anyone have experience of this?

[Mumstheword21]

Being school educated or home educated has absolutely no bearing, though the school will likely suggest otherwise (and to be fair, this could simply be that they don't have any experience or knowledge of HE and actually just don't have a clue!).

You will find lots of professionals are the same and just don't know about HE at all, so you will spend lots of time saying the same things about how many social opportunities DS has, yes he still has to follow rules in life (we all do!), no he isn't socially isolated, yes he can still have a routine (it will just be one that suits him perfectly!!!) and all of the other usual things that you'll just get used to saying.

To be honest, HE has a huge proportion of ASD children (mine included) and after a time, lots don't need to access certain services as they find so much support in he HE community as well as the fact that some issues are definitely alleviated by not being at school. Other people find that they really do use the services and use local facebook groups for autism specific meets, events and such and plenty still access SALT, though I guess the experience depends on the professional that you are dealing with, although that would be true of a school educated child to an extent, just less ignorance.

Personally I can't receommend HE highly enough for children on the spectrum - joining your local HE facebook group and the national HE with special needs facebook group will really put your mind at rest...there is a wealth of experience and knowledge around.

It works wonders for us and all of the other children we know with an ASD diagnosis (I haven't heard of anyone going back to school in the past three/four years anyway!!!!).

[InYourDreams]

Thank you Mumstheword21. I will join the Facebook groups, it will be good to hear about other successful home edders as im hearing a lot of negativity at the moment.

[dolkapots]

We are in this situation and it is a double edge sword. On the one hand dd's anxiety has massively reduced, she feels safe and comfortable at home etc. On the other hand (further down the line) there is likely to be no support for exams etc. My dd has some mild LD's that I feel would make IGCSE's possibly not an option, but alternatives such as Functional Skills cannot be sat as external candidates.

We have a group for children who have ASD and have no suitable school place, sadly there is a waiting list though and support/facilities for children with ASD have been massively reduced.

So, in the short term HE has been great, but long term I'm not sure if it will do her academic justice.