Has anyone EHE a child with ASD from the beginning?

[Phlebas]

Just wondered if anyone was in a similar position to me?

I have three children and have EHE the oldest (10 yo dd1) from the beginning we're philosophical homed educators and have always assumed we'd HE all our children. Our second child (4yo ds) has an ASD & unlike dd1 he goes to nursery 9 hours a week (which he loves & he has a wonderful 1:1) we also have ABA tutors about 18 hours a week to work on his language and social/play skills. He's made very good progress over the last year and the ABA & nursery will be winding down over the course of the year.

He was completely non verbal & they told us he had moderate learning disabilities - now he's described as extremely high functioning but still has significant delays & is much harder work than a typically developing child, going to HE groups for example is impossible without a 1:1 for him (he isn't aggressive or disruptive but will attempt to run off & doesn't respond to group instructions). I also have a 19mo dd2.

I only know one other family who has EHE a child similar to ds - most people I've met who HE children with ASD have much older children who've been taken out of school for one reason or another.

I wouldn't expect many four year olds to respond to group instructions, let alone children with an ASD diagnosis.

Various of our local HE meet ups are really informal, so you might want to look out for that style. There are also various meet-ups near us where, yes, there is some sort of organised group activity going on, but there are lots of children just engaging in free play at the same venue.

Might be worth thinking about activities that suit both your children and then, if there isn't anything local that meets that need, set it up yourself. There was a lady near us whose daughter really wanted a low-key library meet-up, so the mum set it up on a weekly basis, and now I don't think they even go any more, but the group continues to meet :)

I'd agree with ommward, the types of HE groups we went to were very informal and the various children with ASD difficulties you are describing, are able to join in as much as they want to, at their own pace.......or spin round the room wildly for as long as they need to.

I'd also strongly suggest you join the HE Special Needs email support group, you'll find plenty of people there who have home educated children with ASD right from the beginning.

I'm intending to HE my 2 DCS.
DS1 is 3.1 and has ASD. We're hopefully going on the early bird course via the portage worker.

I don't think DS1 would cope well in nursery so we are going to keep with our original intention of HE.

DS2 is 2 next month.
We do swimming, walks in the woods, arts & craft, baby signgroup and hopefully will be starting a baby dance group next week.

It is hard when you have a younger one to watch too- the Sure Start sign group we go too is nice because the volunteers help with DS2.

Whereabouts are you? we could start our own group