Aspergers and home education

[pog1]

Hello
My 10 year old son in year 5 has Aspergers. In a mainstream school and won't get an EHC plan as making too much progress academically. He has a very selective eating disorder and great Ormond street believe we have to tackle his underlying anxiety before this will improve. School is one of the biggest triggers of his anxiety so thinking of home education. But I have to work part time to make ends meet so would need to find tutors etc who are relatively cheap as my incme isn't great. Can anyone offer advice? Do you home ed and work? And have you any ideas how to manage this, and the cost of tutors or engaging others to help? Thank you

Hi, we took ours out of school for 4 years ages 6 and 9 and it was tough financially. DH and I juggled jobs but it set us back financially. Sadly relatives were very hostile about it but not my MIL who had been a special needs teacher and could see how they both flourished. We did not need tutors at this young age. I suggest that you join Education Otherwise and your local group who will meet and put on all sorts of activities. You might find a kindred spirit if you are lucky!
My EO Group was mainly younger children so we didn't go to a lot but they both did Musical Instruments, String Orchestra, Ballet, Fencing and Art classes. When they went to High School they were too tired to do all these extra things! The younger basically read books as she found everything easy and is now at Sixth form College intending to apply to Oxford.

All the best!

Hi!

It will take far fewer hours for your son to be educated at home than at school because the one-to-one attention is so much more efficient for learning. You can educate him during the times when you aren't working. So you don't really need tutors; you need childcare. If you have a partner you may be able to arrange your working hours so one of you is always available to look after your son. If that isn't possible, childminders are also a popular option. If you are eligible for the childcare element of Working Tax Credit, you can use that to defray the cost.

Most families I know don't use tutors at all. Those who do, tend to use them for just a few hours a week maybe for a specialist subject such as a musical instrument or foreign language.

We don't use any tutors at all, with children of similar age. Do some reading around "unschooling" or "autonomous home education" - tends to work really really really well as an approach with children who have an autism diagnosis, because it gets rid of so much of the stress for them so they can learn really efficiently.

Thank you, you all make me believe this is possible. Saracen, you mentioned childcare element of WTC. We do get tax credits. Would that cover some childcare when needed during the daytime?

Hello Op

Just to echo the great advice you have already received. You don't need tutors but of course can have them if you want to.
We have the music and language tutors but only because it suits our child.
There are some really good H.ed groups where parents can either swap skills or just attend with their child, depending of course what area you are in.
there are a few parents on here who combine working with H.ed so it is possible, maybe needs a bit of juggling with childcare but this is the same if they attend school.
Some childminders would be happy to supervise work you have left for them or not as you would prefer.
I think H.ed is really good anyway, but especially if your child is a square peg in a round hole type of child, for whatever reason.
Have a look through some H.ed threads on here and also join fb group and see if you can attend a local meeting if you have one.

I think it is only for people who qualify for Working Tax Credit, not just Child Tax Credit. There are other conditions to be met.

See if this helps: www.gov.uk/childcare-tax-credits/what-you-get

In a mainstream school and won't get an EHC plan as making too much progress academically

That's not true. If he has additional needs he can have an EHCP assessment, if the LA agrees. If you want to take this route, you can apply for the assessment yourself without needing the school's support or approval. You just contact the LA's SEN team and start the process.

Have a look at the SEN COP 2014 here. Section 9 is about EHCPs but it's worth reading other parts too, for background.

Also, you could still apply for EHCP and HE at the same time. If you got the EHCP you would have that security if you ever decided to return your ds to school.

If you do want to use tutors (and I agree it probably isn't necessary right now, at age 10, but you might want to as he gets older), you could consider using student tutors if you have a university nearby. I have had some excellent young people working with my son (AS/ADHD, age 16) for a few years and I get them through University Tutor, though there are other similar agencies you could use. I've found students to be much more flexible in their approach to working with children - they are keen to have experience on their CVs so will work to my specifications rather much more readily than longstanding NC qualified teachers. I've never paid more than £15 per hour (and the occasional bacon sandwich ) and they've got ds through some challenging exams. It depends on what you want though. Maybe have a browse on some of the tutoring sites and see if you think it's worth doing.

I would expect that your son's anxiety will reduce quite quickly once he's out of school, if this is one of the main triggers. You could find that you're thinking in a different way six months or a year down the line, as his temperament improves.

My 8yo is actually ahead academically of his NT peers in some areas, and has a statement and attends a specialised school. If you are being told you cannot have an EHCP due to academic ability, they are giving you incorrect information.

I am now HE'ing my 5yo and will be applying for an EHCP for him, with the assistance of Parent Partnership and IPSEA advice.

I'd just look at what options are available for you, and decide based on what is best for your dc and for you.

I am also home educating my son with Asperger's and I would second the advice to start the EHCP process even if you are home educating even if it is very slowly and surely.

Home educating him has in fact helped me see what his areas of difficulty are and he is also beginning to explain a lot of the ways he found school overwhelming. For example I took him to an Art class and he told me he found the Art classes in secondary incredibly upsetting because he was always behind, hated the feeling of the clay on his hands, charcoal and he felt humiliated. Now that is an example of an area where the school were very encouraging to him and he appeared to enjoy the lesson but low level anxiety and negativity were building up and adversely affected his experience of school - to the extent that he went to pieces when asked to do some ordinary art homework. This is just a tiny snapshot of all the different subject areas he struggled with. Not because he was of low ability far from it but because he found it so difficult being in a classroom situation.

We are enjoying Home Ed a lot. I don't use many tutors - just starting to (we are Year 8 and took him out end of Year 7) tbh most home educators I know only use one for Maths or music. The Literacy and other subjects can be covered in a whole variety of ways not just by "explicit" subject teaching.

I would say the quantity of time spent doing stuff with them and the quality of time chatting means your academic "explicit" teaching needs to be far less. I keep veering back to textbooks to look at say History and then finding he is bored and really we would have been better off watching a few Horrible History episodes, reading a story about Tudor exploration and visiting the Holbein in National Gallery! We painted miniatures and we are planning to visit Hampton Court. Yet the Wolsey and Cromwell stuff would probably not need to be "taught" - they would get picked up by hook or by crook if he was interested.

I read a classic text every day. Our day is quite structured but not very academic. Lots of park meetups with other home educators and lots of physical sport - Judo and football and running around. That is what he needs - your child might need something different. Joy of Home edding.

Thank you all for the great advice. I will certainly look again at EHC plans and all of the other really useful advice.

Please do as was suggested up thread and contact IPSEA re an EHC.

We had a similar problem and couldn't get help. The school told us "There are far worse off children in the queue for help and the reality is that he'll never reach the top of the list because it will take us 2 years just to work through the current list and by that time there will be 2 more year 7's joining the school to bump him down the list again." Our ds was in top streams but could not write anything down. The school didn't see this as a huge stress issue for ds. So we went for HE. It is brilliant!
(The school is the top state school in the county.)