Homeschooling vs. Mainstream schooling for non.verbsl autistic children

[Batna]

Dear mums

I exclude special schools as I brlieve a 4 year old sutustic child needs to bd looked after his mum....so for at least the next 4 years it has ti be either: Homeschooling vs. Mainstream.

I know every child is different on the very complex spectrum of autism, but i would like to get your experiences, thoughts and ideas on which worked best for your autistic child?

Mainstream schooling; full time or part time? In either way, i know there will be 1:1 support.

Homeschooling; with additionsl support? What kinds of support you had in place at home?

Have you conducted ABA therapy? Was it useful ?

Have you resorted to any other psychologist-led programs?

Please share your advice, experiences...thoughts... I am.open to any advice.

We did ABA until she was 5. Then part time transition into mainstream school with her ABA tutor. She went into reception instead of year 1. Reception teacher was also senco and was a brilliant, inclusive person who made huge efforts. School liked ABA tutor and employed her as 1:1. Went well for a couple of years. Year 2 and 3 became difficult. She was spending more and more time out of class distressed. Tutor left. Senco left. TA unable to cope. Gap between her and her peers too large. She then moved to an independent specialist school for children with autism. She has thrived there. Absolutely loves it. All her needs catered for. Apart from the ABA it is one of the best things I did for her.

We did ABA and mainstream. Mostly ABA tutors went into school with him until he got to year 5/6 when we trained a TA. He went to school part time and home ABA parttime. It worked well in lower part of school. By year 5/6 the gap was too big and he needed an autism school so could be with group similar ability but we had to wait until year 7 for this. ABA was the best thing we did. He couldn’t have been in mainstream or learnt without it.

I'm not sure why you exclude special schools when you'd be happy with mainstream? They also run from 9- 3 ish and you would in my experience have much closer links with staff there than in mainstream. I understand discounting special schools if that's not what's best for your child, but not because he needs to be looked after by you? Have you looked at local special schools and discussed what they could offer? My DN goes to a special school which shares a building with a mainstream, he has some social inclusion which is well supported and this is very successful for him. I appreciate this is not available in all areas but it's worth a visit to special schools

Do you believe all specialist schools are residential? Why would you prefer mainstream? As the previous poster stated, special schools are also 9-3 pm and there are often located locally.