Home educating child with special needs and statement appeal

[Phoenix4725]

have anybody done it or considered it,im seriusly considering it for ds whos 31/2 gd and non verbal, hypermoblity , and hypertonia oh and queray asd,,
since we just got statement offer through of 14 hrs of 1-1 only in ms ,this was after appeal am appealing again ,but m not hopeful we got turned down for sn school even though the head felt ds would do well therel

His playschool are happy to keep him to 2010 instead of school this year where incendentley he is funded and has 1-1

just not sure where to start but figure ican do more usefull things with him eg speech ,physo lifeskills,basic literacy than worrying about meeting targets.

How did you set it up riven did you just go with your ds leanings ?

Phoenix, your right you may be able to have total control over his learning which would be gantastic.
I've never been mad brave enough to try but my friend tried it for 18 months with her ds. He has downs syndrome & ASD.
Unfortunatly her health suffered she felt as though she was his teacher, his carer & only a small part was left to be his mum.
He loved it, she was totally exhausted & felt that she had failed (clearly she ahd not failed him)when she eventually enrolled him in school.
On the postiive side it did mean he was almost 7 when he started school & much more able to cope.

I am sure others will be on here to share much more positive experiences, just thought i'd give you some honest feedback.

DS2 is at ms & there is no way they worry about him meeting targets he pretty much ahs his own lesson plans.

yeah be same for ds they said in ms but then just how inclusvive will it be hes alredy mising out parties, playdays
at nursery bar 1 little boy who s parents are very accenpting more think becusse friends dad has md and in wheelchair

Im thinking the same thing. Ds is 3.9 ASD and non verbal and has such a very limited understanding of spoken language. He is currently at ASD nursery which does lead onto school but the likelyhood of him getting in a very slim. I dont think a mainstream environment would be right for him at all and if he got less than full time support it would be utterly pointless anyway. So Home educating is something we have thought off but I dont think we could drop down to one income and it would be really exhausting-Ds can be very hard to teach.

staryeyed our ds nearly same age mines 3.7, we never got place t sn needs nursery is not one near here at all but the local plygroup been great with 1-1.

Do you have other dc also have you applied for statement

WE are applying for the statement at the moment- Our request has been accepted and reports are all going in now. No other Dc yet but 6 1/2 months pregnant so there will be soon.

Have mentioned on another thread-there is a book that may be useful, Home Educating our Autistic Spectrum Children:Paths are made for walking edited by Terri Dowty.

There is a website Home Education Special Needs and an associated email support list where families who are home educating children with SEN are very supportive and helpful and can help you think this all through.

I have home educated three children with SEN, through their teens. Trying to be their teacher would not have worked for us-instead we went the totally autonomous route, where we followed the children's interests entirely. You can read some of our story here

This type of autonomous, interest led, education can be very effective indeed.
There is an online article you might be interested in comparing formal and informal home based education The author of that piece, Professor Alan Thomas, has researched the subject and written a couple of books about his findings. The latest book is excellent and well worth a read.

I home-ed DS1 (now 16y in yr11) from yr6. I was bloody hard work! but i dont regret one ounce of it.

He is the most considerate and obliging 16y/o i know - with or without ADHD! He is learning not only acadmic stuff (thanks to CGP BOOKS) but valuable life skills too. Admittedly, he could read and (barely) write when i started to home-ed, but in my defence i did start teaching him to read before he went to school (just basic sounds and 3/4 letter words). He is currently back in MS education doing English, Maths and Media GCSE at college through the local school (he only attends p/t college, not the school, it only pays for it.)

Taking a child out of school is extremely easy. Just write a letter to the school stating your intentions to home-ed - you are perfectly entitled to do so, so they wont say anything (unless they want to keep your child for numbers/funding, and then they will apply pressure, but they have no legal standing at all). They will then inform your LEA that you have taken your child out of school, and an worker of some sort will arrange to come out to you and chat about what you intend to teach. they will then visit every 3/6 mths and 12mths thereafter.

The legal requirement is that you teach your child to their capabilities... this means that if you can only teach them for 30mins daily because they get tired or distressed, or 2 x 30mins because they need long breaks between, then that is their ability that you are fulfilling. You also teach to their level, if that means teaching them to get dressed and wash their hands, thats fine too. If they are more able then you will be expected to teach more academic stuff.

Our last officer was remarking that DS1 didnt seem to do much 'English', i told him that DS1 is quite dyslexic and i wasnt about to cause distress to either of us by insisting on doing 'literacy'. He accepted this and told me in confidence that all he wanted out of a child is to be able to read and write readable small notes (shopping lists, quick notes for family etc). I told him that often DS1 writes his own stories and also kept a diary, he was delighted and the matter was dropped.

Gardening, nature walks in the park, shopping experience, hairdressers experience, going swimming, watching you cook, all counts as learning... often our children have to be taught the most basic of things that other children would pick up naturally on their own (as all of you know), and its this learning that counts too, and the LEA officers know this. I was advised to keep a learning diary just so that they could see that learning was taking place and not just being plonked in front of the TV.

A last word, I was told (tho its quite some time ago) that if DS1 had been statemented, i would not have been allowed to take him out of school so easily. But as DS1 was never statemented i dont have experience of that. HTH XXX

ooh a last point, EVERYONE used to say "what about his social skills?" well even when he was at school he didnt have friends, and i asked him at the time and he didnt have a clue what i was talking about! He was totally socially inept! He was always being rebuffed, and it was quite upsetting. I also DID NOT want him copying every horrid habit of every other child! He was extremely susceptible to being co-erced in that way.

Hes in college now, and hes (as far as I can tell) getting on fine. Its took years of explaining social concepts tho! That said, he does have 4 younger brothers which he practices on.

As for the social side of things from home-ed, i really wouldnt give it a second thought.

Ah Riven you have a very valid point, there is no way im considering Home-ed DS5, he needs all the specialists, and the time and experience they have to offer.

quick note: DS5 2.8y non-verbal, GDD of about 18mths.

thank you
hmm never thought of that think bit more research needed ,
As for pecs i already had to fund the couse and equipment for that same with the makton course. as was not provided here in East Essex.no ones ever mentioned computers for speech think there have hert aattck if i brought that up

ideally would like him go to the sn school but Lea are adamant no, if ms we lose the speech therpist, pysio , ot all become termly input but will check that if i opt out would we lose right to the nhs service wehave now.

very interested in this as dd started ms school in september, she has aspergers, adhd and odd and is reallly struggling and unfortunately although she has great 1:1 full time i think the scxhool talk a good talk but cant really cope when shes really struggling ie becomes physical, shouts, screams, defiant etc. We are seriously considering taking her out as she is obviously unhappy as her behaviour is consistently extreme at the moment and has been for the past month. I often worry about the social side or other people do but i think it can be something that is built on once skills are taught through other means and then can be applied as and when she seems ready rather than being forced on her all the time.

Phoenix, just a thought but can you ask to access services outside of your area.
ds2 received much of his support & services from Ipswich (Hydro, weekly pre school OT, Physio etc)which I'm guessing wouldn't be too far from you.
I know you can request to attend a hospital outside your area, just wondered if the same was possible for services.
Our SALT provision is crap though, but I think thats universal!

anaonandlikeit

yes its about 30mins away , wonder if we could we get noting like that all been offered even though have asked , will do some cling tomorrow but feeling going run into the fct differnt health boards.

yeah there does seem be problem with salt though we have just got a new one that seems pretty good but will see how it goes

worth asking Phoenix, OOh & I bet your not up at this time in the morning though choice
Our Hydro, OT & Pre school outreach was based at Thomas Wolsey Special school. Even if they won't allow you to access services outside your area can you ask if any of your local sn schools offer similar... Tell me to shut up if you like, just trying to think of ideas!

nope ds thinks morning is any time from 3am
no go ahead anonandlike itr please , and funny enough just been see a sn school today and ws tallking with head that i had toself fund pecs course and he was like
and has invinted me to several courses they run for parents an other intrested parties.

oh and havevdecided thats where i wan my Ds to go now to convince the flaming lea