Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: auditory problems, autism, reading, visual

This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 9 months ago by hidngplace.

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

Author
Posts
July 20, 2010 at 1:09 am
hidngplace
Participant
I have an autistic (mild) 7 yr old. She is probably about 2-3 years behind in most things. She has some auditory issues, though I am not sure what they are exactly. Low receptive and expressive skills though they are improving.
We have been working on counting to 10 for over a year. Still not there.Does not understand patterning.
She knows all her letter sounds. Does not understand that they go together. We have been using Phonics Pathways. I have a 15 yr old daughter with very mild autistic tendencies and the same learning problems. To this day, she does not do well with phonics. We have just plugged away at it. She is better, but no where near level (15 yr old). So not sure where to go with 7 yr old, I hate the idea of going down the same path.
If I read a simple book, she might understand 10 percent of it. If she sees pictures, she might get 60% of it. So spending time reading a lot of books to her, unless picture type books, are not beneficial to her.
My plan for her so far.
Continue Phonics Pathways and sight spelling – she is obsessed with spelling lately.
Continue to count and basic PreK type math stuff
Nature walks
Hands On – legos, tinkertoys, clay, arts and crafts, puzzles etc
Videos – being visual she loves videos
I do computer with her. Again it is visual and she loves it. Everything I have been reading lately, CM, Teaching the Trivium highly recommend no computer for young kids. – Not sure what to do here.
Anyone been here? Suggestions?

July 20, 2010 at 2:28 am
quietwatersmommy
Member
My 11 yo Asperger’s son does not have the processing issues, it’s more behavioral for him.
I, too, heard the advice about no computer for young children, but I think you have to go with what works for your family.
There are wonderful interactive websites, such as this one for phonics http://www.starfall.com/. (it’s free)
My son thrives on the computer, and he has become very adept at it. In fact, he is so good at it, I call him “my tech man” and ask him for help when I don’t know how to do something or need something fixed. I think this is a really great skill to have as computers are a fact of life these days. And with special needs, everything is different

If she loves it, responds well to it and is learning, my vote is to stick with it and not feel guilty. You have to take the best of what the different homeschooling methods have to offer (if they work for your child) and do what will work for your family.
Nanci
July 20, 2010 at 2:51 am
lgeurink
Member
My daughter has sensory processsing disorder due to a benign brain tumor disorder. She is nearly 10 but developmentally (in most areas) about 3yo. Her main sensory issue is auditory and we have a sensory therapist, though they are not common in most areas. We have done two rounds of AIT (auditory integration therapy) that were expensive, exhausting, and 100% worth it all. For her, it mostly improved her behavior issues and helped her to organize her thoughts for a task. You are starting at a much higher functioning level so sensory therapy might be an amazing way to help. You could google sensory therapists in your area, ask your doctor, local public school spec ed dept., or local autism support group if they know of anyone. My strongest advice would be to keep asking people, keep googling, keep trying to connect with people. Call the nearest large children’s hospital, even if they are far away. When things were at there worst here I made 100 phone calls a day, anyone who had anything to do with kids, education, health. Once the connections were made I could look into whether they were right for us. I know it is exhausting to call and make appointments and pay people, but most of the time consultations are free and you are no worse off then when you started and maybe closer to help. If she has a medical diagnosis of autism, there should be support groups, medical clinics, and plenty of parents who could suggest therapist. If sensory issues are at play, there is help, but it is a tricky field (as you know) so keep asking everyone you can.
July 20, 2010 at 3:02 am
kcoard
Participant
My Ds 5 has Aspergers and Dd 8 has Sensory Processing Disorder. Neither one “gets” phonics for both I have used sight word cards from Child 1st Publications (through currclick), the cards have a picture tied into it e.g. “fly” is done as an aeroplane and “see” has eyes on the letter e. It has really helped both of them visualise the word.
I have also started using this website http://www.theheadoftheclass.com/   it is free and has multimedia presentations of the phonics and other subjects too. It currently goes up to grade 3 but they plan to develop more grades soon. I find it just provides another way of “showing” them how phonics work. The presentations are only 5-10 minutes as well which works for both of them.

HTH It is hard to find things that work for them. As an encouragemtn though my nephew struggled with all these things and now at 14 he is an avid reader and has begun writing short stories.
July 20, 2010 at 3:30 am
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
My youngest (12 yo) is on the autism spectrum and has some sensory processing and language developmental issues too. She just started reading a few months ago, December 2009. We worked on short-A three-letter words for two years, but phonics continues to be her weak area. Once she was ready, she took off based mainly on sight words.
I use many of the principles that Charlotte Mason described in how she taught reading. We do a combination of one day learning some sight words from a book we are “reading” (very slowly!). The next day we take one of those words she learned and build new words from it. For example, if she learned “star” one day, the next day we would make “bar, car, far, jar,” etc.
She is now to the point where she is reading so many words that she never “learned,” I’m often surprised. I no longer teach her the sight words that she will encounter in the chapters. She’s picking them up from context and just enough phonics to confirm her attempt at decoding them, I guess. Since December she has read First Steps, Days Go By, and we’re about halfway through More Days Go By (Pathway Readers).
So I guess my advice would be 2-fold: (1) Be patient and hang in there until she is ready. It’s hard, I know; and (2) Try some sight words and see if she grasps them. If so, do a combination of sight words and phonics-related word families. If not, wait. My biggest clue with Hannah was that she started asking me what words around the house were — on packages or signs outside or book covers. Once she wanted to know, she was ready to roll. Patterning was another clue. Her patterning skills improved tremendously right before she started to read.
As far as other activities goes, you might try doing a picture study with her. Hannah enjoys looking at the pictures that we do for picture study. She can’t narrate or describe them, but she will look quite attentively and sometimes point out some detail that she likes or has a question about. And since she’s so visual, I think she’s getting a nice little collection on the walls of her mental art gallery.
July 20, 2010 at 3:49 am
hidngplace
Participant
Thanks, I will look at the sites. We have done sensory therapy, as well as speech, occupational and physical. She does progress and is amazing from a couple years ago. I thought she would never speak at all and she won’t stop talking now. So I do count my blessings. It is nice to know some people on here go through the same thing, if only for the support. I was on a big autism site for awhile but no homeschoolers.
I will watch the patterning too. Thanks for the encouragement.