Where to start with autistic child

Hi, Laurie – 

I heartily concur with retrofam: our ASD children certainly keep us before the throne of grace, asking for wisdom! Below are just a few thoughts to contribute to the discussion. But most of all I hope you will be encouraged that this move to bring him home may be a wonderful benefit to him.

First things first: is he mainly obedient or disruptive? If obedience is an issue, you may want to focus on that habit this summer. Of course he will require some focused attention, but the main thing is to make sure his presence doesn’t put the other children in jeopardy. I’m sure you’ve already thought through this, but wanted to mention it for others who may be in the same situation.

My first thought is to see if you can keep him in the same room while reading aloud to the others. Maybe you can find something relatively quiet for his hands to do. My daughter loves to have some little toy figure in her hands. Could you maybe let him do sewing cards or string beads or braid a paracord or something like that? The main goal is to find a non-intimidating way to ease him in to the reading circle. As you said, probably not require a narration at this point but simply find a way to get him used to listening to good books. 

I’m not sure what methods have been used with him for beginning reading, but I encourage you to try some sight words. My daughter could not “get” the concept of sounding out words, but when I introduced words by sight instead, that opened the door and she took off. My first attempt was to write three or four words on index cards; the words were places in the room where we did most of her work. It was in a bedroom, so I wrote “bed” on one, “chair” on one, “dresser” and “window” for the other two. We did some short informal activities over several days where I would show her a card, read the word, and put it in its respective location. That progressed to playing a game with that little toy she always carried around. She went out into the hall and waited while I hid her toy in one of those locations. When she re-entered the room, I showed her the card that told where I had hidden the toy. She loved that game and learned those words pretty quickly. Just an idea.

One of the most important ah-ha moments I’ve had over the years is when I decided to cut out everything except the three areas in which she needed the most work: reading, writing, and arithmetic. We did only those subjects every day for several weeks. We were soon both miserable! So I went back to the drawing board and pulled out one of Charlotte’s sample schedules and tried to do like she did: a wide variety of subjects. Here are some of the tweaks I’ve made to the usual CM subjects.

• Picture Study: We stick with one artist for several weeks, but I show her two or three potential pictures and let her choose which one we will put on display for that week. Rather than require her to describe the picture, I simply point out something about it and pause (counting to 30 or more) to invite her to make a comment too. Sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn’t. That’s okay.
• Music Study: We stick with one composer for several weeks, but I play only one piece and try to think of an activity of some sort to tie to it. We might draw the music. Sometimes we dance to the music (not coordinated, but individually). This past year we spent some weeks listening to the Nutcracker Suite, song by song, and looking at the corresponding pictures in a picture book of that story. 
• Nature Study: Even just a walk around the house once a week is better than nothing. I ask her what she hears or what she sees, then I record it in her nature journal. Sometimes we go to a park. I try to point out one thing that interests me.
• Copywork/Dictation: My daughter’s handwriting is very poor; she has weak muscle tone. We’ve been doing copywork for a long time and I had gotten stuck in that rut, thinking that we couldn’t move on to dictation until her handwriting was better. However, one of her sisters pointed out how Hannah had started creating stories on a computer program and was spelling most of the words correctly! So now we do one line of a poem for copywork one day, then do that same line as dictation the next day; or we break up a sentence into several copywork sessions, followed by several dictation sessions to cover that same line.
• Read Alouds: I try to have a different type of book each day of the week for her. One day we read aloud a Bible story; the next day we read from a history book or science book; the next, a literature book. The other days she reads to me from her reader. (By the way, we didn’t know if she ever would be able to read. She started reading when she was 11. Now she’s 16 and reading on a second grade level. Praise God!)
• Drawing or Painting: Sometimes I give her an opportunity to draw a favorite toy or to draw a scene from a story we just read.
• Geography: She can’t label a map, but she can point out places when I call out their names, and we can read books set in those different places. She also tracks where Dad and Mom are traveling to or where friends live.
• Scripture Memory: She can’t recite along with me, but she’s been listening to us do our Scripture Memory for years now. And now that it’s just her and I doing it, I’m getting a peek into her mind and heart and can see that many of the verses are “in there.” How do I know? We take turns reading aloud/reciting the verse cards from our Scripture Memory box. She always “reads” them, but she moves her finger along the lines of words as she says the verse, and many times her finger isn’t on the words she is saying. She’s reciting from memory.
• Personal Development: We do Brain Gym exercises several times a week to help organize her thinking and encourage both sides of the brain to work together.
• Math: We do a variety of things during the week, like, working with manipulatives, drilling one table at a time, making up mental math stories, playing games that use various math skills. I’ve tried introducing money to her, but it hasn’t “stuck” yet.

I hope those tidbits help get your ideas flowing as to possible ways to give your son a broad curriculum that will be a joy to both of you and not a burden. Yes, some days will be better than others. (Goodness, some hours are better than others!) But do your best to spread a feast of ideas for him and your other children, and enjoy the glimpses you will get of each one growing at his or her own pace.