I wanted to ask if anyone is unschooling a child with Aspergers?

My 8 y.o has alot of signs of Aspergers, but I haven't "done anything about it" so to speak. I wonder if there's any value in getting him "diagnosed" (and therefore labelled?)? Or if being aware of it and sympathetic towards it is enough?

I searched online to see how HS'ing and Aspergers go together (it certainly seems the classroom/school environment exacerbate the Asp. symptoms and I know my son would be very bored and also very uncomfortable & unhappy at school). The few sites I looked at recommended a "strict routine" for Asperger's kids as apparently they like it!?!?@#^%! My son resists any of my (somewhat sporadic and rather feeble) attempts to impose an order on his learning.

Also, as an unregistered, natural learner (more or less...) quite frankiy I'd like to avoid any "official type" people coming around and poking their noses too far into our lives!

If anyone's had any experiences they could share, I'd really appreciate hearing about them.

Thanks

well, I deal with a DP who displays a lot of Aspergers-like traits, but it's not quite the same thing.

IMO, it's a very personal choice, if you want to get a "diagnosis" or not. I believe that they're just unique children like everyone else, and diagnosis or not, you know how best to raise and treat your child, you know best what he needs. being aware of what he needs and sympathetic to him is something you'd do whether he has aspergers or not, so i don't really see what difference it makes.
sometimes having a label can be helpful in dealing with other people around you who might not be so sensitive tho.

ITA with MF's suggestion re the diagnosis. Work out what you hope to gain from it, then decide whether or not to have it done. A lot of the stuff they do with kids on the spectrum in basically training, and coersion, punishment and praise. It's all a bit ott and paranoid if you ask me.

I definitely think hs is the way to go for a kid with possible asperger's. School would go against the grain! It does for neuro typical kids so by the time you throw something sensory into the mix, 6hrs a day being controlled up the wahzoo isn't gonna work IMO!

I know several ppl with kids with aspergers or similiar issues and they have all struggled at school and thrived when they were taken out. there's nothing like homeschooling to truly meet the needs of your child...

I agree. I think that when they spend their early formative years being their own critic they take a strong sense of self into life with them that won't necessarily come from institutionalised learning where often times the sense of self is a mirror image of what your "peers" perceive you to be.

That was a long sentence!

I can see the point in diagnosis if you are going to have her schooled or looked after for extended periods outside of the home. That might help with other's understanding her and also sourcing extra help. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. Another reason might be to register without following a usual curriculum i.e. special needs might mean you can do your own thing and still get rego (if you wanted to get it).

I agree with AOTE in a diagnosis helping people to understand their differences.
I thought I was bad, stupid, unlikeable, psycho etc etc
then after many suicide attempts as a teen and young adult, I finally had a "label" for the type of characteristics I had that I share with millions of other people.
I was then able to study and analyse myself and eventually teach myself to blend in better.
I am still learning and practicing, but it's getting easier everyday.
I think that hiding a child with Aspergers away from society will be a hindrance so if homeschooling, there needs to be plenty of social time.
I was hidden away from the world and it really held me back. I have to now force myself to go out there and interact with people and learn facial expressions and reactions and connect those things with what I say and do. Aspergers kids NEED to be around other people more than a non Aspergers child.

I'm in the process of getting D assessed for Aspergers and apart from a gut feeling that home schooling is the best anyway, the thought of D in school is just
I am looking to get him diagnosed etc for a couple of reasons - a) it will be a lot easier for me to say to xP that I am doing xyz because dr/ot/nutritionist said so, especially when making major changes to his diet and wrt homeschooling b) I will probably be able to get the carers payment and I'm not gonna sneeze at and extra $100 a week when I'm living on a pension c) with my family being able to say dr x said this so that is why he can't eat x, why he acts like y, why we are doing z and c)I don't mind having to register.
I hadn't thought about the points that AOTE brought up about Aspie teens and adults understanding and having the diagnosis help with that understanding etc but they are good points too.

Knowing a few children with ASD they all seem to do better in the home environment, and I know a few adults who would have been better homeschooled than put through the system!

yay that you're so clear on it, me fein (I just realised we have another MF on the board! ) and yay that you're already looking at home ed as a nurturing support for your kid

could get tricky that

actually, I think there's 4 of us

just realised I didn't really answer the OP - I will definitely be unschooling D. Trying to get him to learn something he doesn't want to is even more pointless than trying to get a neurotypical kid to do it. he. just. won't!

I do want to incorporate some rhythm and themes into our lives (by celebrating and livng in the seasons for example) but anything that comes out of that is more for my benefit and desire to have some connection and rhythm to my life, not out of an effort to teach him anything.

My 5 year old DD is on the Aspie spectrum and i am currently too'ing and fro'ing as to whether or not i get her officially assessed. But i am also in the process of coming out of denial and grieving the fact that she won't grow out of this (my brother has aspergers so i have lived the long road ahead already). So perhaps later on in the year i will get her assessed when dh can also come along. On the plus side i am 100% proud of myself for not bowing down to pressure from well meaning family to put her into daycare or put her into the schooling system. There is no way in the world that she would sit and do what was required because in her words, "i just want to do, what i want to do" it is her way and her way now or else meltdowns which can sometimes last hours can ensue and i am very sure a school teacher would not have the time and space to hold her space while it is happening.

Our home life is not very flexible, the rhythm has to be the same day in and day out. Our home education is however very flexible within the comfort of our very predicable home life rhythm. Somedays she wants activities to do and me to do more structured learning, like writing practice, simple maths adding and subtracting. Somedays she is totally able to do her own thing without much input from me, playing solo and with sister, playing educational games on computer, watch a movie or iview. Somedays we do all of the above plus go out visiting home ed get togethers and friends and somedays she is nothing but a screaming and meltdowning person who just can not cope with anything and those days are long and hard.

As with any natural learning environment following his lead will be the key. An official assessment is up to you, i really hate the labeling part but knowing how best to facilitate and hold his space for his growing and learning is way better for your family then not coping because you are put off by the label iykwim. I know it helped my brother to know he has aspergers so that he can work out strategies to help him cope in situations which he finds difficult (he is 18yrs old).

This is a big part of why I want to get D assessed too. I need help and strategies to nurture him and help him learn and grow into a functioning member of society and I was (and am) finding that very difficult on my own.

We chose to get a diagnosis for our child. However, this was purely for the practical reason that it gets us an extra $100pf from Centrelink; once this was in place, we did not do the suggested follow up assessments. There are various forms of ongoing assistance available (might vary from state to state), but we're not fussed about that as it's principally geared towards helping the child to cope better with school, and we're not planning on sending him to school anytime soon.

There is a small body of research - and a large body of anecdotal evidence - that home education is of particular benefit to Aspie children. Or, to put it more accurately, that these children are, on average, more vulnerable to stress and damage from attending school.

As for the strictness or otherwise, obviously people who don't know your child well can only tell you what is generally true for many AS kids. But I think that the idea of having a super strict structure in place stems from the paradigm that says kids must be moulded into shape so that they fit in their boxes. Obviously, if you have your Aspie kid in a classroom with a large number of other kids, the teacher would have to be strict if she/he wants that child to conform, because it is likely that he won't naturally take to it. He might [gasp] see and do things differently! But in the home - or real world - environment, since you have considerable scope to adapt things to suit him, you don't need to spend so much energy adapting him to suit everything else. Which, after all, is probably part of the reason you're unschooling in the first place. I'm aware that this would apply to many non schooled children, but I also think that the more 'different' a child is, the more she/he will be 'squashed' by the system. So yeah, you'd be the best judge of how much routine/rhythm he needs to feel safe.

ETA you don't need a diagnosis to gain understanding about how to help your child. There are plenty of good texts you can read for information, ideas and techniques; this leaves to free to pick and choose what suits with no interference from professionals unless you feel you need extra help.

Thanks to everyone for your input and thoughts.

We are still basically unschooling and still not planning to get an official diagnosis.

I can see so much improvement in my son in social situations over the last 6 months or so. Like quite a few things just "clicked" for him. We do a few weekly activities and have lots of visits/visiting with other Home Ed families, so I think it's a good balance for him.

Still worry sometimes how he'll cope with the big mean ugly world as he grows up (or should that be the big, beatiful, wonderous world)...but I'd be doing that whether he had Aspergers or not!