Autism and Unschooling
nsphotoshoot
I was wondering if anyone knows of an article or book written by someone who has unschooled a child with mild Autism and had success with it. My brother and his wife both work and have two mildly autistic children but they are very involved parents and I could see them Unschooling. I would really like to have some info to pass on to them before I discuss it with them that addresses their particular issues. Thanks for your help.
sheeboo2
----My brother and his wife both work and have two mildly autistic children but they are very involved parents and I could see them Unschooling.------
Who would be with the children if both parents work? That sounds like a much more realistic barrier to unschooling than any diagnoses. Have they asked you about unschooling? Is it something they're interested in?
As far as unschooling and autism in general, why would unschooling a child with a diagnoses be any different than unschooling a child without one? The foundation of unschooling is to facilitate learning in ways that work for your child, that doesn't change because the child is considered by others to be non-typical. I think most unschoolers would agree that there is already no such thing as "typical" anyway :-) and LOTS of unschooling families would likely have children with long streams of diagnoses if their children were schooled. There is far less need to label a child who isn't being forced to fit into a system that doesn't work for him or her. I'm not saying that autism isn't "real," just that it doesn't effect unschooling the way it effects having to get by in a school system. With unschooling, you adapt your life so that it works with rather than against you child. Differences aren't detrimental, they're simply part of the information a parent considers when helping a child navigate the world.
As far as articles or books, I don't know what this child's diagnoses would have been had he been in school, but I think Lyla's website speaks well to the concerns you might have: http://learningthroughliving.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/unschooling-the-atypical-child-by-lyla-wolfenstein/
Brie
Who would be with the children if both parents work? That sounds like a much more realistic barrier to unschooling than any diagnoses. Have they asked you about unschooling? Is it something they're interested in?
As far as unschooling and autism in general, why would unschooling a child with a diagnoses be any different than unschooling a child without one? The foundation of unschooling is to facilitate learning in ways that work for your child, that doesn't change because the child is considered by others to be non-typical. I think most unschoolers would agree that there is already no such thing as "typical" anyway :-) and LOTS of unschooling families would likely have children with long streams of diagnoses if their children were schooled. There is far less need to label a child who isn't being forced to fit into a system that doesn't work for him or her. I'm not saying that autism isn't "real," just that it doesn't effect unschooling the way it effects having to get by in a school system. With unschooling, you adapt your life so that it works with rather than against you child. Differences aren't detrimental, they're simply part of the information a parent considers when helping a child navigate the world.
As far as articles or books, I don't know what this child's diagnoses would have been had he been in school, but I think Lyla's website speaks well to the concerns you might have: http://learningthroughliving.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/unschooling-the-atypical-child-by-lyla-wolfenstein/
Brie
Lyla Wolfenstein
thanks, but that's not my web site - just a page someone posted of links i
handed out at a conference chat i did. my blog does have a links list of
"unschooling with atypical children" articles at
www.lylawolf.blogspot.comthat might be more up to date....
lyla
handed out at a conference chat i did. my blog does have a links list of
"unschooling with atypical children" articles at
www.lylawolf.blogspot.comthat might be more up to date....
lyla
On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 9:56 AM, sheeboo2 <brmino@...> wrote:
> **
>
>
>
> As far as articles or books, I don't know what this child's diagnoses
> would have been had he been in school, but I think Lyla's website speaks
> well to the concerns you might have:
> http://learningthroughliving.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/unschooling-the-atypical-child-by-lyla-wolfenstein/
>
> Brie
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Lyla Wolfenstein
also, i have a friend (not on this list) who's unschooling 2 children with
autism, and very successfully. i know several others as well. like someone
said - it's not the autism, it's the lack of interest or the time that
would make unschooling difficult.
lyla
autism, and very successfully. i know several others as well. like someone
said - it's not the autism, it's the lack of interest or the time that
would make unschooling difficult.
lyla
On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 8:18 AM, nsphotoshoot <shannonpatel315@...>wrote:
> **
>
>
> I was wondering if anyone knows of an article or book written by someone
> who has unschooled a child with mild Autism and had success with it. My
> brother and his wife both work and have two mildly autistic children but
> they are very involved parents and I could see them Unschooling. I would
> really like to have some info to pass on to them before I discuss it with
> them that addresses their particular issues. Thanks for your help.
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Joyce Fetteroll
> ---My brother and his wife both work and have two mildly autistic childrenThere's also Anne Ohman's writings and yahoo group.
> but they are very involved parents and I could see them Unschooling.---
http://www.livingjoyfully.ca/anneo/anne_o.htm
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Sandra Dodd
http://sandradodd.com/special
has some ideas
Unschooling works the same way for an autistic child as for any other child. Trying not to focus on "the problem" or the label might be the most helpful thing of all.
http://sandradodd.com/labels
http://sandradodd.com/words/without
Sandra
has some ideas
Unschooling works the same way for an autistic child as for any other child. Trying not to focus on "the problem" or the label might be the most helpful thing of all.
http://sandradodd.com/labels
http://sandradodd.com/words/without
Sandra