My son has a speech issue and of course the Dr who referred us to a SLP swears that it's because he's not in ps! He made me so mad that day. I am trying to get him evaluated by a school psychologist soon, but i'm afraid she is going to say his problems are from homeschooling He's 5, and i am "trying" Kindergarten. He is a smart kid, but only wants to do what interests him. Ex: Yesterday he was on a planets kick. So i say great, i'll just use planets and incorporate things with it. No. He only wants to learn what he wants to learn lol. So he didn't want a phonics lesson even though it included planets. He wanted to learn about nebulas, and galaxies. Which is GREAT...I'd rather him learn by his interests anyways! But i'm just worried the "professionals" will say i'm the cause of my sons speech delays and other issues because i'm homeschooling him. Something not really common in my area, even though it's getting there. Not sure what i'm expecting by writing this, but just wanted to talk to someone about it. It's useless talking to my mom. She just says "put them in school already":roll: I talk to my husband, and and that's awesome...but i also wanted to talk to some other homeschoolers about it. Thanks for listening...reading
I'm so sorry. For me...I homeschool for a reason. There are pros and cons to any choice you make in life. And there will always be others who are going to disagree with you and there will always be people who think they know better than you because of some degree they hold or some other reason. But my personal conviction to homeschool isn't about to be swayed by a doctor spouting off personal opinion in lieu of scientific/medical data.... I think it's silly to say homeschooling causes speech problems. I have to homeschooled boys without speech problems. Lots of other people have homeschooled kids without speech problems. Lots of public school kids have speech problems. It's like saying homeschooling makes kids shy, as if no person who ever attended public school was ever just born with a personality that results in a shy person. It's quite silly! Hopefully the psychologist will be supportive or neutral on homeshcooling....
That's what i say! As if no one in ps every had a speech issue! Thanks. i really needed to write it out to realize how my worry is not needed. I, too, homeschool for a reason, and won't change it for any such reason!
In public schools, they tend to send children with speech issues to a special class for a little while a few times a week, or at least thats how it goes in our district. There are also speech therapists availible for the public. Dontcha just love Drs that heavily express their opinion on you? Just because they know a kid and went to school to learn what exactly an appendix does, doesn't make them experts on child rearing. I am positive your influence in his life as well as his schooling has absolutely NOTHING to do with his speech. True story, my high school earth science teacher studdered severely for over 40 years until finally overcoming it. He was in PS and graduated college with honors. Homeschooling has nothing to do with speech and everything to do with a safe, happy, loving, learning environment in which he can grow intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally. Plus if he were in PS there is a possibility that the other kids may find his unique speech as a bullying point. It's sad but true, kids these days seem to be meaner to each other than we ever used to be!
Oh, HONESTLY!!! HE'S FIVE YEARS OLD!!! You've not been homeschooling long enough for them to say it's BECAUSE of hs'ing! GIVE ME A BREAK!!! Sorry!! Why are you having him evaluated by a school psychologist?
As his parent, please understand that YOU are the final authority on this! Sure, you may seek help from professionals, but I promise you that if you put three professionals in a room, you'll get four different opinions! And then you'll have YOUR final authority! Have you looked for a non-profit group that does therapy? My son attends a great non-profit group for social skills therapy (and did when he was in public school, due to his autism). Now he's 12 and it's just a great group of friends he gets to hang out with, and a therapist who organizes games, activities and field trips meant to be fun AND challenge the kids. I'm sure if you ask around or maybe even google search it, you'll find something. Our group is not free, but it's not terribly expensive either. Also, don't worry too much. There are many five year olds out there still working through some speech issues, no matter where they are schooled! As for not having interest in a subject one day, he's so young yet if you can sneak 5 minutes in here and there while doing other activities, he'll never notice he's learning! Good luck!!
My oldest son has multiple issues, but none of them are related to homeschooling! He does private therapy through our health insurance. We don't go through the PS or any sort of public health, and we never have. All of his therapists go on and on and on about how he's the best patient they've ever had, they love him, they want him to stay all day every day, etc. PS kids aren't like that. It's every man (child) for himself in that environment. If that's what builds speech skills, then I'm glad my kid has issues!
I am so sorry for your experience! Just know that most professionals are just that, PROFESSIONAL! It is their responsibility to help you when you need help. My husband is a Dr, and fully supports home school as a choice! There are many Dr.'s families in our community who home school! Like someone else has already said, there are plenty of students in ps who have problems! PS is not going to "fix" him! Our dd is dyslexic and they is WHY we home school. The college in our town has a large speech-language pathology program. We had our daughter evaluated through their speech clinic when she was young. Maybe you could check into something like that.
So, there are NO kids in ps who have speech delays? Seriously, I hope that isn't the impression he's trying to give! There are several moms on here who hs kids who get outside therapies. As a hs mom, its necessary to develop a very thick hide when it comes to "professionals" and their opinions. Learn to let it run right off your back. Of course, it would be great if you could change drs. There are some who are very supportive of homeschooling. As to teaching what he's interested in, go for it! He's only 5, phonics isn't a huge deal just yet. Reading skills are just like any other, there is no set time table for learning it. Feed his love of learning for right now and have fun!
Thanks for the kind words and advice As for why we are getting him looked at by the psychologist...he has a few behaviors we want to have an idea on. For the past year or so he's got this thing of walking around our living room couch talking to himself. When i first noticed it, i didn't think anything of it. Dh thought it was a little weird, but we left it alone. Now he's doing it more often and he gets angry and frustrated if something prevents him from doing it when he wants. He'll cry or get angry at his brother he gets in the way. Also, for example, if he's talking about motorcycles while walking the couch, he'll stop and ask me how the back of a motorcycle looks and wants to see it on youtube. Mind you, he asks this same thing 3 or so times in a row and will cry if he can't remember how it looks exactly. He'll start sobbing if he can't remember how it looks. So, it may all be typical 5 year old behaviors, but i want to be sure it's nothing more than that. The speech we are working on because when he is in spontaneous speech, like telling a story, he can't be understood by most people. She is great though and really helpful It's mainly the general drs who have the "issue". And I agree. Him in Ps would not change anything! Probably make it worse lol.
Middle boy has Autism and CP and he has speech issues (of course), and when we visited teh school to see how they felt about him attending and what they could do for him...they acted like they were doing him a favor putting him in their system! Made me incredibly mad. Really, he's 5 years old. He wont have speech issues all his life. There are TONS of free sites online about speech tricks and tips to use while doing every day activities! And he's 5, it's ok if he doesn't want to do anything formal right now. If it's planets one day and trains the next, then so be it! Do what you can and go with the flow for right now! Things will be fine! No worries, Momma!!!
Thanks Yes, i've seen the stuff online! I've bookmarked a few of the good ones. I buy him books based on what he's into at the moment...right now that's all the "work" we do :lol:
...and that's EXACTLY right for most 5yo's! So ignore hte doctor, and do what you think (or, I should say, what you KNOW) to be best for your son!
I dealt with a Speech Therapist with an attitude about homeschoolers. I think that homeschooling hurts her pride. I'd asked her to help me help my son by advising me what I could do. She gave me a lecture about how she'd gone to college and was in a master's program and had to take continuing education courses and pass really hard exams...so clearly I could never hope with my limited experience to help my child with his speech issue. Well...here's what she did with him. She identified the trouble sounds and went through them one at a time with my son over a period of about two months. "G" was the milk drinking sound. She encouraged my son to make a sound like he was chugging milk....guh, guh, guh. Then she had him say words that start with that sound. We'd take the picture cards home and practice for 5 minutes a day. She then gave him words that ended with that sound and then words that had it in the middle. Basically, it just made him more aware of that sound in words and he enunciated more clearly when he came across that sound until eventually he didn't have to think about it anymore. The other thing that I've heard Speech Therapist do is to have children memorize fun rhymes and then really work with them on over-enunciating the words in a dramatic fashion. I know these professionals have education and expertise...that's why we go to them. However, those with pride issues don't seem to realize that parents are specialist when it comes to their own children.
LIKE!!! I took Faythe to be tested when she was five. They were funny, because I told them her LANGUAGE was normal, my concerns were with SPEECH. Well, they had to test her lanugage, too. I sat in an adjacent room with a one-way glass, watching Faythe point to the right picture before they even asked the question. They came back with eyes big, saying, "She has EXCELLENT language skills!!!" Well, DUH!!! I knew that!!! They decided she did have a mild speech defect, and gave me all kinds of activities I could do AT HOME with her, saying that I probably wouldn't need a therapist to clear them up. Kinda the opposite of what you experienced!
