Homeschooling with special needs is not only possible but can be optimal for students.

Some families homeschool children with special needs. Others work with our own handi-capabilities while we school our children.

Born without legs, his hands and arms not fully developed, my friend Jerry referred to his lack of limbs as handi-capabilities.

“I know I need the Lord’s help,” Jerry said. “I feel sorry for the rest of you who think you can do life by yourself.”

Homeschooling with special needs like Jerry’s are obvious. Others are not so apparent because special needs can range from those who require extensive medical assistance to reluctant readers. 

A couple of my children have learning differences. One advantage of homeschooling with special needs is the ability to select curriculum and instruction methods that harmonize and capitalize on the way the student learns.

Learning Differences

“Everyone learns,” assured piano teacher and author of Teaching Piano To Students With Special Needs, Mary Ann Froehlich. “Some just learn differently.” This music teacher carefully observed each student, keen to notice what came easy and what presented a challenge. She found fresh ways to introduce new material and practice the familiar, encouraged exploration, and delighted when the eyes of her students with special needs lit up with the awareness they could do a skill. 

As parents and teachers, we get to discover how God uniquely designed our child. Homeschooling provides the opportunity for smaller class size and one-on-one interactions.

Hands-on unit studies were the key to success for one of my children. Interestingly, this child thrived by first doing a thing, and then reading about it. Particularly good with animals, she volunteered at a veterinarian’s office. The vet invited her to help with therapy for their four-legged patients.

Then the vet sent my student home with an anatomy book with the instructions, “Write me a report on that part of the body.”

By first seeing and working with the three-dimensional reality, the study of the animal and its physical body came more easily.

Similarly, the hands-on student quickly mastered Monopoly, while the pages of math problems remained frustrating. After plenty of practice with handling the concrete, combined with time for brain development, the theory practiced in bookwork and drill pages became easier to accomplish.

Often classroom study begins with worksheets and books and then moves to the hands-on exploration of a topic. Both are effective, yet some students process best with one technique more than the other. One of the stellar advantages of homeschooling with special needs is the ability to create an environment that facilitates learning in a fashion that is harmonious with the child’s learning style.

My student who struggled to read was equipped with a foundation in classics and excellent literature through audiobooks. Another student was tested for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). The results indicated that her behavior was not ADD driven, but a strong reaction to pressure. Allowing her to complete the current grade in 18 months rather than the traditional nine was the turning point in her learning. We learned to schedule margin so unnecessary hurry did not constantly nip at our heels and sabotage learning.  

Pressure When Schooling Students With Special Needs

Feeling pressured while homeschooling is not uncommon. After all, parents have an overwhelming number of to-dos. As homeschoolers, how do we decide where to invest our limited energy, funds, and time? How do we make certain we equip our children with the education and training they will need as adults? The following priorities, outlined in The Ten Best Decisions A Single Mom Can Make, were my compass.

1. Bible Time: Learning Who God Is and How to Know Him

Read Scripture aloud and pray daily. Prayer is talking to God. Having a relationship early with Jesus Christ introduces children to the Source of love, provision, and relationship they will need throughout their life.

• Character: Develop Lifelong Integrity

Character influences attitude, and attitude determines action. The core of parenting is helping our child become a personally responsible adult with the integrity to do the right thing even when it is hard and even when no one is watching.

• Academics: Become Adept at Reading, Writing, and Math

These fundamental academic skills prove valuable for life as an adult and being ready for God’s call.

Two friends have children with Down Syndrome whose development and abilities continue to amaze their pediatricians. Both families attribute the highly interactive and loving homeschooling with special needs environment as the secret to their success. Children with ADHD can experience improved focus and retention in a home setting. At home the distractions such as school bells, public address announcements, background movement, noise, and awkward social moments can be limited. Students with fragile health have less exposure to infection when schooled at home.

Heather’s child uses a wheelchair. Fellow homeschool families befriended Heather’s family when she joined the local group. Students quickly learned what they had in common and how to navigate differences. Field trip planners gathered information about wheelchair access ahead of time as well as provisions for hearing and vision-impaired students within their group.

Advantages of Starting Late

The most common learning difference among students involves phonologic processing or challenges in reading. The process of learning to read includes developing skills in decoding, phonics, proper auditory capabilities, and producing sounds.

Sometimes called the grandparents of the modern homeschooling movement, Ray and Dorothy Moore, authors of Home Grown Kids and several other foundational books, pointed out that typically boys and girls develop academic skills at differing rates. “Girls are usually a year or so ahead of boys, at least until late teens,” according to the Moore Foundation.

Initially, children develop concrete thinking. Theoretical concepts including math problems on paper follow the hands-on understanding of combining two items with two more to equal four.

The Moore Foundation states, “In addition to our basic research at Stanford and the University of Colorado Medical School, we analyzed over 8000 studies of children’s senses, brain, cognition, socialization, etc., and are certain that no replicable evidence exists for rushing children into formal study at home or school before (age) eight or ten.”

Sometimes a slow learner quickly catches up with those who took to lessons earlier. Some late bloomers are actually right on time for their individual development. Learning differences became apparent as one of my children got older. While comprehension remained high for this child, reading speed in the higher grades decreased. Eventually, my student avoided necessary reading and found no enjoyment in reading for pleasure.

Identify Vision-Related Challenges

A leading specialist in the treatment of learning-related vision problems, eye alignment, visual processing, and visually guided performance issues through the use of vision therapy, Dr. Carl Myer diagnosed convergency insufficiency. My student’s inability to effectively converge or align the eyes together to perform near-oriented visual tasks, such as reading and computer work, for the length of time required to complete the task wasn’t much of a problem when in the early years when the type was large in children’s books and early readers. But as type became smaller in the older grades, the ability to track a line of type and then move to the beginning of the next line became a difficult, headache-producing chore.

Myers described that problems with brain-based abilities to control the visual system, deficiencies and dysfunctions in eye-teaming, as well as eye-focusing and eye movement are not particularly obvious. One symptom of vision difficulties is a decrease in reading speed, slowing of academic progress, and a drop in grades. A second symptom is seen when a student rests their arm on their desk and their head on their arm. Often without realizing why, the student closes one eye on the side of the face resting on the arm. The brain is able to translate a single message of input quicker and easier, rather than work to unravel the confusion of two incongruent views.

A child’s visual-perceptual and information-processing abilities can be tested and diagnosed. Specialists in learning-related visual problems can create an individualized treatment plan for each patient based on the principles of neuroscience and neuroplasticity. 

Dos and Don’ts of Homeschooling With Special Needs

The don’ts list for children we used when homeschooling with special needs is short: no hitting, stealing, lying, name-calling, or deliberately disobeying mom. Do come the first time Mom calls.

Dos for me as the mom and instructor involved being a student of my child. To get to know this special person God purposely placed in my temporary care.

• “Love people, use things” or “People before things” are mottos that remind family members to be tender with one another despite disagreements and adversity.

• Say yes as often as possible. Encourage your child to ask.

Good responses include “Good question,” “Good idea,” or “Not this time and thanks for asking.”

• Speak to your child with respect. This teaches a child how to be respected and how to give respect.
• Tell your child what to do. Instead of saying, “Don’t put your feet on the furniture,” say, “Feet belong on the floor.”
• Teach your child how to do tasks. Chores provide opportunities to learn lifelong skills, demonstrate mastery, and be a participating and important member of the family. Have fun working together.
• Be consistent, even when it is hard or you don’t feel like it.
• Focus on your child’s strengths, and the weaker areas naturally improve. A child is probably going to make a career in the area of their strengths.
• Introduce your child to experiences, opportunities, and interests from archaeology to zoology.
• Prepare your child to be independent. For instance, invite your child to help fill out paperwork on everything from an application for a library card to medical forms to the college FAFSA. Guide your future adult to know how to find information.

Resources for Homeschooling With Special Needs

Today, homeschool families have resources to help them homeschool children with special needs.

HSLDA: Founded in 1983, Home School Legal Defense Association is 100,000 families strong nationwide. Their website hosts more than 300 helpful articles on the topic successfully homeschooling students with special needs. Additionally, HSLDA can help families find support and connect with homeschooling families and groups in their area.

MindCap: Specializing in the Feuerstein Method, MindCap specializes in teaching the skill of learning how to learn. MindCap offers tools and techniques to identify and enhance a student’s learning potential. 

Nathhan: National Challenged Home Schoolers Associated Network equips parents to confidently homeschool their children with special needs or disabilities. 

CHASK: Christian Homes and Special Kids provides family-to-family support, helping families raise their child with special needs.

Davis Dyslexia Connection: Empowering those who think and learn differently, Davis helps people understand the root cause of the perceptual gifts and challenges that accompany neurodivergent thinking.

SPED Homeschool: SPED Homeschool believes every child can succeed when provided individualized instruction and that homeschooling is one of the best options a family has for providing this type of education for a unique learner.

Dianne Craft: Helping those with a struggling learner to inexpensively correct and bypss learning glitches at home.

Homeschooling With Handi-capabilities

Being blessed with handi-capabilities doesn’t need to stop us from becoming functioning, contributing members of society. The fresh way of looking at life that my child with learning differences brings to those around is inspiring.

Jerry served as an elder at his church and was a popular guest speaker, sharing his story and the stories of others who overcame great challenges. Jerry and his wife homeschooled their five children. In addition, he partnered with a local group to provide higher education to developmentally delayed adults, teaching them theology and music and everyday living skills including cooking, map reading, and how to catch a bus.

“We equipped churches to do exactly what Jesus told them to do in Luke 14,” Jerry said. “To go out to the highways and bi-ways and welcome these people into the house of God.”

One mother homeschooling with special needs expressed that she met another woman at a homeschool play day at the park who also had a child with disabilities. She described, “We were strangers on the same journey and, because of that, we were not strangers at all.”