Anyone have special needs kids and put older kids in public/private school to help special child?

for what little it is worth, my oldest is 3.75 -- will be 4 in Nov. He is JUST NOW even ATTEMPTING to speak.

but

here is the thing, there is only so much you can do, yk?

Does DH feel that all you time going to appts for the non-speaking 3 yo will effect HS in a bad way? What attention, specifically, does your Dh feel the younger two need (besides jsut their ages ) that takes away from HS?

I mean, Theo has a number of SN, but they don't take time, yk? we read, we talk, we sing, yes a conservation takes longer, yes i try to get him restate or to make a better sound or whatever ... but we do not drill speech all day ... I don't see how his speech care -- or even all his SN -- would effect us HS another chilld. The ONLY factor i can see is if DH is worried baout missing School time, or disrupting school time for a ton of appts ....and if he is worried that the 5yo is just one more child for you to keep track of at St and running around ...

??

have you had the younger child assessed via EI so that your DH can be reassured that there are not the same issues again?

Our 22 month old had NO WORDS, sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh, but we re havig him assessed, and really i do not think he will have all the isses Theo has.

Aimee

I have a child on the autism spectrum and with some other special needs. I did consider sending his brother to school so I could provide dedicated attention to working with him. I couldn't work it out in my head originally because they are the same age and both would feel they were missing out. They wouldn't understand and I just couldn't do it. You're in a different circumstance because of age differences. That said, it's worked out fine to have both of them here. I can still do what I need to with my spectrum kid. It's easier as the boys are older..particularly my typical kid is better able to wait while I work with his brother compared to just a year ago. I would think with apraxia you're running to therapy a lot? You could "school" in the waiting room for example.

Another thing to consider is that your oldest is your typical child and K really takes minimal time to "teach" if you even do it formally at all. So I don't think teaching would be the issue. Is your oldest is still very consuming time or attention wise? Is it difficult right now to balance the oldest with the needs of the youngest? Or is the fear that the oldest is getting lost in the needs of the younger kids? Does that happen a lot?

I don't think there are easy answers to these issues but I hope you and hubby can come to an agreement you both feel good about.

My 5YO is easy. I do somewhat structured lessons and it takes 2-3 hours a day. My husband thinks teaching him is taking away time I could be spending with the younger 2. I don't really think my 21 month old has issues. I counted her words yesterday and she said about 25. She was repeating a few more things today. She was playing with a train and saying 'choo choo'. I just think she hasn't gotten her word explosion yet, but I think it's coming. She said a lot of new words yesterday when I asked her to repeat them. An ECI evaluation is an option, but I want to give her a few more months. My 3YO didn't say anything at 22 months. Really when I do anything with him, I try to get him to repeat my words, or say a word -reinforcing words all the time - not necessarily structured, just based on what we are doing. I got a preschool idea book to do some things with my 2 younger ones. Just more arts/crafts, books to go with the ideas. Nothing formal.

My 3YO appointment schedule will be changing since we are moving. We are living in limbo right now. We are trying to sell our house and are living in a hotel during the week starting next week. It's a 1-bedroom suite (bedroom has a door). I'd rather be in a hotel with my husband during the week than at home by myself with no help. Plus there is more to do in Houston than where we live. Lots more homeschool things to do. I am trying to get services for him through the school system, and depending on how that goes (meaning how many services they give me) will depend on how many other appointments I have for him outside of that.

Yesterday I did lessons with my 5YO and did a circle time reading, singing, movement with all of them - then had them color. Then I did lessons with my oldest (Phonics & Math) and had them play with playdough while my oldest did an art drawing related to a lesson. This is what I was planning on doing - lots of fine motor activities with the two younger ones. The hotel will throw me a loop, but we will make a routine and survive. I really think it will be easy, and having him there and them seeing him do things, in my mind, I think it is a plus for the younger two. My husband just thinks I can't do it all by myself. I think otherwise.

Thanks for your responses.

Quote:
WOW your LO give you more time to work with your older child than i would expect -- i wish my two little ones would do what yours do (ie focuse and stay at something over 2.5 minutes) even with me WITH them.

Sounds like things are going great .

The onlyt thing i would suggest is to get DH to be SPECIFC ... what does he think sending the older boy to school will "change" -- excately.

Sounds good

Aimee