Fall 2018

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FALL 2018 HOMESCHOOL IOWA 19
Sept 14-16
Iowa State Fairgrounds
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be around age-appropriate peers so that he could learn social
skills. Thus, they repeatedly implored us to send him to a school-
based early intervention program so that he could be socialized
with other pre-school aged children.
Fortunately, we maintained our stance and kept him at home.
However, instead of focusing on socialization during the initial
phases of his treatment, God revealed to us that we needed to
attend to his health concerns first. Therefore, we started using
biomedical treatments that helped restore his physiological,
psychological and emotional well-being.
In particular, we concentrated on alleviating his allergies, ecze-
ma, and self-stimulatory behaviors. Thankfully, within about six
months he made significant gains in his speech, language and
social development as well. It was at this point that he was bet-
ter equipped to handle sensory stimuli and social cues, which
resulted in him being able to more adequately communicate
with others.
Thus, parents should consider the role that health plays in their
child’s social development. Enrolling the child in school won’t fix
these issues, especially if the child’s social challenges are rooted
in underlying health conditions such as allergies or yeast infec-
tions. Instead, doing so may actually exacerbate these social
challenges by increasing sensory integration problems and self-
stimulatory behaviors.
Setting Socialization Goals
The final step that parents or caretakers should consider is to
set socialization goals for their child. This step helps to ensure
that the child is being placed in amicable social settings that
will foster positive social development. Thus, one of the primary
goals of socializing an autistic individual should be to find suit-
able environments in which the child can properly grow and de-
velop his social skills.
As mentioned earlier, children with ASD typically have diverse
health concerns, which can interfere with their sensory process-
ing abilities. As such, these individuals will generally not thrive
in loud or noisy settings, or with large numbers of people. There-
fore, special care and attention must be paid in selecting more
hospitable environments in which to engage children on the
spectrum.
Such settings will be comprised of individuals who can teach
and model appropriate social interaction in a loving and patient
atmosphere. Typically, this will not be in classrooms filled with
large numbers of students. In fact, schools can often be counter-
productive for autistic children because they can overwhelm the
child, resulting in behavioral problems.
Conversely, children on the spectrum tend to thrive in settings
where mature and responsive caretakers are present. In this way
the child can be monitored and assisted when making social ex-
changes. This component will vary based on the child’s age and
level of development.
Obviously, older and/or higher functioning kids will typically
require less guidance than younger and/or lower functioning
children. Either way, these environments will provide the child
with a buffer against social settings that are replete with over-
whelming and confusing social stimuli.
Parents will also need to seek out places where their child can
interact with others in smaller groups and in quieter settings
until the child can adequately process sensory feedback. This is
why the homeschool environment is generally more suitable for
managing the social needs of autistic children. In essence, home
education allows caretakers to gently introduce the ASD child to
social settings in a way that is conducive to the child’s individual
strengths and unique challenges.
Teri Brogan is a blessed wife and homeschooling mother of two children. Her 10-year-old son
was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age of three, which makes her family’s home-
schooling journey especially interesting. She also teaches college-level health science students and
in her spare time maintains her blog Natural Homeschooling, where she shares helpful ideas about
autism homeschooling and many other diverse topics. She is also the author of the book “Recovering
from Autism: Our Family’s Journey of Hope and Healing” in which she details her son’s recovery from
autism. Copyright 2018, The Old Schoolhouse®. Used with permission. All rights reserved by Author.