Customer Reviews

Homeschooling the Child with ADD (or Other Special Needs): Your Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the Child with Learning Differences

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What I wanted was some real information on HOW to homeschool my child with ADHD. If I wanted help making the desision to homeschool my child I would have searched for that. This book provides no real help in how to form a plan or curriculum. It has absoluetly nothing to say about how to help your child learn, and quite frankly, despite the title there are few references to any child with ADHD. I already know what it is, I already know what it does to my family, what I wanted was some real help, and this was NOT it.

This book is most useful for those parents considering removing their child from public school. It is mainly a "pep talk" for undecided parents. I ordered this book with the expectation that it would provide useful suggestions on how to reach my ADD daughter. I was searching for information on HOW TO TEACH an ADD child. It does have some useful information here and there but the book did not provide the information I was looking for.

I purchased this book with hopes of finding some information in teaching my ADHD son. I have been homeschooling for 3 years now and their "start-up" advice, although useful for others, was of no help to me. Most other books that deal with ADD/ADHD focus on children in the public school setting. I set out to find a book specifically dealing with homeschool children. This book is very deceiving in its title and I am saddened that the author would use ADD as a lure to get people to buy her book. Especially homeschoolers, who are often on a very limited budget to begin with. It should be titled, "How to start homeschooling a child with special needs," and leave the ADD out of it. There are some very useful ideas for beginning homeschoolers, but if you are looking for "specific" guidance regarding ADD issues you will be very disappointed.

I've had this book for two years and I refer to it to support my decision to home school my PDD-nos/ADHD inattentive daughter. It was a difficult decision to home school. I felt lonely and continually tested by my decision to home school her after trying private and public schools. This book cheers me on and has helped me chose curriculum. I also recommend Sharon Hensley's book (home schooling for special needs child?) for more curriculum suggestions. We home schoolers must support each other's decision for choices and I feel these books have helped me. Good luck to all of us awsome parents who strive for the best for our kids!

I am homeschooling a child with Asperger's Syndrome. I have been searching for a book exactly like this one for two years. It gives advice and suggestions for the tricky questions that are not covered in 'regular' homeschooling books, such as "my homeschool group is not welcoming me because of my child's issues" or "how to balance what your special needs child needs with what the typically siblings need while homeschooling". I will refer to this book again and again for support, suggestions, and comfort knowing I am not alone on this homeschool journey, homeschooling my child with special needs. Don't be misled by the title, there is a nice spectrum of issues the children have in the book, not just ADD.

This is is not a "how-to" book but is a great resource for "why" to homeschool your child with special needs. We are just entering the realm of considering it for ourselves and this was a great way to begin our search.

As a speech-langauge pathologist there were a few moments when I bristled over quotes from parents - no, it may not be "rocket science" as one parent was quoted as saying (p 203), but we do hold a master's degree and our expertise covers a much wider range than fixing an "r" or "s" (which are not always straightforward things to correct). Certainly parents can do a lot to help the process at home but a qualified clinician can set up a properly designed home program to facilitate the learning of a new skill (in any therapy realm). At the very least get an initial assessment or consultation to get a good picture of the problem you are addressing. And, I don't know any therapist in my field, or related ones, "whose sole purpose for entering a profession is based on goals toward abundant wealth" (p. 215), never mind one who has actually become abundantly wealthy! It is my experience that my colleagues are genuinely interested in helping their clients succeed & it is sad to read accounts from parents who have experienced anything less than that.

Aside from a few of these moments in the book it does offer a very supportive look at homeschooling a child with special needs and is one I would recommend to parents considering the idea.

This book is worthless. It does not provide information on HOW TO homeschool your child (this has been noted in previous reviews). It also provides false information. I'm sure there are more things than I caught, because a sloppy researcher is always sloppy. The author states that the military will not admit anyone with ADHD because of a policy against people "with mental disorders and a history of methamphetamine use."

1) ADHD is not a mental disorder. I have both ADHD and a mental illness, and I actually know the difference
2) ADHD patients don't use methamphetamine, which is an illegal substance. Sometimes they take amphetamines, and sometimes they take methylphenidate, which is a stimulant but NOT an amphetamine.
3) "The military" has no such policy at all. Various branches of service have different policies. None allow recruits to be on stimulant medication . The Department of Defense does not allow any member of the military to be on medications which are required to be taken every day - including high blood pressure meds, diabetes meds, thyroid meds, and ADHD meds - because they need to be able to safely deploy service members anywhere in the world for long periods of time without medication dependency.

This author made a demonstrably false statement about the primary topic of her book. What else did she get wrong?

This book title is misleading. With no scientific studies behind this book it is only commentary about why one should home school. There is little HOW in the book. There are some great books available like Upside Down Brilliance, Gift of Dyslexia and from the NIH study team Overcoming Dyslexia. Most ADHD is simple kids that are visual spatial non sequential learners that are board sick when being taught using standard auditory sequential methods. So many good books so little time read a better one then this.

I wish I had Hayes's book when my son was floundering in a public school Independent Study Program. All the "experts" told me he probably had ADD, and that putting him in regular school would take care of it. Hayes explains in a clear, non-jargon way, what is really going on with some children who seem unable to learn in a regular setting. Her advice is obviously distilled from many years of practice. Even though I now have a diagnosis of my son's learning disorder, I learned more still from this book. It has been helpful not just in homeschooling my child with special needs, but in homeschooling my other son. After all, each child had his or her unique way of learning.

A great book with tons of information and guidiance. I thought homeschooling my special needs child would not be an option but this book has given me the courage and information to do it and do it right. Her writing is clear and to the point with tons of personal tidbits thrown throughout. I disagree with the reviewer who stated this book offers no insight on teaching children with ADD. this book offers tons of personal insight not only from the author but other parents of differently abled children. No, there are not step by step instructions for teaching YOUR ADD or special need child, but if you are homeschooling, you will rarely teach your child that way. That's the point of homeschooling; to teach your child in a manner that will nuture their abilities.

I highly recommend this book. Worth every penny.