March 2007
By MarilynM

Locating curricula and a specific learning style for my special needs son, now 15, has been a major challenge. His cognitive and other difficulties require me to be flexible in my teaching. My son is in the Autism Spectrum, has Speech Apraxia, mild Cerebral Palsy, along with auditory processing and sensory difficulties. Due to his splinter skills, traditional teaching methods were failures more often than not.

Time4Learning has positively changed my son’s schooling over the past 45 days. The scope and sequence has eliminated stress and work for me. His desire to work on T4L has been exciting! He continues working on his lessons even when the timer allows him to go to the online playground and play games.

Time4Learning allows him to be independent with this portion of his schoolwork. He is able to navigate through lessons and subjects with ease. This is important for him and allows me to concentrate on his other needs.

I review his reports to locate activities that I want him to repeat. The auditory directions can challenge him and the ability to repeat them, before he calls for me, is valuable to us. His self-confidence has grown through this independent work.

While the traditional and intended application is impressive, I continue to find alternative ways to utilize this program in addressing my son’s problem areas. I use the story book and writing components to have him work on narration skills since this is part of his communication difficulties. I use worksheets in problem areas when necessary and with favorite skills in order to complement our daily handwriting or other fine motor skills.

My husband and I have made the decision to include this program in our family budget because of our positive experience. I recommend that all parents try this homeschool resource with their special needs child. Do not assume, as I did, that this program will not work for a child who is significantly behind the typical abilities of his/her peers.

Time4Learning provides students with an opportunity to be independent in their study and yet parents can individualize the program to fit their goals, along with monitoring their child's progress.

MarilynM
Co-owner
The Swap