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Home > Support > CHC Approach > Does CHC have a special needs program or consultant? If not, how will CHC materials work with my special needs child?
 
 
Question: Does CHC have a special needs program or consultant? If not, how will CHC materials work with my special needs child?
Answer:

One of CHC's writers and her husband have reared children and foster children with special needs. The writer relates some of her experiences with her special needs children [who attended programs in public school] and with the special needs 'consultation' received there:

'Our experience has been with specialists who worked directly, on a day-to-day basis, with our children. In a nutshell, even with daily contact, it was not uncommon for the needs of the children to be misdiagnosed, misunderstood, with teaching that 'mis'-sed the mark for the first several months of, if not all, the school year.

In a nutshell, no one outside your family knows your child's abilities, strengths and weaknesses better than you do. If specialists who work with children daily can miss the mark, how much more so some one who has not even met the child?

Further, it has been our experience that special needs children tend to progress far better at home than in public school special ed programs. [The point being that, even if your children are somewhat behind in their schooling at home, imagine how far behind they would be if they were in public school. Or, if your child could make some progress in public school, imagine how much more progress he will make at home. Indeed, if you can look back at the previous year and see that your student has, in fact, progressed at home, you may congratulate him and yourself as well. It is not uncommon in public school for special needs students to actually regress over the course of a year.]'

We encourage the parent to trust his instincts and observations, selecting CHC materials at a level that do not frustrate the child, but allow him to achieve at his own pace. While we do not offer consultation services, we do offer materials and lesson plans that can be adjusted 'up or down', according the ability of the student.

Theresa Johnson

   
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