✼ Legal ✼
☙ Web Resources
Home School Legal Defense Association. Taking care of the legal side of homeschooling, HSLDA has lots of resources on how to pull your children out of public school, what to do if you're contacted by a public school official, and lots more. Membership gives you the assurance that you will have legal backing in case of any difficulties with public officials related to homeschooling, truancy, etc. Founded in 1983, HSLDA is operated by Christian attorneys who teach their children at home.
✼ Life Skills ✼
☙ Books
Steps to Independence: Teaching Everyday Skills to Children with Special Needs, by Bruce L. Baker and Alan Brightman. Covers everyday skills from play skills to self-care and self-help skills, to skills needed for independent living. This book not only contains skill inventories, it teaches how to teach. Included is an extensive appendix with proven teaching strategies. Skills for toddlers to young adults Available from amazon.com.
✼ Professionals ✼
Doctors, Therapists, Specialists...
Email ICHE's Coordinator of Special & Struggling Learners at specialneeds@iche.org if you are looking for a homeschool-friendly professional in your area of Illinois. This coordinator keeps a database of professionals--from doctors and chiropractors to multiple therapists--who are willing to work with (and friendly toward) homeschool families. Also, if you currently work with a homeschool-friendly professional, or you know of one, please forward his/her information to specialneeds@iche.org so the database can be kept current, and so that other homeschool families in Illinois may be blessed with that information. Thank you!
✼ Therapies ✼
Approaches, Methods, Products...
Aimee Solutions. Named after the founder's own special child, this team boasts over fifty years of combined experience in the fields of speech and language pathology, occupational therapy, assistive technology, and special education.
Brain Balance Centers. Includes a center located in Vernon Hills, whose executive director, Dr. Jeremy Fritz, presented many fascinating and helpful workshops at ICHE's 2010 state convention. The Brain Balance Centers offer an individualized, comprehensive approach for helping children with neurobehavioral and learning difficulties surmount their unique challenges. They work with children who suffer with ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette’s, Asperger’s and Autism Spectrum Disorders. [Not a Christian organization, but is excellent--they deal with every aspect, from brain function, to academics, to motor skills, to diet. Recommended resource--but always do your research!]
Child Diagnostics. Founded by Dianne Craft, who has developed a unique diagnostic program that will reveal where the learning process is breaking down for your child and will train the parent in using the corrective steps that will help overcome the child's processing "glitch." She also offers educational and nutritional counseling with the goal of improving your child's learning and behavior. Her website also has free Daily Lesson Plans for Struggling Learners.
Hope and a Future. Offers a neurodevelopmental approach to help special needs children. Their goal is to equip families with specific knowledge, expertise, and methodologies which will assist children as they prepare for their fullest, God given potential and destiny. They offer hope, encouragement, and support to families while giving God all the Glory. Its director, Linda Kane, has also been a featured special needs speaker at ICHE's state convention. Local offices around the country, with one in Madison, WI. They will train parents to do therapies with their children at home. [Recommended resource]
ICAN International Christian Association of Neurodevelopmentalists. ICAN’s mission is to unlock the God-given potential of all
individuals facing physical, educational, or behavioral challenges by offering
neurodevelopmental methods, information, and tools to empower families.
Little Giant Steps. This company offers free online articles providing lots of information and free seminars providing training. They also offer evaluations and support, as well as products and materials to equip families for success through neurodevelopmental activities which increase brain function.
McNatt Learning Center, LLC. Matthew McNatt is a homeschool advocate. His center exists to glorify God by providing unified, targeted, and sequenced learning experiences for students considered gifted, special needs, learning disabilities, unmotivated, hyperactive, lazy, "at risk," and ready to give up.
Music Therapy. New Hampshire music therapist shares infographic on using music to help kids with special needs.
Ready Bodies, Learning Minds. Is your child a "bouncer," "noodle," or "shirt chewer?" Does this behavior affect their ability to learn? Limited attention span, poor posture, difficulty sustaining equilibrium, poor coordination of sequential movements, restlessness, problems with spatial relationships, and slow academic progress are common signs of an immature neurological system. Ready Bodies, Learning Minds is a powerful approach to sensory integration, motor learning, and academic success.
RDI blog. A wonderful blog by a homeschool mom who chronicles her experiences homeschooling her autistic daughter. Lots of detailed how-to’s and links to great resources. Wonderful videos demonstrating the RDI (Relationship Development Intervention) approach.
Super Star Speech. From their website: "Our materials have been designed by a speech-language-pathologist to assist parents in helping their children achieve developmentally appropriate speech and to provide some of the necessary resources to do speech therapy at home. The focus of these books is the correction of articulation (speech sound) errors."
