Parenting: Discovering Order for Kids with Psychiatric Disorders in Home School
By Mimi Rothschild
Are you concerned that your home schooler may be having trouble with more than just concentrating? Is his behavior causing you concern that perhaps he may be dealing with a psychiatric disorder? A few clues may be low interest in home schooling, attitude issues, and problems with other kids his age in the home school co-op. Is this just a disinterest in learning or is it something more?
Symptom or Disorder
Disinterest in home school is not an official disorder, though it may be a very real problem. It could be a symptom of severe depression or anxiety in your home schooler, no matter what age. Other possibilities of issues that may be causing your child's disinterest in home school include post-traumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety, simple and social phobias, and dysthymia.
Assessing Potential Problems
If you feel that your home schooled child is displaying severe disinterest in home school, it could be just the tip of the iceberg. The best way to find out what lies beneath is to take him into a professional for a full evaluation. This may take more than one session and it may take a few different doctors. Be patient. Your goal is to help your home schooler start learning again and to deal with the bigger issues he may be facing. These sessions may include interviews with friends and relatives, checklists, and 'tests' applied to general scales within the industry. Feel free to ask questions exhaustively until you fully understand the process that the professional is applying to your home schooled child.
Treating Your Home Schooler So You Can Get Back to Teaching
If your concern is that your home schooler will miss too much home school, don't be concerned. The best way to treat disinterest in school is by keeping to your regular routine, which includes your regular lessons, classes, and home school activities. More indepth treatments include continued sessions with the therapist, education on the disorder, behavior modification, interventions, and medication. Though it may seem contraindicated, the more you keep your child involved in his home school schedule, the better he will get as far as his disinterest in home school.
Also, a focus on family has been shown to have a great effect on the behavior and focus of children with disinterest in school. If family dinners are rare, make them a priority even if it means dropping a home school activity. Make sure that you spend fun time with your home schooler outside of the school environment. Paying extra attention to good qualities and characteristics and enjoying play activities together will increase his bond to the family and create a stability that may be part of his disinterest in home school.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling mother, writer, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of home education company Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of 28 years reside with their 8 children right outside Philadelphia, PA.
Rothschild launched Learning By Grace, Inc. because she believed that our nation's public school system has failed parents and students. Learning By Grace, Inc. offers online education through a multimedia-rich curriculum to PreK-12 children across the country and throughout the world.
An accomplished author, Rothschild has written books regarding education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Homeschooling News Café Blog consists of the most current and relevant education news.Electronic reproduction of this article is permitted if content is published unchanged, appropriate credit is given, and the article title links to corresponding article webpage.
