6 Things to Know About Homeschooling a Kid With Developmental Language Disorder
When our children began to display signs of a language delay, I began to research ways I could help them.
My husband and I tried many things, but nothing we did seemed to help very much.
The more time went on, the more we began to worry.
I spent many nights googling, researching, taking notes, and strategizing ways to help my children develop language.
Then one day I stumbled on a term that would soon become my children’s official diagnosis:
MERLD
MERLD stands for Mixed Expressive-Receptive Language Delay. It is also known as Developmental Language Disorder.
Being a homeschool graduate myself, I always knew I’d homeschool my children.
However, when I moved to a country where homeschooling is almost entirely unheard of, I relinquished that dream.
I feel that a decision to homeschool requires both the mother and father being 100% on board, otherwise it causes a lot of friction and strain on the marriage.
At the end of the day, my husband and I both believe that the marriage relationship is the most important relationship in the home.
Even above our individual relationships with our children.
When we realized that both of our children had a language disorder, my husband and I agreed that I would homeschool them part-time to prepare them for school.
I successfully prepared our oldest child to enter the school system.
And with great joy and excitement on a hot September day, I drove him to school for his first day – and he has never looked back!
Our second son was different.
His progress was more slow – but steady.
We weren’t sure if he’d be ready to enter the school system – and that was okay with us. It had nothing to do with his level of intelligence….he is very intelligent.
It had nothing to do with his language disorder…he is overcoming that.
It had everything to do with his learning style and personality – with the way God created him! And that is okay!
After doing much research, I approached homeschooling with him completely differently than I did with my oldest.
This approach taught me so much!!
I’ll never forget the first time I heard the statement that homeschool shouldn’t look traditional. By its very definition it is anti-traditional school. It is homeschool, not school at home.
Honestly, it still hasn’t sunk in completely.
But what hasn’t yet sunk in all the way, should by the end of the 2019-2020 school year — because homeschooling a child with MERLD – a language disorder – must be approached in an atypical fashion!
Many children with MERLD are misdiagnosed with:
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Attention Deficit Disorder
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Sensory Processing Disorder
There are a couple of reasons for this:
The behaviors that are considered red flags are typical for their age, but because they have a language delay, they are put under a microscope and these behaviors are seen as problematic.
Their inability to process language correctly causes them to become bored or distracted. They tune out the constant noise in their environment.
This can mean that they appear to be anti-social, as they reject playing with other children because they have trouble engaging in conversation at the same level as their peers.
They often don’t read social cues as well as their peers.
They are often extremely distracted in classroom settings when they don’t fully understand what the teacher is saying.
All because of their trouble receiving and expressing language.
The more I understood the struggles my youngest son was having with language, the more I realized that if I was going to successfully homeschool him, I’d need to throw out the “sit-still-and-listen” classroom approach.
I was going to have to take homeschool outside of the box and do something totally different.
And the results have been amazing!!
Homeschooling a child with MERLD isn’t always easy, but it is rewarding!
Misty from Year Round Homeschooling generously allowed me to share on her blog in this post: 6 Things Homeschool Parents of Children with a Language Disorder Need to Know
Don’t miss the other posts in this 3-part series:
6 Things Homeschool Parents of Children with a Language Disorder Need to Know
6 Things I’ve Learned Homeschooling Children with a Language Disorder
What Is MERLD? Homeschooling Children With a Language Disorder
