Tips

Education starts at school and continues at home. There are plenty of things that you, as parents, can do at home to help your child along a strong developmental path. Here are some helpful tips to give your child an advantage at home, which will transfer to the classroom, and improve their quality of life. 

Encourage independence. For example, help your child learn daily care skills, such as grooming and bathing. Also, help your child to find information or ask questions when not with you. For example, you can work with your child to help practice asking for support in different environments from people your child doesn’t know. If your child has difficulty communicating, help create other appropriate ways to indicate a need.

Give your child chores.
 Keep her age, attention span, and abilities in mind. Break down jobs into smaller steps. For example, if your child’s job is to set the table, first ask her to get the right number of napkins. Then have her put one at each family member’s place at the table. Do the same with the utensils, going one at a time. Tell her what to do, step by step, until the job is done. Demonstrate how to do the job. Help her when she needs assistance.

Find out what skills your child is learning at school. Find ways for your child to apply those skills at home. For example, if the teacher is going over a lesson about money, take your child to the supermarket with you. Help him count out the money to pay for your groceries. Help him count the change.

Find opportunities in your community for social activities
, such as scouts, recreation center activities, sports, and so on. These will help your child build social skills as well as to have fun. 

Seek out different types of learning opportunities, including community college, continuing education, park and recreation classes, and training/classes offered through local stores (Michaels, Home Depot, Joanne’s Fabrics). Many stores offer classes on crafts and home improvement projects that might be of interest to students. 
Discuss the things that your child would like to learn about. Although these things may not be academic, they may certainly be meaningful to them. See if a local course is available on this topic. Help your child make the connection between her learning goals and her life: A cooking class could help to a student become more independent in the kitchen; a cake decorating class could help a student get the job in the bakery at the local grocery store; classes taken just for fun allow you to meet people who have similar interests.