What is Summer School for the "Ex Ed"

Having a special needs child brings all sorts of educational issues to the table. What can you do with your child during the summer? Will he or she lose the knowledge they have gained? How can you ensure your child will return to school with the lessons they learned the previous year stuck in their minds? What is summer school for Exceptional Education and will it help?

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee your child will retain the knowledge he or she obtained during the school year. There is also no guarantee summer school will be the right answer for your child. Even if the summer school lasts all summer there will still be outside stimuli that may make your child forget what has been taught. You will have to consider your child and determine whether or not he or she would benefit.

Summer school for the "Ex Ed" is summer school for Exceptional Education and usually means the disabled children. Summer school for the "Ex Ed" usually only lasts a couple of weeks to less than a month. Most children have about two months out of school for summer. Although this may benefit the parent, will summer school help the child? The child will still have plenty of time that he or she will forget what they learned or even regress.

If the summer school is not at your child's school your child will need time to adjust, thus losing time for positive education. If the child is trying to get used to new surroundings, he or she will be more focused on what is new and wanting to explore. The child will not be paying attention to what is going on inside the classroom until he or she adjusts. If your child adjusts easily, the children that do not may interrupt the class with outbursts. Will the adjustable child be able to pay attention to the teacher? Will the teacher have to interrupt teaching to redirect the other children? A new location for a summer school is usually never beneficial.

What about the summer school teacher? Is the teacher the same one your child has had all year? If there is a different teacher, you should keep your child at home and enjoy your time with him or her. A different teacher will cause your child to be off schedule and "out of sorts".

All autistic children have social problems. This includes getting to know someone and listening to what that person is saying. Some autistic children realize they are in a class setting and may participate in small degrees. Others will be extremely upset and may even have "melt downs". Melt downs include crying spells to full blown temper tantrums.

If you are trying to give your child new experiences, a summer school for the "Ex Ed" would be a way to safely allow your child to meet new people. If you are utilizing the summer school in hopes of furthering your child's education or at the least, helping your child retain the information they learned, you will be disappointed.