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Sue Patrick's Workbox System

Sue Patrick

Member since 08/2009

I am Sue Patrick, a homeschool mom, with a Bachelor’s Degree from North Carolina State University.  While in the process of pursuing a Master’s Degree from NCSU, my oldest child was diagnosed with Autism at the age of two.  His diagnosis was a crushing blow to my husband and me, and I found myself caught between two worlds.  One in which I was grieving the loss of the child I had hoped for and prayed about for 10 years.  And another world in which I was determined to do everything humanly possible to help this child, whom  suddenly I didn’t think I knew.     I had been completely consumed with the world of infertility and adoption.  When our son arrived, he was truly bigger than life and everything we had ever wanted.  As I watched him develop over the first 15 months, not only did I not realize, as a first time mother, that he had a severe disability, I only saw that he was incredibly gifted and talented.  My hopes, prayers and perceived future for him were unlimited.  He was the perfect and beautiful child I had always wanted.  But when he was diagnosed, I realized that all those prayers and ideas of who he would become and what would be his future, were crushed.  I had to re-order my prayers and hopes for a complete unknown.  No one could tell me what my son could achieve, if he would ever talk, interact or learn anything, much less academics. I did not stay in the world of grief for very long.  Instincts for survival and hopes for my son took over.  His progress became the most important thing in my life.  My priorities were not balanced, and neither God or my husband came first.  I do not remember much about my daughter’s first year (she was born just as my son was going through the process of diagnosis).  Initially I spent all day raising two small children as best I could, and most of the night researching and making materials and curriculum to help my son grow and develop to his greatest potential.  Over the next 10 years, I pursued my son’s improvement, balance in my life, and an understanding of homeschooling a special needs child. It was during this time that I developed the Workbox System. The Workbox System was loosely based on the structured teaching approach from Division TEACCH, Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children, A Division of the UNC Department of Psychiatry. So many of us who were thrown into the world of autism were also thrown into a world of “unnatural” teaching. There are so many people, organizations, institutions, and “professionals” out there who have found the new key to “curing” autism. I learned very quickly that there is no cure for autism, and fortunately, I learned from TEACCH the value of teaching in a structured way to the individual mind. Though TEACCH vehemently stated that there is no cure for autism, I contend that they saved my child’s life. They introduced a thought process to me that allowed me to develop this Workbox System. Without TEACCH and this system, I would not want to imagine where my son would be now. I had such great success with his progress, that I began showing other families with children with developmental disabilities what I had learned, and what was working so very well for my son.  Over time, with trial and error, always seeking to understand and improve a system I was developing, I was able to share with more and more families.   My son, who was never considered high functioning, began to function at a very high level—even though he has a language disability that seems insurmountable. Through this system, he has learned so well that he is academically on grade level with his peers. He participates in groups and social activities, and on sports teams, independently, with his peers.  I believe this is all due to what I have been able to glean from all existing therapies, theories, and educational plans and to implement them as a home program.  After attending seminars, conferences, and certification programs for nearly every therapy based work for special needs children,  I did not adopt any existing program or other therapies because I thought a meshing of the best of all programs, along with a Specialized Parent-Based approach was the only logical choice.  I am thankful to God every day for giving me that discernment. Over the years I have shown an uncounted number of families how to successfully work at home to create their best homeschool. I have worked with parents whose children range from “too wiggly” to severely disabled to just plain large numbers of children in their home, and have found that I simply did not have enough time to reach as many people as would call me for help. I have now packaged my system, Sue Patrick’s Workbox System in an effort to reach even more families working to achieve the highest academic and cognitive potential they can in their own children.  This system works very well with all homeschools and all children ranging from “typical” to disabled.

This is a ministry for me. My mission is to motivate, generally moms, to take homeschooling seriously as their full time commitment. It is a real job, real mission work and it should be a great priority in their life. Through my presentations, I motivate homeschoolers as well as giving them real tools to enhance their homeschools to be fun and motivating for their entire family.

"Recorded" HOTM Conference - 8/2009

"Recorded" NCHE - 5/2009

"I speak to groups monthly all over the East/Southeast" East - 1/2009