Miacademy FAQ: How You Can Use the Program for Your Autistic Child

I've been seeing so much discussion about Miacademy in groups online, and several of my homeschool tutoring students use it as well. I wanted to learn more about it, so I reached out to Miacademy with some questions. They were kind enough to send me these responses. I hope they're helpful when selecting a curriculum for your child!

Can you tell me a little about Miacademy and how families are using it for homeschooling?

Miacademy is an online homeschool program for students K-8. The program includes ELA, science, math, social studies, and electives, such as music, art, foreign languages, career skills, and life skills.

The program design prioritizes ease of use and customization for both parents and students, so parents are able to fully tailor their child’s learning and students can have fun and pursue their interests while learning.

The curriculum is designed to meet the needs of many types of learners across lots of grade levels. Miacademy uses a multi-sensory approach, combining engaging, high quality video lessons with hands-on activities, worksheets, crafts, and more. The curriculum also has accessibility features built in, such as text to speech and closed captioning, plus the ability for students to go back and revisit parts of the lesson when they need more time.

Families are using Miacademy as their main homeschool curriculum, often without a supplement. Parents enjoy that they can have multiple students use Miacademy from the same parent account, making progress tracking and assigning lessons easy, and that the course material is comprehensive, high quality, and fun! The most popular way for students to access Miacademy is through a laptop or tablet, such as an iPad, so students choose where they learn each day and can find a comfortable place to learn.

What grade levels and subjects does it cover?

We offer Miacademy for grades K-8 and MiaPrep for high school students, beginning in 7th grade and going up to 12th. The curriculum covers math, ELA, science, and social studies, plus a wide range of electives, such as art, music, foreign languages, career skills (such as typing, coding, and knowledge of basic computer software) and life skills, such as how to get dressed, clean up after yourself, take care of your body, make a healthy snack, and more. For high schoolers, we also offer elective courses in Adulting 101 and Personal Finance.

What level of flexibility do families have in customizing the pace or content?

One of Miacademy’s strengths is its flexibility. Parents can:

● Choose specific courses or lessons to assign

● Allow students to work through the curriculum independently at their own pace

● Skip content that isn’t a fit or repeat lessons as needed

● Hide or enable game and social features based on the child’s needs

Families have the ability for full customization, down to each lesson within a course. This gives students the ability to work on the content that helps them reach their educational goals, and that is the right grade level for them. If a student is ahead or behind in any subject, they can choose the grade level that provides the appropriate level of challenge. If a student is coming in from a public school, they also have the ability to skip the lessons that they have already learned in public school, and pick up where they left off without repeating the content.

Miacademy’s curriculum is completely self-paced, and the curriculum is easily adaptable to accommodate vacation or sick days.

How is Miacademy designed to support students with different learning styles, including autistic learners?

Miacademy is designed to support a wide range of learning preferences, including those of autistic learners, through flexible, inclusive, and research-informed instructional design. Our platform offers multimodal instruction, including videos, interactive games, printable and digital activities, and hands-on applications, so students can engage with content in way that suit their individual learning preferences.

For example, some learners are drawn to the visuals and consistent formatting, while others enjoy the audio narration from on-screen actors, and TTS options in our practice games. All learners have access to transcripts, guided notes, and writing prompts across subjects.

For autistic learners, this flexibility is paired with targeted supports:

• Explicit instruction with predictable formatting, step-by-step modeling, and clearly defined tasks
  

• Visual and auditory accessibility, including captioned videos, picture-in-picture playback, simplified layouts, and color-coded navigation
  

• Built-in sensory and communication accommodations, such as customizable backgrounds, low-stimulation interface, and representation of diverse learners in our videos, including those who use AAC
  

• Social-emotional and executive functioning support, embedded in courses like Life Skills and Social Skills, with video modeling of key interpersonal, self-regulation strategies, and activities of daily living
  

• Strengths- and interest-based learning, including electives like Intro to Programming, Music, and World Languages, which offer lower-pressure learning pathways and align with student passions.
  

What is the format of instruction on the Miacademy platform? Video lectures with teachers, interactive animated activities, etc.?

Each lesson begins with a short video, and after the video there will be a short practice quiz or PDF activity, game or worksheet to help students apply their learning in real life, while helping break up screen time.

We use a combination of animated elements and live actors in our video lessons to keep things engaging and interesting for the student. Since we prioritize both lesson content and production quality, we have our team of highly qualified and experienced teachers write the lesson script and work closely with the actors and video team to bring it to life! This way, students get to enjoy top-notch and comprehensive educational content in a way that is both fun and meaningful.

We also often use the same actor for every lesson in a course, so students are able to build familiarity with them, much as classroom students do with their teacher! This helps students feel more comfortable and excited to learn when they see their favorite ‘teacher’.

How does Miacademy track a student’s progress?

You can easily track all your child's completed lessons and progress through the Reports tab in your parent account! This includes work from both the Learning Path and All Lessons tabs.

Assessments usually have about 10-20 questions with a percentage score. You'll see all retakes and scores, with only the highest one counting toward the overall grade. To see your child's answers, click the "View Answers” button next to the assessment in the Reports tab. We're working to show actual answers for Free Input questions in the future. Daily Vocabulary is designed as a warm-up to build skills, and does not appear on your Reports tab.

Subject and course grade averages are available, and you can even customize report cards by filtering out unwanted grades, as well as download reports to include offline work. How you keep records for your state is entirely up to you, but you can visit our Homeschool page for some tips!

How have families been using Miacademy when homeschooling their children on the autism spectrum?

Families homeschooling autistic children use Miacademy as a flexible, customizable platform that supports both academic growth and life skill development.

Because the platform allows students to work at their own pace, revisit lessons as needed, and choose content that matches their interests and support needs, families can individualize their child’s program in ways that align with their strengths, preferences, goals, and even IEP objectives (when applicable).

Many parents select lessons across different grade levels while honoring the student's current learning profile.

Families frequently incorporate:

• The Learn to Read series to support structured literacy through phonics-based, explicit instruction
  

• Life Skills and Social Skills courses to address executive functioning, emotional regulation, routines, communication, and even supported or independent living goals
  

• Interest-based electives (e.g., Intro to Programming, Drawing, ASL, Survivor’s Quest) to engage learners who might need a break from the core curriculum
  

• Math, Science, and Social Studies to build content knowledge in a concrete and accessible format that also supports comprehension and reading
  

• Game-based review and assessments, and interactive features to offer motivation and feedback loops in a low-pressure environment
  

Miacademy is often used alongside therapies or co-ops and has been particularly helpful for families seeking a neurodiversity-affirming and flexible homeschooling approach that centers autonomy and inclusion.

Do you have any tips on how parents can maximize their autistic childrens’ success with accessing and using the Miacademy platform?

We have a wonderful blog page here with tips!

1. Follow their strengths and interests. Begin with subjects the child enjoys, such as Drawing, Intro to Programming, Music, or a new language. Interest-based learning builds confidence and allows students to familiarize themselves with the platform, making it easier to introduce core subjects later on.
   

2. Preview lessons together. Sit with the student to preview new lessons, especially in core subjects. Walk through the structure, show them where to find captions, pause/play buttons, and how to return to a lesson later.
   

3. Create a visual schedule using lesson titles. Use the lesson titles (download the Scope and Sequences as a guide) to create a visual schedule or checklist outside the platform. This helps learners anticipate what's next and develop a sense of routine.
   

4. Adjust the environment for comfort. Use built-in accessibility features like dark mode, adjustable video speed, and full-screen and picture-in-picture (great for AAC users). These options help reduce sensory overload and support focus.
   

5. Apply life skills and social skills in real-life situations. Watch videos like “Getting Ready for the Day” together. Print the accompanying PDF, then practice those skills at home. This builds confidence and routine through real-world application.
   

6. Celebrate progress. Miacademy uses progress bars to show completed steps. Point these out and celebrate each milestone!