SAMPLE Strengths & Needs for IEP... and School Safety Pl

Post Reply New Topic

Here's a list of our current accommodations/modifications that I thought I would share - I hope this helps someone, somewhere

Please note that my child has a math learning disability and excels in language arts - other subjects are average (B average)

Most of these accommodations/mod's are for help with math and organizational skills. We only have one accommodation for social skills. I prefer to teach social skills at home . All these are required to be implemented on a daily basis with the exception of #10.

1. Extended time to complete assignments and tests, including standardized test up to 50%
2. Small group standardized testing
3. Small group or one on one math testing
4. Read, simplify, clarify direction on assignments and testes, including standardized tests
5. Preferential seating near point of instruction
6. Math test modified
7. Monitoring during independent work
8. Math manipulatives used during math class and tests including standardized tests
9. Math assignments modified in length
10. Social interaction/self esteem group. Meeting with guidance counselor (this is weekly, not daily.
11. Reduced homework assignments
12. Additional time given to retrieve details when answering questions verbally.
13. Use of graph paper for math assignments
14. Check with Ellie prior to test taking to determine her anxiety level and promp to utilize relaxation techniques.
15. Review math homework assignments before going home at end of day.
16. Redirect attention using non-verbal cues.
17. Sensory breaks

We also have 5 goals that are specific to organizational skills and math. Since they are specific to her needs I won't post.

Lynn

Um I facilitate IEP meetings. I think it is of concern to make every goal a goal for the student, so I set some goals for the class and the staff.

. needs his/her peers to be supported in understanding alternative communication modes and accepting difference.
. needs to be involved in all decision making regarding learning and social interactions.
. needs to have tasks which focus on areas of strength and personal interest.
. needs planned opportunities to demonstrate abilities.
. needs alternative management - isolation and exclusion can be a reward and may reinforce challenging behaviours rather than teaching alternative ways of communicating distress.
. needs to be valued for difference, not in spite of it.

auntyjack - those are awesome. I never thought of setting goals for the class and staff.
i may bring this up in our next meeting.

When writing the behaviour management component of an IEP, this excellent article can be of use:
http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/182/over5.html

I am new to the board. My son (15) has Aspergers - wasn't diagnosed until 13. Up until then, he was just 'a behavior' problem in school. He has a Gifted IEP and we are fighting tooth and nail to get a 'regular' IEP in place for him

I LITERALLY sat here and cried as I read this thread. You have hit almost every nail on the head. I have tried homeschooling - but to be completely honest - he is too smart for me. (I would never admit that to him, though )

Auntyjack - I am printing that article to take to the next IEP meeting. Thank you!

Many of these do not apply to my son.

I'm so glad to have come acrossed this thread as I will have a meeting soon to get my aspie son & IEP this was very helpful as I have know idea what I'm doing.....lol he was dx'ed in July so I've been dealing with the damn school system since then. Now we are almost at the end and we still don't have an IEP and FCAT's are coming up in March. UGH.........I did however get a lot out of this thread topic. THANKS

I will use some of these ideas in our upcoming iep too!

We have a 6th grader.

When he gets overwhelmed he wants to check in to a behavioral health center. He has before and he loves it there. Uggh. We are trying to help him to find balance in the "real world".

This is really a great thread. What I wanted to add is that one of the most important elements of the IEP are the goals. Your IEP must have goals and all teachesr/staffers are accountable to help your child reach those goals. And, there needs to be benchmarks along the way so that if after a given time the kid is reaching the goals, you need to call another IEP to discuss why, re-adjust the goals or add more support.

The goals aren't just good for the kid, but also for everyone involved because you all will know specifically what you're aiming for.

The way our IEP is written, he has annual goals, but also a timeline in which all of his teachers/staffers plan on meeting some of the goals. For instance, in preschool, these were a few of his annual goals, but he met these well before the 1 year mark, but that was okay. His teachers identified that and we went back to the table and added more or made the ones he conquered more dynamic. Also, during the year he got weekly status reports letting us know where he was with respect to his goals:

1. Initiate conversation with three separate students during every class period
2. Engage in conversation with direct eye contact
3. Follow large group instructions 80-100% of the time
4. Follow individual instruction 90-100% of the time
5. Complete a 5-tier task with only one prompt from the teacher
6. Model a 3-step, multiple-task done by a peer-aged student
7. Master min. of 3 fine motor skills: tie shoes laces, pick up jacks, draw shapes
8. Master min. of 3 gross motor skills: balance beam, monkey bars, bike
9. Master min. of 3 practical life skills: sweep floor, clean table, put toys away
10. Master personal life skills: brush teeth, wash face, wash hands
11. Identify ABCs and numbers 1 - 30
12. Write lowercase alphabaets
13. Write numbers 1 - 10
14. Spell first and last name


Of course, as the kid gets older and progresses the goals become more dynamic, but always in line with the kid's needs. Goals really help because they set expectations and something to work towards. Plus, again, they make the staffers accountable. Even if the kid doesn't attain the goals, explanations are needed and the goals may have to be retooled. So, I think goals are a very important piece of the IEP.

With respect to the above goal for your son, I am wondering how you and the teachers understand this goal. From an Aspie point of view I question the value of this goal written this way.

Simple eye contact may be meaningless unless it is only intended to make the other person feel comfortable. I know that eye contact in my own case often has a totally different meaning to me than to neurotypicals. Although it may be a form of communication on my part, often my eyes may be pointing at something but my mind is not using what they see as an input. That is, the eyes are seeing but the brain is simply not using the data. Also my eye contact may be something that a neurotypical will misunderstand because I am using it differently than an NT would.

If the goal is simply a first step to start the habit of eye contact, then the goal, as written, may suffice for the present stage of teaching.

If, on the other hand, the objective of the eye contact is to carry the normal meaning as percieved by the neurotypical world, then the objective will need significant modification and may or may not be achievable.

Judging whether your son is effectively applying eye contact as a communication skill will take a great deal more effort to percieve. Even if he is making eye contact with his teachers and the eye contact seems appropriate for what he is communicating, it may be irrelevant as he may be simply responding to other cues. And those cues may be dependant on his relationship to the teacher. Observing how your son uses eye contact in peer to peer communication would be the likely place to judge success. An accurate assessment of that will be much harder.

Goal writing is tricky. Although goal setting and assessment is useful, today's managment and teaching concepts have gone overboard with it. It pleases bureaucrats because they have items to check off on a piece of paper (and we all know how much administrator's and bureaucrats love a piece of paper). One of the great falicies spread among managers is "if you did not measure it, it did not happen". That is a load of crap (if you will pardon the crudity). Many things happen for which a measure has not been established, and often the wrong thing is measured because measuring the right thing is very difficult. This falicy is so common it has a name; it is know as the the "Error of the Wrong Metric". In more common parlance this leads to not being able to see the forest for the trees.

What I am trying to get at here in this analogy is that goals of the IEP are simply like some of the trees in a forest. And stepping back to see the forest is the same as looking to see if the program is helping your son to develop into a happy effective person. The goals are useful but just a few scattered spindly shrubs and saplings do not make a very good forest. Neither does a list of simple goals for your son necessarily represent good development. So be sure to keep standing back to look at the overall development and make sure that the program as a whole is working well for your son for his life and not for just a fraction of it (e.g. just in classroom settings).

Watch what is happening in your sons development. If you see other progress besides what is on the list of goals, you probably have a good program for him. If it is just the goals being checked off you probably need a different program because the meeting of the goals is being checked off when they have occured but are not an established pattern. The goals should not be viewed as "the program" but rather a random sampling of progress that is indicative of the the general progress.

Best wishes for your son's progress and success.

we also just recently modified our son's iep to state that when there are issues with behavior they don't send him to the principal's office (like they have been) because that is not teaching!! !! Now when he has what the school call's "below the line behavior" they send him to the resource room and his case manager. Then he gets time to come down, relax and have a teaching moment to hopefully find out what caused the incident and he learns skills to try to recognize the steps that led to the behavior so he can learn to self monitor himself before it escalates to that point. Punitive action for an aspie doesn't teach but the school still tries to have them do the standard "sitting in the principal's office when they're bad". Actually, I don't think punitive action really helps anyone but....one battle at a time.

Outlander, do you know anything about IEPs and intervention programs and how they operate? I'm not quite sure that you do based on your post.

His annual goals are written out by professionals in the field of Autism, those who work his intervention programs and input from the appropriate therapists and doctors that we deem necessary. These people have worked with him since his diagnosis and have been working overall with Autistic and Asperger children for years. They know what they're doing. So do we. And, he's met all of these goals. These were earlier goals given as examples. He has met them, aced them and moved on to more dynamic things.

His program is very successful and we're pleased with the goals set for him. If we don't like something, we modify it or have it removed.

Thank you for your input.

Any help would be appreciated.

I have a 8 yr. old son who we believe has AS and this year he's in the 3rd grade and has really struggled through the whole year and we'd like to set it up for him to get a IEP for next year. How do we go about starting this process? We have been working with his teachers all year over his issues and problems and of course they haven't ever thrown the option of a IEP out there, but I'm worried if he doesn't get help for next year he'll fail. Whats the first step?

I am going to try to post a copy of the conserns and needs portion from a document that I brought to my childs first IEP meeting. The whole document was 43 pages. Some clinical references are included. There were significant narritive also but it was not practical to fit here.

I hope it formats ok and is not To BIG.

I have have replaced my childs name wth "The child" so you can do a relplace for this string if you want to use any of it.


These are about 1-1/2 year old so I would make some changes as my childs "social competancey has improved".

Sorry about the formating it is not the best.

Concern exists about effectively limiting the accumulation of anxiety C1
which in addition to reducing or eliminating the opportunity for Attwood(2007) pg 123
educational progress and causing undesirable behaviors, can when exhaustion
chronic lead to serious additional health complications Attwood(2007) chapter 7




The child has the need to develop intellectual understanding of social N1 Attwood(2007) chapter 3
skills to allow him to educated be in their application in the school
environment


The child has the need to develop intellectual understanding of Theory N2 Attwood(2007) pg 15 p4
of Mind and be educated in the practical application. This will pg 59 p6, pg 72 sect2
allow for improved social skills, reduce misunderstandings of pg 77 p3
social communication's unspoken intent Thereby reducing
anxiety and improving his functionality in the educational environment Attwood(2007) chapter 5

The child has the need to be educated in and have guidance in the N3 OASIS guide to AS (2005)
application of social skills to allow him to function as effectively as pgs 218-223
practical in the school environment and to reduce the ongoing anxiety
associated with the lack of innate social skill and incomplete
intellectual knowledge and application of social skills




The child's special education teachers need to accumulate current N4
clinical and educational knowledge and training in the field of
Aspergers

The child's special education teachers need to accumulate and N5 Attwood(2007) pg 246 p3
coordinate information on The childs particular manifestation of
Aspergers and appropriate and efective teaching methodoligies, for
an The child to receive appropriate education

The child's primary teacher(s) need to be familiar with the basic clinical N6
aspects and accumulate educational knowledge about Aspergers
and The child's particular manifestations to allow for an appropriate
education and interactions

The childs "specials" teachers, and teachers, and staff who regularly N7
supervise The child need to be familiar with the basic clinical aspects
and will be informed as to The childs particular manifestation of
Aspergers and the appropriate educational, social and disciplinary
knowledge for their particular interface with The child

Concern exists that without peer education about Aspergers that C2 Attwood(2007) pg 79
the level of negative interactions may cause excess anxiety "programs for peers"

The child needs a comprehensive bullying policy to be implemented N8 Attwood(2007) chapter 4
in his environments at school which is appropriate for and Aspergers
child Perfect Targets (all)

The child need a more formal review process for infractions requiring N9 Attwood (2007) pgs 103-105
punishment so he can "own his infraction" thereby making the
punishment effective. Teacher and staff training in this area is essential
The child also needs a principles based approach in place of a Perfect Targets pgs 102-104
systems base structure.

The child needs his environment to be "controlled" to reduce negative N10 Atwood (2007) pgs 271-291
sensory stimulation. Determining what is negative requires pgs 221-223
significant communication with The child, which is difficult while "in
progress"

adapting to The child's perfectionism is a concern however other than C3 Attwood (2007) pg 238
general social skills and maturity there is little available to affect this



The child needs teachers and staff who are educated so as to be able N11 Attwood (2007) pg 143-147
to recognize the development of precursors of these events, and when
they occur to be aware of proper protocols to allow for "decompression"
Additionally areas need to be available such as an area in the OASIS guide to AS (2005)
classroom where The child can be alone, his computer work station pg 344
or in severe cases as safe place to "escape" to. Interferance in
"severe meltdowns": is not recommended due to the potential for
unintended injury except in imminently dangerous situations.

When educational material or instructions are being presented verbally N12 see "aspergerese
The child needs these to be literal and without social subtlety. Attwood (2007) pg 224

Attwood (2007) pg 216
"literal interpretation"

When practical instructional and education information is better N13
transmitted in a form other than auditory. Where this can not occur,
care needs to be taken as to the auditory environment that the
communication is attempted and the manner in which it is presented see: Hospital outpatient
Also, complexity of the segments of information should be limited speech and language
evaluation (CAPD)





The child needs, where practical, educational materials and instruction N14 Attwood (2007) pgs 252-253
presented in a visual (picture) format

The child needs, where adaptation of standard curriculum to visual form N15 Attwood (2007) pg 245 p4
is not practical, computer based instruction to receive educational
materials in his most effective communication mode. Attwood (2007) pg 251
"cogintive style"

Care needs to be taken in selecting reading materials for The child. N16
Materials with limited social content are more appropriate until
social skills ability are better established. The child need reading
material that are more to the "technical writing" side and ideally in
his "areas of interest".

The child needs written communication and composition to be N17
accomplished with a word processing program to reduce frustration
and to provide visual images of correct vs. incorrect spelling and
grammar

The child needs an alternate staged curriculum to allow for the core N18
mathematical concepts to be learned devoid as much as possible from
social context. Only then should the social context be overlaid

The child needs an alternate, staged curriculum to allow for the core N19
technical science concepts to be learned devoid as much as possible
from social context. Only then should the social context be overlaid.

The child needs significant social skills training integrated into this N20
portion of the curriculum. Additionally, he will benefit from an integrated
and minimally stigmatizing discussion of social differentials and
variability

The child needs that particular attention be given to potential tactile and C4
olfactory sensitivities that may exist and be consulted as to their
affect while participating in art activities

The child needs that particular attention be given to potential auditory C5
sensitivities that may exist and be consulted as to there affect
while participating in music activities




The child will need minor adjustment to his implementations of the N21 Atwood (2007) pgs259-270
physical education curriculum to minimize potential negative event
related to coordination manifestations of Aspergers.

The child will need ongoing support in the area of executive function and N22 Attwood (2007)pgs 234-237
where practical, tools and training to assist in this area

The child need homework assignment to be visually/computer based N23 Attwood (2007)pgs 248-249
when practical. Additionally quantity, grading and time requirements
need to be adjusted to be appropriate with The childs overall needs

The child needs to be monitored by his teachers for areas (curriculum N24
subsets) where he may excel and be referred to the Talented and
Gifted teacher when such conditions are present and be instructed at
a "talented and gifted" level in these area even if he would not qualify
for talented and gifted status in a complete curriculum area.

The child need an informal system to share educational and clinical N25
information between all members of both school and private
personnel of The child's clinical team

Hi - Thanks for the great information. Hopefully it will help when I meet with the school for my son's 504. We're thinking about an IEP. I'm so fustrated with his school right now.

This was my second son's first IEP:

http://www.smelena.com/daniel_iep.php

I removed the school logo, his exact Date Of Birth and some other personal information.

Helen