IEP advice

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Chris's IEP meeting is finally this week. He's been doing great the first two weeks of first grade, and I'm very pleased with how everything is going. His resource teacher tells me that she doesn't think there needs to be much in the IEP concerning his academics, because everything seems to be going well in that area, and I agree. They are more concerned with putting some behavioral support in for him, which is great.

Here's what I'd like to see, and I'd like your input on it, please.

I want him to have access to a quiet place to retreat, which right now is the resource teacher's room, when needed. I want his work to be focused on quality and not quantity, as he is overwhelmed with large, busy-work tasks. I want him to receive speech therapy to help with his receptive skills, and to help with day-to-day social language. I want OT to be helping with handwriting, and for poor handwriting not to count against him right now. I want him to get some help in socializing with other little boys. (He refuses to have anything to do with other boys, as I think he sees them as threatening because of their loudness and the ways they play. It's not an issue now because 1st grade girls don't mind playing with boys, but I know in a year or two he'll be left friendless if he doesn't learn to give boys a chance as playmates.) I want him to be valued in the classroom and school, and to not be subject to teasing. I want discipline to be effective toward him, ie. no losing recess or extra busy work. And I want a sensory diet and anxiety reducing strategies in place for him to help deal with sensory overload.

Any thoughts on this, or anything I might be missing? Our OT is going to try to come to the meeting with me, but I'd like all the advice I can get on going into the meeting and coming out satisfied and confident about the school year. Thanks!

Keep in mind that the schools are only interested in things that will impact him "educationally". Social skills are not really focused on because how well he plays has nothing to do with how he learns. If the 'behavior" is an issue then that will be addressed. What you want is totally appropriate, but you need to make sure that you are ready to bridge how each deficit will adversly affect his learning. Be ready for resistence. I don't know whether you will get any, but be ready anyway.

Since you are at the beginning of the process (I'm assuming, since your child is young) I would check out WrightsLaw.com They have a great book called "from emotions to Advocacy" that helps you through the IEP process and other things. It even tells you how to formulate goals. This book gives you great ideas on how to prepare for these meetings, how to appeal and how the schools work. It's worth checking out.

Good Luck!

I am sorry, but I dont have any direct advice to give you since I neither had an IEP, nor do I have an IEP for my child (partially due to the fact that I have no child).

But I just thought I would stop in and say something which I think might be important:

Goals are nice, as are mission statements, visions, and objectives. But unfortunately having nice and well written goals doesnt really change anything. What you need to be concerned with is not what your goals are, but how they are accomplished. For example, you want him to get some help socializing with other males. This is not a bad goal, but I am curious how you think this should be accomplished. Perhaps you could find another boy who is interested in the same game and invite him over after school? I really dont know how you would go about doing that, but you might want to put more specifics into how exactly you plan to accomplish your goals.

Otherwise you and the school will just agree about vague goals like: help him write better. This will be written into the IEP, and your school will have to follow it. But no where does it say how your son will be helped to write better. The school could do it a completely different way then you want and wind up making things worse, while still abiding to the letter of the law. For example, they may decide that he needs to stay after school and write sentences till his hands hurt, and you wouldn't be able to disagree with their approach because you signed off on the IEP. Whereas you can prevent that if you get specific and have the IEP say things like: Help son to write better by giving him extra time on assignments so he can write clearly. Teach son how to use a keyboard. Reduce the amount of writing assignments. Etc.

P.S. what are you referring to when you say 'sensory diet'?

I have been through the IEP process, and how goals are written is VERY important, and I can't stress that enough. Goals are never written vague like "help him write better" if they are written properly. That is why I say to go prepared, and try to write a version of your own before you go. Also, they have to accomodate the student during school hours so they can't keep him after school. That just won't happen so don't worry about that. If they did, and you are against that, signing off on an IEP is not going to keep you from exercising your rights as a parent. You can request and IEP review and change it any time during the year, and goals can be updated at any time. It is not written in stone, even though they may make you feel that it is.

When thinking about goals, just having him practice writing is not necessarily how they will write that goal. Writing is a fine motor skill that can be improved by doing fine motor activities that are not necessarily writing. Giving him extra time is a good accomodation, but he also will need PT to address the fine motor issues in general. Using a keybard is a good idea too, but you don't want to rely on that too much because he has to learn to write eventually and you don't want him to rely on that.

The important thing is to make sure that the goals are specific and measurable, and they are able to be monitored using some kind of benchmark. The more specific the goal, the more specific the benchmark, the easier it will be to monitor progress and appeal if you think he is not getting what he needs. One more thing...there should be a section on the IEP for parent input. Anything that you feel is not addressed on that IEP, make a note of that in the parent section just so your concerns are documented in the event you have a review or want to appeal something.

Buy the book from wrights law. It's so worth the money. It gives you so much good advice. Their seminars are really good too.

Good Luck!

if your woried about him learning how to deal with his male peers you might want to try scouts it's helped my older sons selfworth and he's made some great friend in a smaller group setting. He's at the right age to be a tiger scout and this is the time of year the troops start forming.

I'm also working on our first IEP for my first grade daughter. We are fortunate to live in a very "progressive" area of the country for these things I guess (Seattle) and to have a very supportive school. My daughter, like your son, does very well in functional academics but has significant social and sensory issues.

I haven't done this before either, so we'll have to see what we end up with...but the school has been very supportive so far and we have a great advocate working with us. Here are a few things that have been recommended by either the school or her psychologist that might work:

-The school recommended setting up an "office" for her inside the normal classroom. It would be basically a desk with 3 side walls like they have at the library. She would be able to set up her office with things that make her comfortable and help her focus, and it would be set up in a quiet part of the room. This way she can participate as much as she wants with her table group, but can let her teacher know she needs to go to her office if the commotion is getting too overwhelming.
-Permission to have a stress ball, or something else to fidget with, at her desk
-Lifesavers or something of that sort to use for oral stimulation since she has a tendency to bite her fingers until they are bloody.
-Access to the resource room for some individual work times, and for all school assemblies (the commotion and noise at assemblies = guaranteed shut down)
-Speech therapy to help with idiosyncratic speech.
-OT to work on fine motor skills and sensory integration
-Use of an I Pod with earbuds and instrumental music during individual work times to lessen noise from the class and allow her to center herself
-Daily schedules
-A slightly bouncy chair (like an office type chair) instead of the hard plastic ones so she has some ability to rock or lightly bounce without being disruptive.


A couple of other things that I had to look for, but found out was available at the public school I chose to enroll her in:
I also chose a public school for her that has "looping grades", meaning that the teacher progresses with the children for a couple of grade levels (she'll have the same teacher and class until 3rd grade!), and also offers K-8 instruction so the children don't have to adjust to a huge school and constant classroom changes until they hit high school.
The school has a "friendship" group for ASD kids with a social skills coach
Yoga classes are available twice per week

The last group of stuff isn't available in all the schools in our area, but not super uncommon either...might be worth "shopping around" at other schools in the same district to see what's out there if the school for your neighborhood doesn't have everything you need. In our case, we chose a different school, but it's actually closer than the school she would have automatically gone to!

Update:

I am very happy with how the meeting went. Chris's teachers were all very happy to work together and with me. He's getting everything on my list, plus some. They are using most of the goals and suggestions from our own OT, SLP and developmental pediatrician, plus several of their own. He'll be getting OT, PT and speech to work on specific goals. He gets social time with one or two other kids to help with confidence and social skills. He's getting a reduced workload, and gets to use special paper to help with handwriting. He gets time in the resource room to cool off or take a break. And all the teachers are aware of the teasing that's been happening and have a plan in place to help.

If the rest of the year can go as smoothly as we've started, we'll be good!

I haven't done so well at the IEP thingy, but our psychologist did recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... R&v=glance

He has worked with schools for years and used to work as an advocate himself, so I expect the book is good. That said, we had the meeting for the IEP last year and I don't get along so well in non-fiction reading so I haven't read it yet. Probably I'd better pick it up and get to work... the school year is not starting well.

That's great that it when so well! It was a HUGE hassle getting my 405 Plan, and my parents even needed to hire a lawyer to advocate on my behalf. But I did get the accomodations I needed in the end.