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Our district (in line with IDEA) determines the appropriate setting as the least restrictive place where a student can make adequate progress. My ds is in a mainstream school with resource room pull-out and he is going to meet the majority of his annual goals and making good progress on the rest. Would seem that this meets critria of 'adequate progress' .Apparently not - school and district recommend a more restrictive setting for him. Their reasoning is that a lot of his progress does not generalize enough to the mainstream classroom. No matter if I decide to keep him there or whether I decide to move him it seems like he needs goals aimed at generalizing. Any good ideas?We are having similiar problems with generalizing. (Actually, always been the biggest hurdle for ds.). I don't have any ideas for you, but am curious to see what others come up with. I would ask them what research-based practices are they employing to aid in generalization. Good luck! At my school, we follow a generalization protocol for every goal. Everyfive or so skills pertaining to a goal (for example learning to identify letters, we would do it every fifth letter learned), they have a "generalization assessment" that is necessary to move forward to the next skill. The generalization protocol includes the following six components: Materials: if they learn on one set of flashcards, another set must be used. If they learn with one set if counters, coins, sorter shapes, anything different must be used. Instructor: they must perform the skill with an unfamiliar instructor (office staff, different teacher, etc.) SD: a different SD must be used. If they learned to respond to "match the letter"- they must now perform the skill if someone says, "can you find the letter that is the same?" Environment: they must perform the skill in an unfamiliar environment. (teacher lounge, different class, hallway, someone's office, etc) Proximity: if they normally perform the skill with an instructor closeby, they now have to do a file folder game, worksheet or other activity without a teacher next to them. Reinforcement: if they are used to receiving verbal praise or a tangible item for a correct response, this is varied to receive it every few correct responses to ensure the correct responses also occur without reinforcement. If a student does not pass the generalization assessment, the skill is not considered acquired. The student must be retaught the skills with attention paid to the area(s) of generalization that posed an issue. At first, this posed quite a challenge for many of our learners. Generalization is of course a challenge for many kids with autism. But, once the school did a better job of "teaching loosely" and varying those six components all throughout instruction, all of the kids started moving quickly through their goals-- with generalization also being covered. TeacherinTX - I LOVE that protocol. I've been looking for a good, systematic way to work on generalization with my students, and as of Monday, we will be using yours! Micki- Okay...so. Let me see if I'm understanding this...He's not generalizing skills to the mainstream classroom, so they're going to remove him from that environment all together, to ensure that he is better able to generalize skills to that environment...somehow without being in it at all? Hm. I hope I'm misunderstanding. Jessica, my thoughts exactly. Removing him from mainstream does not seem conducive to fitting into the mainstream. I would assert my stayput right and file a complaint... or at least threaten to until they agreed with me. lol Sorry, that's just the kind of mom I am. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. Since I am on a timeline to respond to the proposed IEP, I value all the input I can get. The idea of moving him to a more restrictive setting makes complet sense in somewhat dysfunctional district-thinking. He is currently at a school (and was placed there by special ed) where his current principal is known to consider IEPs and kids requireing adaptations an imposition. I am talking about standard stuff like giving him a schedule. He does have a great teacher in the resource room though. At the more restrictive setting my ds would be on more resource room time but he would also get more appropriate adaptations in the classroom and therefore do better. So the issue is not only that ds needs to learn to generalize skills but that the mainstream needs to be open to some adaptations which his current school is not . In this district parents are encouraged to switch schools instead of the district growing a backbone and enforce federal law at the schools who don't really feel like doing inclusion. I am kind of with LJ mommy in that I totally resent essentially getting bullied out. Of course I could go into due process but it is not easy to prove that his adaptations are not done (the principal told me to my face that he would lie-though I do have some proof) and I think in the end his current school would just agree to keep him but leave things as is.There are many ways to sabotage a kid you don't want. And is that what my ds needs? Still -I just hate the idea that the principal gets away with it. PS. I should mention too that the special ed department had to cut several millions out of their budget and I am sure that the fact that my ds has an SEA while the more restrictive setting would already have the staff, plays a part in their decision to move him too. Of course, they can't say that they want to move him as a cost saving measure to them. |
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