How to prepare for a first IEP?
| Back to Autism Information >> Next Topic | ||
| Our school district evaluation is on April28th (they said it'll be with a speech therapist and a psycologist). but they already sent me a letter saying that the initial IEP meeting will be on May12? What does this mean if they haven't even done the evaluation? In any case, I want to prepare for it. Any tips on how to write an IEP? Is the parent supposed to write it and then they approve it, or what's the procedure? What kind of goals should it have (academic/speech only or other stuff too, like self-help) I know there are web sites that help you to write IEP, if anyone can point me to one, that'll help. I guess I am looking for a starting point. Thanks Tell them you want an overall assessment done...meaning "everything"! They have 60 days from the time you sign the consent form. Be sure to tell them you want ALL those assessments PRIOR to the IEP so you can effectively participate. YOU are the most important part of the IEP team! IF, for some reason, you don't agree with "any" of those evaluations, tell them you are going to get an individual assessment done. (at their expense) Don't let them dupe you! For an IEP to be written, ALL testing must be done, the report that accompanies the test must be written, and YOU have the right to request a copy of all of this BEFORE the IEP meeting (at least 5 business days before). The fact is, the IEP is written by the pros. Each goal on an IEP must be something that is observable and measurable. For instance, it shouldn't say, "The Student will improve his social skills." This is way too vague to be observable or measureable. An IEP goal in this area should state something like this, "The Student will say 'good morning' to his teacher 4 days out of 5 upon first entering the classroom." Of course, that is only one tiny social skill, so there should be many more. But each goal should be this specific. Schools resist doing goals this specific because then they can be pinned down. But that's the point. The IEP should be able to be used as a measurement of progress at the end of the year. YOU don't write the IEP, they do. Many Districts use banks of computerized goals. If these prepackaged goals don't meet your child's needs exactly, ask them to adjust them. If there are specific things you want to see in your son's IEP in areas of academics, language, behavior or social skills, mention these things in the IEP meeting and ask that they tell you how they plan to incorporate that teaching into your son's IEP. If there is ANYTHING you don't understand about the testing, the lingo or the goals, speak up. None of is BORN understanding percentiles and standard deviations, etc. And even those of us who took Statistics probably don't remember everything. Ask, ask, ask. Don't expect that this meeting is going to be awful. Most of the IEP meetings that I've attended, both my own and those of friends, have been reasonably congenial, especially at the preschool age. Let us know how it goes.What does an overall assessment mean? They said the testing will be one morning (1 to 2 hours) with a psycologist and a speech therapist. The social worker will also visit us at home for an hour and she already did a preschool visit. This will be 2 weeks before the IEP meeting. My feeling is that they are short of funds ( general problem in CA) and they already told us that they are totally inundated with these requests and special ed even for preschool, so it won't be easy to get what my DS needs. I'll be happy if they can provide at least two therapy sessions per week, although i'd like a preschool option. Thanks for the tips on "specific" goals. I have thought of the following: Speech and Language - Respond to yes/no questions correctly 100% of the time - Respond to questions about likes and dislikes such as "Do you like apples?" or "What's your favorite color?" 90% of the time - Respond to questions about his experiences such as "What did you eat for lunch?" or "What did you see at the zoo?" 90% of the time - Use correct pronouns 100% of the time - Talk about past and present correctly 90% of the time "I went to the zoo yesterday", "we will go to the park later". Social skills - Greet teacher every day. - Walk into classroom without crying to clinging 90% of the time - Learn turn taking - Participate in circle time and crafts 90% of the time without constant prompting Self Help - Eat with utensils properly 90% of the time - Use the toilet in school by himself when he needs to 100% Motor skills - Able to hold the pencil properly and write letters by the end of the year. www.iep4u.com is pretty good site. I agree with Tzoya, all of our meetings at the preschool level went very well also...and services needed were what were provided. ksrocks -- That is not unusual. Feeding therapy is a special thing that only people trained in it should do. HOwever, the speech therapist and the OT can work on feeding skills, like getting the mouth used to different textures by massaging the jaw or rubbing inside the mouth with special brushes. Ask about that. My Friend informed me about a "Feeding Program" through CARD. Let's say your child doesn't like mashed potatoes...what they do is this...they tell your child to take a bite of the mashed potatoes..after doing so, they give them the same "type" of food...like french fries for their reward. My Friend also said the reason why kids are picky eaters is cuz, chances are, our children have eaten foods that they are allergic to..upset tummies what have you. As a result, they don't want to "try" new foods lest it may make them feel ishy. I don't know much about this program...just that it is new. I will, however, post what I do know...hopefully her son and AJ will be able to get this program. :)Hora that is an excellent site! However, I don't know if the teacher and her aide can or will do a LOT of those things. I am marking that in my favorites...thank you! :) I thought a LOT of what I read is up to the parents..guess not. I don't see the teacher or the aides working with him THAT much! When AJ goes to the playground, he just wants to trace the square with his finger all the way around the perimeter of the play yard. I was rather amazed to see that the school should help him to carry sand, with his hands together, and put it in a pail. I can also help him with that when we go to the beach. :) Bump. Never can have enogh IEP info.Hey, our IEP is tomorrow. I have talked to the psycologist who isgoing to run it. My son will be offered a communication class 4 days a week which is run by a special ed teacher with an SLP who comes in twice a week. This is my conjecture of course. This class has about 8 kids, and I don't know what their level is. My goal is also to have a regular preschool in the mix for my son. The question is, can I accpet this class for only 2 out of the 4 days offered? After all, this is an individual plan. I plan to take my son to a regular preschool the other two days and then keep one day free for private therapy. I also don't know how this class is going to look in summer. I am not signing the IEP tomorrow of course. Have to see the class before I sign it. I am also taking an advocate and am audio taping it. Hope the meeting is not more than 2 hours, because that's how long I can tape. Not to mention that the advocate is also expensive  I will keep you posted. Really need to organize paperwork... Bring another tape. They will wait for you to change the tape. You need to let them know that you plan to tape the session or they may cancel the meeting until they can bring their own tape recorder. Just call them this a.m. before you leave for the meeting to let them know. You don't want to have to pay for the advocate for a non-meeting.Hi there, I am new to the board but just wanted to relay some information. I am a speech pathologist in the public schools. As far as coming up with goals and objectives for the IEP, you need to keep in mind that what you are considering NEEDS to be measurable within the time frame of the IEP. This is why you will typically never see any goal written as 100% accuracy - we need to allow our kids some wiggle room. Also, you need to look at where the child is functioning now and then make the accuracy level. Also, please know that not all school systems are out to get parents. We really do care for your kids and we want them to make progress! I think what you may not know is that we really do think about your kids when we go home and we go on the internet, consult with colleagues, brainstorm ideas, go to conferences, spend hours writing IEPs at home, and make communication boards practically in our sleep to make sure that we are doing the best we can for your children. I know many of you have really had to strongly advocate for your children. That must be so hard to feel like you are constantly coming against a brick wall when all you want to do is help your child succeed. Again, please know that is also what we want for your child! Not everyone is a bad egg! It's the PROBLEMS that get addressed here. I bet tons and tons of parents on this site can concur with you that their children's teachers and therapists go way out of their way to help their kids succeed. I want to personally thank you and all people who work successfully with our kids. It is NOT an easy job. But you are providing our children with a road to a real life. I hope YOUR administrators give you the support you need. Frankly, most of the administrators I've have had in IEP meetings over the years have been GREAT. But, often, it feels like not a fair "fight." You certainly have been in IEP meetings where there is one lone Mom and a dozen professionals. If we don't stand our ground, we can be overwhelmed. The pros know A LOT about our children, but we parents know our children best. We get the global view of them since we also see them in the real world every single day. That's why we feel we have to be overprepared for our meetings. We're out numbered. And so many teachers and therapists have been told NOT to volunteer info at the meeting at the threat of their jobs (even tenured teachers can be harassed and HAVE been). So we're out there alone and need to have a great deal of backbone to get the right IEP's for our kids. This is very important info, and deserves a bump.Our school psyc is actually a very nice person. She wanted to see the IEPgoals I have written before the meeting and I sent her a copy. Maybe that was a mistake? I think it is ok, I do want to start on a right footing. I would have shared what I wrote here but I am afraid to put too much information about my child out here right now. Our advocate has told me that some of these are a little ambitious for a 3year old, but I want to set some ambitious goals because of 2 reasons. 1) I see my son's potential every day. I wrote pronoun confusion as an issue in the first questionnaire and it's almost gone within a month. 2) I am probably going to decline summer school from SD and take him to a therapeutic school for 6 weeks, so he will start the school year at a higher level than he is now. I am also told that the IEP goals should be few and clear and measurable, I hope these conform to that. Will keep you posted. Bump patrolHi all, Wanted to share the IEP experience with you, overall it was very positive. They said many times that they like to work with parents who are so thorough and do their homework well. Anyway, the goals they did were ok, and they are going to add my goals as well. They felt that some goals are too ambitious and I agreed. For example, they think that "initiating play with a peer without adult facilitation" is too much and I can tone it down to "minimal facilitation" or "at least two interactions" and so on. Also, they are planning to use a lot of visual clues and I need a clearer plan of how they will transition those out with time. But overall, it was pretty good. The main issue is with services. They are offering us a special day class Mon to Th. They have two identical sessions 8.30 to 11 and noon to 2.30. This is run by a special ed teacher with an SLP who comes in twice a week. Now, they said that the afternoon session is more appropriate for my son since it has more higher functioning kids. But, my son still naps pretty regularly, so I don't know if it is going to work. I have another problem though. They said that they won't let me take only 2 out of the 4days. Why is that? It is an "individual plan" after all! I wanted to have a mix. Is this typical? Anyone has experience with partial special day class? The other option is to take 2 30 minute speech therapy sessions in a small group (1 more child). And just do regular preschool. I have to decide after observing the classes next week. Nupurb -- Is the eval continuing this week? Let us know what happens.Tzoya, I am observing the class today. The SDC is 4 days a week and they are saying the afternoon class is more appropriate for my son, which is from 12pm to 2.30pm and I don't know how we can keep that weird schedule. Also, the SLP only comes to the class on Tu and Th and does some work, mostly pulling out students and doing 1-on-1 or a pair. I observed the morning session of this class today. 7 kids with varying degree of verbal ability. The circle time seemed just like a normal preschool except for the fact that they had to "ask" another child to join in the circle. The teacher was really nice. But frankly I was expecting more intense speech stuff. This is just like a regular preschool as far as I can see. The nice thing is that the school district has been extremely nice to us. They are even willing to let us try out this class for 3 weeks and reconvene before the end of the school year. Not sure if I should fall for that, I know re-opening IEP is a big deal. Anyway, I am off to observe the afternoon sessions. If you have any opinion on what a good SDC should be please educate me. Thanks! Nupur, Sayan's mom Asking for a change in an IEP is NOT a big deal. YOu can even include in the IEP that you want a 10 week review to make SURE everyone's best guess as to placement was correct. That is done regularly around here. As far as doing only 2 days per week, what child is going to take up your son's seat on the other two days? They need some child who will be committed to those seats. If I were you, I would ask about the nap thing, but put him in the higher functioning class. The teacher will figure out what to do. He'll probably just sleep later in he mornings or take a nap before school. Spec. Ed. preschool IS like a regular preschool, but they activities are very, very structured. This helps language. Also, all the staff is used to supporting language. If I were you, I'd put my son in one of those session for all 4 times and review his progress after 10 weeks. Ask for that now. I am stuck at the "interaction with typical peers" issue regarding howimportant it is for my son. The class that I saw was very structured where they tell you to say hi, say your name and all that. How well are kids able to generalize thoses concepts in a "regular" crowd if not presented with opportunities to do so every week? In a regular classroom, no one is going to come and prompt you every time, right? This is why I like the idea of inclusion preschool. But I maybe wrong. I am just trying to make the best decision for my child and feel very conflicted about what the right thing is. I know a mom who actually did want to pull out her kid after 3months and she was told that she didn't give it enough time. I didn't know that you can build that into the IEP. If it does not work out though, then at that point we are out of any options for the whole year, since all possible preschools will be full for the year. They are already getting full. I could have done the SDC during summer and evaluate it at the end of it, but I am planning to take him to a private school for their summer session, to a class that is run by an SLP and is very intense language intervention. So that means I am going to start this SDC in Fall. One thought is to quickly sign the IEP and put him in the class for the rest of this school year and see how it works. Thanks Nupur (Sayan's mom) If you want your son to go to a "regular" preschool, you can enroll him yourself and reject the spec. ed. preschool placement option. Then it's up to the IEP committee (of which you are a part) to decide on what services they will send to the preschool. The honest truth is, if a child could do well at an outside preschool after an attempt at a spec. ed. preschool, the school district will save TONS of money, so they would be happy to change the IEP. I think your friend's son's teachers truly believe he won't do well in a typical preschool, so they are recommending against it. Have you seen the higher functioning class? I GOOD class will fade prompting as soon as it's not needed. Just because your son won't get prompted doesn't mean that would be good for him. He might end up sitting alone with no one paying attention to him, including the adults, unless he starts misbehaving. And, at that point, there will be no guarantee of a seat in the special ed preschool. Most have waiting lists. I am just trying to present the opposite point of view. YOu, as his mother, know him best. SEE each option and then go with your gut.
I'm currently going through the same thing with my soon to be three year old. I did observe my school districts integrated preschool classroom and the structured ABA program which is what we will be doing for my son. I felt he would fit in nicely to the integrated classroom but that there would be too many opportunities for him to wander off and not participate or interact with his peers. At this point he needs the prompting and that would be one of the goals we will/should be working on. Our IEP is coming up in several days. I observed both the morning and afternoon session of the SDC thatthe district is offering us. The afternoon seesion is obviously more appropriate but it is from 12 to 3pm. My son still naps pretty regularly. so I am not sure if it will work. Our advocate asked the district if we could try it for the rest of the school year and then reconvene the IEP at the end of the school year to see if it is appropriate. The school psychologist said that might be possible. So if we do decide to "try it out", do we not sign the IEP? Or make the IEP provisional? Because the IEP goals will depend on whether he does into a special day class or gets therapy twice a week. Anyone has experience with such IEP? The IEP goals should be the SAME wherever he goes next year. They're supposed to be helping him with HIS deficits, which will stay the same in whatever setting he ends up. In any event, you can have as many meetings as necessary to adjust an IEP. I would DEFINITELY try it out NOW. You can have your IEP meeting for next year over the summer to formalize what program you want him to go into next year. Technically, you're supposed to have an IEP meeting to change his placement, even for this try out period, but you can probably forgo that and just have an IEP meeting for next year's placement, once you're sure what it will be. I think this is a great way to go.How's it going with your decision?bumpI haven't been able to make a decision yet. The first priority is to do something for the summer. The choices are: 1. Special day class at school district: We would like to try it out and although the school psychologist said this is possible, but whenI asked what should we do with the IEP, there doesn't seem to be a response. ALso, the psych may be in disagreement with the sp-ed principal, who probably does NOT want to have a trial period. Also haven't been able to find out if the class will have same teacher in summer. Also, really wondering how to make the afternoon session work, since I just signed him up for private therapy in the afternoon. 2. A private sp-ed preschool for the summer: I'd have to take a leave of absence to make the long commute, but the school seems very intense and everyone has said 8 weeks of summer there has made a difference. We have an intake here this week. 3. An inclusion preschool + lots of therapy : There is a preschool in the area affiliated with a service provider. These people believe that inclusion is the right way to go, and have a class with half and half kids with a regular teacher, but the child's SLP (if getting therapy from them) comes in to help the child and obviously they track the progress of the child. I have to observe this class this week. They will also meet my son and figure out what's a good fit. They have summer camps too. Our criteria for selecting any of these will be: - composition of the class, and teacher - language focus - long term plan for mainstreaming ( school district program is best for this, unless we go private all the way) - timing (mornings obviously work better) - commute - financial impact I hope we will be able to make a decision by the end of the month. Meanwhile, my son continues to go to his regular preschool with 24 kids and it seems like he is doing ok there, has some interaction with the kids, BUT is not making progress in some key areas of course. And I continue to spend sleepless nights pondering what is the best thing to do. Nupur -- THe LAST thing Sayan needs is a mom who got sick because she lost sleep (as you know, our immune system gets compromised if we don't get enough deep sleep). So take care of yourself. The ONE thing I've learned after 13 years of deal with ASD is that there is NO mistake we parents can make that can't be fixed pretty quickly once we learn it was a mistake. And no mistake ever has THAT much of an effect. Why? Because, unfortunately, no one therapy or one placement or one treatment makes all that much difference. IF it did, we'd have the CURE! It's the accumulation over time of schooling and therapy and parental involvement that matters. If you are keeping your eye on things, which you are, any one of these options CAN work. Probably, if Sayan's current programs is working except for a few things, try to fix the things and keep the program or at least recreate the program as closely as possible. Nothing works forever. OUr kids grow and change, so sometimes program/placement changes need to occur. The need for change is recognized only thorugh parental vigilance. Here's an analogy about placement (prehaps not a perfect one, but I hope it better illustrates what I'm trying to convey). If we want to have a healthy diet, we can eat a meal with chicken and green beans and potato. OR we can eat a meal of beans and rice and a green salad. Each of these meals will provide us with approximately the same amount of nutrition, eventhough they are different meals. With Sayan's placement, if he goes to a special school with great therapies and social skills included, that will work. If he goes to an included setting with social skills counseling and therapies given separately, that will work. Of course, the chemistry in each place will be different and what works for your son may simply be what works best with his own personality as well as the other personalities in the room. Sometimes it's just best to pick based on seeing the teacher and KNOWING that that particular teacher would be good for your son. Don't lose sleep. Just PICK. No matter what you pick, it will not be a mistake. Your son is too young yet for you to KNOW where he belongs, so it's just a matter of trying things and tweaking them. |
||
|
Copyright Autism-PDD.net
|