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Parents play a vital role in their child’s education. They are equal partners in the team that develops their child’s IEP and they care deeply how their sons or daughters learn and grow. In the course of their child’s education, parents may interact with a large number of professionals. Being able to work effectively with different professionals, exchanging ideas concerns and openly communicating about what’s working and what’s not, are all important elements in their child’s educational success.

The Basics

Remember that, as a parent, you know your child best and have the greatest investment in him or her. You need to diplomatically but strongly advocate for your child.

• Develop relationships with the teachers who work with your child.
• Get information, and know your options.
• Remember that the people you are working with also care for your child.
• You need to be credible and informed to have people listen to and respect what you say.  Be sure to learn what your rights are.
• Be aware that parents have a lot of power. Don’t wait for two months to check in for  results. If something is not resolved quickly, work on it. Teachers don’t always have as  much leverage as you think. You may be able to help your child’s teacher resolve something much faster. Work as a team.
• Remember that working with the school can a very emotional, personal process, because  this is your child. It’s very easy to feel defensive. Try to describe your needs in behavioral  terms, not emotional terms.
• Keep things in perspective: Ask yourself, “Is what my child is doing typical for his age group, or does his behavior have to do with his disability?” Encourage those who work  with your child to do so, too.
• Know that everything you do is not written in stone. You can change things. Just because  you decided something at the end of June doesn’t mean you have to do it for the next  year. You can change it at the end of October if it’s not working. You can call the
  committee back and ask to reevaluate the situation. .
• Remember to think of your child first. The disability is just part of who your child is.  Remind people of your child’s strengths. Encourage teachers to praise him or her.
• Ask the teacher to have your child be in the helper position at times, not always the one  being helped.
• Encourage a work ethic at home. Put value on those traits that promote success in school: responsibility, consequences for behavior, organization, and punctuality. Jobs at home  translate into expectations. A sense of cooperation and self-worth follow.
• If you are not sure about how to talk with teachers, connect with other parents. It’s like  an adult buddy system. Talk to other parents about what they are doing. You can get a  parent advocate to work with you someone who’s gone through what you’re going
  through.
• Communication the most important thing to do is to establish open communication. Try to be  non-threatening. You can make friends and get what you need.
• Look at yourself closely to identify habits or attitudes that interfere with effective  communication or your being taken seriously.
• Be sure to communicate any concerns or ideas right away, over the phone or with a note,  while the discussion can be relatively casual. By communicating early, you can avoid  becoming angry and frustrated; by intervening early, you can avoid a situation growing
  into a bigger problem or crisis.
• One very effective way to keep communication open is to use log books. The teachers  (and others who are working with your child) write in these each day and send them back  home with the child. The parent reads what the teacher writes and responds and sends
  the book back with the child. These are especially effective with non-verbal children. It  keeps the communication open between parent and teacher. Plus, sometimes writing to a  teacher makes it easier to communicate an idea in the way that you want to express it.
• Inform teachers immediately of any unusual circumstances occurring at home.  A stressed child cannot attend to task, often exhibits disruptive behavior, or may simply  space out. Teachers may misread the signs. Examples range from divorce to a sick
  grandmother to a new baby. Each student has a very different response to these life  changes.
• Creative Problem Solving
• In order to get your point across or convince people to try something they might not be  inclined to do, be positive and enthusiastic. Be very upfront and give them factual  information about your child’s needs to alleviate their fears. Explain the reasons you want  something done, then suggest ways to do it.
• Keep experimenting. You never know what will work.
• Ask that your child participate in everything, even at a modified level of activity.
• Convince people to try new activities or approaches before disqualifying them, even if it’s  for a trial time of one month.
• If you feel that decisions are being made without you, call and ask to be included in  discussions. You can suggest a “pre” IEP meeting to talk about some of your ideas and  what your goals and the goals of your child are. This is especially helpful for meetings  that involve therapists and/or both special and general education staff. By talking before  the meeting with the specific people who are responsible for your areas of concern, you  can structure the formal meeting so it goes smoothly and so the entire group can sign off
  with only one meeting.
• Make a list of things you want to say before you go to a meeting and take it with you.
• When you meet, give yourself plenty of time to discuss important issues.
• Bring someone with you to the meeting for moral support your spouse, a friend, a
  sibling.
• Good Parent-Teacher Relations
• Write letters or make calls to say thank you when things are  going well. It’s always a good idea to let educators know about  successes, especially those that occur outside of school. For  really successful occurrences, send a copy of your letter to the
  principal or supervisor, so he or she, too, will know wha a great  job your child’s teacher is doing.
• Even if you don’t agree with the methods that are being used, if your child is improving,
  recognize it.
• Maintain a “we” attitude. Ask how “we” can work together to solve a given problem. .
• Write articles to the local paper about one of your child’s success stories. It’s good for  the school, the teacher, and your child.
• If you’re part of a parent group, consider inviting teachers and/or administrators to a  meeting every now and again. They are probably curious about what parent groups talk  about and would appreciate being included in discussions. Their perspectives are often
  very enlightening, and they may have concerns that never occurred to the parents.  Remember, inclusion isn’t only for kids.
• Work on creating a good relationship with all the people who work with your child. Be  open to sharing information about your child.
• Be willing to take part. Volunteer to help out with things. Be as involved as possible.
• Remember people at the end of each year. Little notes or gifts of thanks will be very  appreciated by those who receive them.
• Support the people who work with your child even when things aren’t going as well.  Encourage them to keep trying, that tomorrow will be better, and how you appreciate  their efforts on your child’s behalf.

We have had several inquiries on the subject of TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped CHildren) and have been following it’s promotion to, and acceptance by,  educational systems having toaddress the needs  of  children with varying degrees of Autism, and TEACCH is fast gaining favor with these mostly public institutions.

It is these institutions, which due  to a growing awareness by parents and stricter enforcement of disability laws, are having to deal with the increasing burden of mainstreaming  more Autistic children, who are welcoming TEACCH with open arms. For those of us familiar with the history and past  record  of  these institutions when it comes to adaptation to change, especially when expensive mainstreaming is involved, not only this sudden enthusiasm is peculiar, it raises caution flag.

A superficial analysis of  TEACCH  reveals what  should be obvious but is being  ignored or misrepresented,  it is not a teaching or learning system  but a behavioral management system, which, when properly implemented delivers more predictable behavior and greater cooperation from the TEACCH subject, an Autistic child.

A deeper scrutiny unveils a troubling picture, not only is TEACCH nothing more then behavior management, it is a throw back to the failed models of behavior management advocated in the Seventies and early Eighties. There are the repeated references to routines, rigid preferably, the need for predictability, accommodating the subject’s ‘resistance to change’, providing organization, using objects of obsession as rewards and so on.

The subjects day is filled with charts and other visual aids, consuming all of their attention, with time these become the focus of the program and a consuming task to the educators implementing it, and things are far worse when the effect on the subject is considered.

Parents, educators and professionals alike will tell you that mainstreaming an Autistic child, even the highest functioning, will typically produce lesser results until you reach a turning point when two events take place, the child’s recognition of his condition and differences from others and, the development of the desire to rectify those differences.

These can only come as mainstreaming exposes a subject to his surroundings in an open, unmasked manner. Not only does TEACCH mentally shield the subject from their surroundings, it curbs social acceptance as well. Not surprising considering the subjects excessive focus on aids and charts and the stigma they carry with their peers.

While the above provides ample reason to reject TEACCH outright it is incorrect implantation which proves to be the most dangerous aspect of the program. I personally observed a very high functioning PDD child, that was in a TEACCH program at a public school for about ten weeks, has become so obsessed with his daily activity chart to the point that the slightest deviation caused  major,  previously unseen confrontations.

As a result, the subject’s mainstreaming time was cut from about 75% to less then 25%. On one occasion, a substitute teacher failed to prepare the activity chart, the ensuing confrontation resulted in the child being sent home for the rest of the day.

Over the summer a different approach was, at the insistence of the parents, developed for the following year , TEACCH was dropped, a none confrontational approach and a patient, mild mannered classroom teacher produced instant improvement, a part time classroom aid was soon needed to relieve the increasing burden to the teacher of a child who is not tightly managed, with the aid accommodating his growing interest in the academic material, which was previously limited by his preoccupation with charts and the like. Mainstreaming is now (middle of school year) 100%, there are no major confrontation with teachers or peers and minor ones are all but gone.

Another concealed hazard of TEACCH is it’s potential use as a tool to restrict and possibly eliminate mainstreaming for at least some participants in public schools, again, a close scrutiny of the language used, the ‘none obstructive activity area’ and reducing visual stimuli, access to charts and activity layouts,  the need for predictability,  the danger of introducing a change in an unmanaged way.

Establishing such needs for an autistic child can be the first step to a self contained classroom, after all, a regular classroom is full of obstructions and obstacles, charts can be easily damaged or lost and may require too much time to prepare, and what can be more unpredictable and prone to change then a classroom full of children. A parent or mental health professional should exercise caution when such terms are introduced in relation to their child or client.

While it is possible that a low functioning Autistic child may benefit from a TEACCH like program, it hold little promise and many pitfalls for middle to high functioning Autistic and PDD children. A better outcome certainly can  be  reached with  a  competent implementation of mainstreaming, a patient, non confrontational style and advance preparation for inclusion time at school and at home.

Texas State Resources

Each state sets eligibility ages for services to children and youth with disabilities.
For current information concerning this state, please contact the office listed under
STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Special Education Services.

 

 

Texas Web

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