Learn Your Special Education Laws, Special Education Rights, and Share IEP Goal Ideas

To correctly begin this article we have to start with, ” ONCE UPON A TIME”. You may new be sitting with a puzzled look on your face, but let me explain. Lets look at students A, B, and C:

Student A is a 15 year old student who’s teacher is ready to fail him because of his poor handwriting.

ONCE UPON A TIME…….when the same student was 4, he was unable to keep his alphabet aligned on his wide ruled paper nor was he able to complete simple mazes. His visual motor integrational skills were not addressed when he was young and is now a hindrance to his progress.  Read the rest of this entry →

Finding Virtual Learning Technology Answers. Parents and teachers are finding a proliferation of virtual remediation to acceleration brain training programs promising fast and optimum gains in learning reading, math, and science that are research based. It is difficult to believe these promises, as most often the program designers do not have a background in classroom implementation let alone e-Learning implementation, which is totally different form pure classroom teaching.

Many virtual learning entrepreneurs come from backgrounds of scientists and somewhat related fields to education like optometry (testing vision), psychiatry, psychology, and medicine pediatrics (medically treating the whole child, and prescribing stimulant medications). Others are business and technology product development entrepreneurs who have never worked in a classroom, and understand technology delivery parameters, but not how children/adults actually learn and retain information so that it will transfer into real life productivity. Read the rest of this entry →

Imagine you are in Japan for the first time. You know a few conversational phrases in Japanese, but you cannot read the language. It’s lunchtime and you decide to grab something at a Fast Food restaurant. The first place you try has a menu that looks like this: Read the rest of this entry →

For parents of children on the Autism spectrum who are in the mainstream classroom environment, the question of having highly qualified professionals on your child’s team is an important one. Although most parents want their high-functioning child to be in the mainstream, what they don’t realize is that they are giving up the potential of having specialists who really understand their child, in exchange for time in the mainstream with neurotypical peers. The highly qualified clause of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, sadly, does not give parents the right to demand a specialist who is qualified in inclusion, social communication, and other key aspects of your child’s learning style. Nor does it require that your child’s specialist have a particular passion for incorporating cutting edge technology and strategies to maximize your child’s success. When you have specialists on your child’s team who don’t understand these key components, your child is at risk for social isolation, exclusion, bullying, behavioral challenges and falling below grade level. Read the rest of this entry →

I think I am a fairly reasonable person. I know how to pick my battles and when to use honey to catch flies. This spelling conundrum is getting the better of me. Let me refresh your memory and then give you an update. Awhile back I shared a story about an IEP where the resource teacher and general education teacher unanimously agreed that the 5^th grade student with dyslexia really didn’t need to know how to spell because, “…after all, they don’t really need it in middle school anyway and he can just use spell check.” I then put their theory to the test and found that if this student relied solely on spell check in WORD, he would still misspell 27% of the words. Read the rest of this entry →

Attention special needs parents.  I want to share with you two things you can do today to decrease your stress and worry.

But first, want to acknowledge that if you are like most of the parents I know raising a child with special needs, you are stressed and you are worried.

And you have good reason to be stressed.  You have good reason to be worried.

So before we talk about skills and strategies and ways to manage the big challenges on our agendas let us first say that whatever you are thinking and feeling about the situation you find yourself it is likely extremely reasonable.

When our children struggle, we struggle.  Often our children need us to be cheerleaders and advocates but we are also scared and anxious.  We are worried about the future and we may be struggling in the present. Read the rest of this entry →

I  just came across an article called “The 5 Best Tips for Parenting Special Needs Children.” Tip #2 was Get a Dog. Forgive me for not jumping on the warm and fuzzy bandwagon of running out to get a dog. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love dogs and the article is right: pets do help with stress release and learning responsibility. And yet, THAT made Tip #2?

My reaction is caused partly by the thought that if family life is already stressed and parenting is a difficult challenge, then bringing in another family member might not be such a good idea right at that time. It’s important to make sure that the current family members are living respectfully together before a new member is added.

Here are 5 ideas to incorporate into parenting a special needs child – before you start looking for a puppy. Read the rest of this entry →

So, I bet your wondering what the M could possibly represent when we are talking about dyslexia. Money? Mystery? Nope. In this article we are talking about marginalization. It happens often and it happens under the radar. In IEPs and IEP meetings everywhere comments are being made, goals are be written and recommendations are being made that marginalize students with dyslexia. From recommendations of retention to writing goals with low expectations to providing inadequate services, these students are as capable as their peers and there are ways to not only avoid these paths to marginalization but also expose them along the way. Below are some recent comments heard and seen in IEPs and what they really mean.

“We realize she only learned 7 new letters last year, but she has a learning disability…” Read the rest of this entry →

Take a moment and reflect on your child’s IEP and the programming and services that are in that IEP. Which of those are you willing to give up? You are probably asking yourself “What kind of a question is that?” All right then, which would you give up for something else?  Farfetched questions? Not if you enter an IEP meeting thinking that IEPs should be negotiated. If, for example, you are thinking that “If I don’t get adapted PE, I will go for more hours of speech therapy,” you are thinking in terms of negotiating your child’s services and are willing to give up something to gain something else. Why would you do that to your child? Let’s look at how an IEP meeting is supposed to proceed.

Let’s assume that the IEP team has agreedto your child’s present levels of academic and functional performance from a review of all available and current information.  And from that information, the team has also identified and agreed to the child’s needs that are to be addressed in the IEP. So where is the twist? It’s coming.  Read the rest of this entry →

Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often struggle with prioritization and organization. Items get lost, bills go unpaid, and projects go unfinished. Creative, smart, and loving individuals suffer from chronic feelings of “not being good enough”. Relationships flounder and lives can spin out of control. People with ADHD can tell you that they simply feel overwhelmed and exhausted.

Fortunately, it is possible to manage ADHD symptoms. There are many extremely effective strategies for coping with difficulties in these areas. In fact, you can become organized and an effective prioritizer if you learn to utilize some of the techniques below.  The first step is to be aware of your weaknesses and take action to address them. The realistic goal is not to become perfect, but to make daily life less stressful. The way you prioritize should depend on your individual needs and problems. Below, we’ll take a look at useful tips that can get you started: Read the rest of this entry →