Help on IEP

[Buster]

Hi folks,

 

I could sure use help from those who have been through IEPs (or know someone who is a good advocate).

 

Our dd10 has an IEP with OHI for social anxiety, OCD, Developmental Coordination Disorder, and Learning Disorder NOS.

 

Although she is almost 95% back in terms of behavior, she has several very specific difficulties that are essentially lost skills. These are skills typically learned in 2nd thru 4th grade (i.e., the time of the PANDAS crisis and recovery). Curiously these skills are also ones that require good coordination of the basal ganglia.

 

The skills lost are in penmanship, math fact memorization, capitalization, spelling and vowel controlled /r/'s and /s/ articulation. She had extreme social anxiety that made it quite difficult for the school to 'pull her out' to work on the lost skills because that pull out was exactly the spotlight of attention that was so devastating to her (due to the social anxiety).

 

We were able to pull her out for speech because other kids in the class were going to speech as well (i.e., she didn't feel different by going). We just couldn't get her to the resource room for anything else. This basically meant that her IEP goals ended up being around speech with a goal to try to get her comfortable with going to the resource room for math/spelling. Only the speech goals were met.

 

When we went for IVIG in May 2010, the social anxiety dropped considerably and her mood and comfort with others got much better; however, she still does not want to be pulled out for additional resource help. In some ways this is more a memory of a prior fear than actual fear.

 

Curiously she's willing to "assist" in one of the younger grades (and learn in the process). We tried this last year and it worked well. It's a perception thing. She says when she goes to the resource room she feels dumb, when she goes to the younger grade to help, she feels like she's stealth learning (and helping). It makes her feel good and helps her self-esteem.

 

I'd like to write in this year's IEP goals about learning her math multiplication table and improving her handwriting and would even like the method to be through "assisting in the lower grades". I think the handwriting will actually help her spelling and line up her math. Curiously she can easily do the steps of long division, but just can't remember what 4x4 is. We've been using accomodation thus far (i.e., use a math multiplication chart and this has helped).

 

So, any thoughts about writing into the IEP a goal about learning the multiplication tables or being able to spell 3rd grade words (she's in 5th grade). I live in a bit of worry about causing her more stress, but also know that without relearning these skills she's going to have a very hard time in middle school. I'd like to get the goals identified and then determine if the method is to try using "helping in another class" rather than going to the resource room.

 

Mostly seeking comments from folks who have been there. The IEPs are always a slightly stressful time with the school.

 

Best regards,

 

Buster

[Cristo]

Hi Buster,

 

I don't know how much help I can be, but here are some suggestions inside and out of the school setting. I take it that you have explored getting external help from a private occupational therapist (OT) who can help with fine motor skills, that will inevitably help with printing and writing. Often children find cursive writing easier than printing. The key to learning printing skills is to be able to have good fine motor skills, which can be learned through a number of activities that and OT can do with each chid, gearing their program to best meet each person's specific needs. Then, the OT can help teach the child how to form each letter properly. That is another important part. Children often learn to form their letters a certain way, and then carry on doing it incorrectly, which will only slow things down for them. So...perhaps you can request on the IEP that someone at school who is experienced at his, can help her work on her fine motor skills, specifically letter formation, and if you can, find an experienced OT who can work with your daughter outside the school as well. There are many exercises that can strengthen her fine motor skills. You didn't mention her gross motor skills, but alluded to the fact that pandas hit her at a time when these skills were forming. An OT can also help with gross motor skills. I don't know what you have in terms of OTs where you live. Some of them do sensory stuff as well. In Canada, we have them in hospitals and we have private ones as well. Some also consult with schools, which means that they don't do the actual work, but help the schools form plans for their students. Maybe you can include a suggestion for the school to have a consulting OT work collaboratively with the school. There might be a public health agency that already does that with the schools. I don't know what resources are available in your area. Ask around. Call hospitals, call public health, call counselling agencies, call OTs, call the local social worker, and ask your school psychologist or school social worker what resources are available for your family to access for your daughter.

 

As for her memory, I have heard many parents who home school their children talk about teaching their children times tables through songs, because children seem to retain songs well. So...for example...think of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star....now do a 2 times table to that song...by saying 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22. That is the 2 times table (at least up until 2 x 11). Do you find that she memorizes songs easily? Does she like to sing? Is she musical? I think that the homeschooling program Classical Conversations is one of the ones that do the songs to teach times tables. Of course...the problem then becomes that the person always thinks of the song throughout their lives whenever they are trying to figure out the mathematical equation...if that can be considered a problem. First determine if this will help your daughter. I don't know if the school folks will agree to this type of learning, and will include that into their IEP.

 

You mentioned articulation. I am guessing that she sees a SLP at school. You can also hire external and private SLP to work with your daughter, but the work with a SLP is a lot of work and frustrating for parents and children.

 

Bear in mind though, that every time that she is pulled out of her class for something, she is missing what the other students are covering. So, you will have to ensure that modifications are made to accomodate her every time she misses stuff.

 

I like your creative idea about helping other students, as a means of empowering her, and increasing her self-esteem. That would be ideal, and you can include that in your IEP. I don't know how receptive your school would be to that, since every school has its own culture, teachers, and principals with different perspectives, interests, abilities, and orientations.

 

What about looking into available groups---that help with social anxiety---offered at the school, social service agencies, or through privately run counselling agencies? Could you include having the school social worker or child and youth worker also as part of the plan, to help her with her self-esteem and social anxiety? Just a thought. She might not be ready for groups, but a one to one, or a small setting might be ok.

 

Your daughter has been through so much. You are a great dad, always looking to find what is best for her. Always researching and helping others understand things better.

 

Thanks for all of your help... wishing you the best with your daughter. Many blessings for both of you.

[thereishope]

Out of curiosity, how much of this do you think is the school error in her not progressing in meeting goals? I can only answer this from what I experienced, and that's the speech part. My 7 year old son has an IEP for speech but in it they list he needs to work on tenses of verbs, pronouns (he/him), social skills (met his goals this year! last year was just out of exacerbation), and he has something else listed as well. He has progressed in trying to meet those others goals in the classroom setting with only a SLP. So...I know every child is different and kids progress at different speeds, but makes you wonder how much of it is possibly the therapists and teachers not giving their all???

 

One other thing I want to ask about the resource room, I'm a little confused what that is. Kids are suppose to stay in the classroom setting as much as they can and only get pulled out on occassion if the therapist thinks the child is being too distracted or need a lot of one on one help. In our school, they call the child to table in the classroom and work with them or they call that child and intergrate therapy with kids from other classes that have similar goals and they work as a group.

 

btw...my soon to be 10 year old still has errors when with /r/. He doesn't qualify for an IEP (hard to qualify in our district) but he has monthly intervention and when the slp has extra time. /r/ is hard for kids that didn't achieve it "naturally" in their speech.

 

When going into the meeting, ask for the sky, even if you know it's way too much. Then bargain with them. I was able to get more therapy time this way.

 

I also don't know if this website would help you, but it's about special education law, advocacy, etc

 

http://www.wrightslaw.com/

Edited January 17, 2011 by Vickie

[JAG10]

Hi Buster,

 

I have a 5th gr PANDAS girl and I'm a school-based SLP, so between both of those, I think I can help you.

 

I wasn't sure in reading your post if your dd artic goals were met or those are her remaining speech goals? If she still has difficulty with vocalic /r/, I would recommend looking into a SLP who has had PROMPT training. I had this training 1 1/2 years ago and have been able to help move along even the most difficult artic issues, especially vocalic /r/. The problem with /r/ is you can't really show them what to do with the back of the tongue. But with PROMPT, the SLP provides manipulation and pressure on the oral structures to get them where they need to be and create a memory for the brain. So for vocalic /r/, 3 finger pressure is applied to the interior side of the base of the chin to move the back of the lingual muscle while the child tries to make that 'er' sound, then the SLP twists their hand around to help form the correct labial position. TMI; PROMPT trained SLPs can help move forward stubborn artic issues.

 

Ahhh, the math facts! This has always blown me away and been a deep narcisistic wound....how could my kid have problems with math when it was so easy for me? Dd11 could do simple addition in her head when she was 3, but I remember her being in 3rd grade and holding up a flashcard with 3+1= and she stared at it forever...r u kidding me? So, this is what I've learned; first, you need to make sure those +/- facts are in place and unfortunately there is a timing component involved that drives our kids over the edge! But it is improtant because you need to make sure she "knows" her +/- facts and isn't deriving them each time. I found that actually made multiplication easier. I like the singing suggestion in the previous post because singing is located in a different part of the brain. I have had aphasic patients who lost all speech, couldn't say a volitional word, but could sing all the words to Happy Birthday or Amazing Grace. My favorite for this is School House Rock; you should be able to find the anniversary edition on the net.

 

Our girls have had many similar issues only my dd's began simmering in preschool with the WHAM episode in 1st gr. I only know this in hindsight like with the math; she could add in her head when she was 3, but was using her fingers to add in kindergarten. Warning to parents: children should go from concrete to abstract, not the reverse!!! She has also had restrictive eating ( I forget what class they called it, but the texture one) and handwriting that is the best and only record of her waxing and waning over the years when I had no idea what was going on. The eating and skin-picking issue resolved immediately with her first IVIG in May, the math and handwriting have slowly and steadily improved over the past 7 months with hiccups here and there. Are you sure these are lost skills and there isn't something still brewing medically? Does she only have difficulty with cursive because it was taught in 3rd, but she can print well? Does she still have the marginal drift? With our kids, the marginal drift, irratic handwriting, poor mechanics (capitals/punctuation), reversals; I have always viewed those as cognitive signs, not fine motor ones and not something OT will help. I know you asked for goal help, but in my experience with my dd who didn't get any proper medical treatment for PANDAS until Feb 2010, these are signs something may still be going on with her medically. My dd's lingering symptoms are organizational, task completion and some social stuff.

 

Back to goals, each goal has several components. You have the goal itself which must be objective and measurable ( think stats.) We have to indicate where that service will take place, so for me I pull artic students out to the therapy room and write "therapy room", but for most language goals 2nd grade and up I push into the classroom and use curriculum-based literature as the materials to obtain the language goals within the general education classroom so I write location as "general education classroom." You want to make sure that is what is written and not "resource room" because that is what meets your child's needs, not the resource room. I suppose you could suggest that she help a 3rd grade student practice math facts, but that isn't something usually written in the goal itself, that is more specially designed instruction where you can be that specific with the mechanics of how you are going to accomplish those goals. The IEP team should brainstorm ways your dd can become comfortable with being timed on math facts. I would suggest trying to get her comfortable with "beating herself." So, she is given a sheet with 60 math facts and her baseline is how many she can get correct in a minute and she tries to increase that number until she reaches her goal of let's say 45 correct in a minute. You could also do it orally where she can answer flashcards orally, obtain a baseline and improve from that point. If she has lingering handwriting issues having both modalities may be important. I did this work at home with my dd. At first I used one of those 2 minute toothbrushing sand timers...you know what happened, don't you? Yep, she fixated on the timer rather than the math! And became very nervous. I thought the visual of seeing the sand disappear would help, but no! So then I used the timer on the microwave and that was far enough away from her she focused on the math. I would then have her graph starting with her baseline and plotting points until she reached her goal (graph plotting, another important math skill). They are going to have to figure out what works for your girl.

 

Hope this helps some. I rambled, so ask questions if you want.

Jill

[JAG10]

Out of curiosity, how much of this do you think is the school error in her not progressing in meeting goals? I can only answer this from what I experienced, and that's the speech part. My 7 year old son has an IEP for speech but in it they list he needs to work on tenses of verbs, pronouns (he/him), social skills (met his goals this year! last year was just out of exacerbation), and he has something else listed as well. He has progressed in trying to meet those others goals in the classroom setting with only a SLP. So...I know every child is different and kids progress at different speeds, but makes you wonder how much of it is possibly the therapists and teachers not giving their all???

 

One other thing I want to ask about the resource room, I'm a little confused what that is. Kids are suppose to stay in the classroom setting as much as they can and only get pulled out on occassion if the therapist thinks the child is being too distracted or need a lot of one on one help. In our school, they call the child to table in the classroom and work with them or they call that child and intergrate therapy with kids from other classes that have similar goals and they work as a group.

 

btw...my soon to be 10 year old still has errors when with /r/. He doesn't qualify for an IEP (hard to qualify in our district) but he has monthly intervention and when the slp has extra time. /r/ is hard for kids that didn't achieve it "naturally" in their speech.

 

When going into the meeting, ask for the sky, even if you know it's way too much. Then bargain with them. I was able to get more therapy time this way.

 

I also don't know if this website would help you, but it's about special education law, advocacy, etc

 

http://www.wrightslaw.com/

 

 

Hi Vickie

 

I write this with love, girl!

 

Does the SLP give him homework each week? This can be touchy; some parents want lots to practice at home, others rush to get it done during breakfast the morning of speech tx, and others just can't fit it into their lives period. I would say only 25% of my students faithfully complete their homework. After so many weeks of incompletion, I stop giving it until the parents request practice. You can imagine 70 kids individualized homework takes a lot of time to make up and copy to only have 25% actually do it. If he isn't getting homework, you can request it or several ideas of how to incorporate his goals into your daily communication with him.

 

You need to think of the SLP as a personal trainer; she can show him the proper form (both artic and language) and tell him how to practice, but the individual still has to do the work and if they are only working when actually with the trainer, their progress will be much, much slower than someone who takes what they learn from the trainer, practices on their own and is then ready for more fine tuning and adjusting when they meet with the trainer again.

 

I don't get bent out of shape either way; I know people have a lot going on in their lives, but the kids who practice the most at home are the ones who progress through speech/language therapy the quickest.

 

When my dd was in 4th gr last year, she was in speech for a frontal lisp. I had to take her out because with what was going on with her PANDAS, it simply was not a priority we could focus on at the time; it was not one more ball we could juggle. As her PANDAS symptoms improved and her awareness increased, the lisp resolved on its own with a few pointers from mama.

 

Jill

Edited January 17, 2011 by JAG10

[LNN]

Someone just sent me this link and it looked like a helpful checklist...

http://www.spannj.org/BasicRights/appendix_d.htm

 

something to help you review all bases.

[thereishope]

Jill, I'm not sure if you read my post right (maybe I didn't write it right). My son is doing very well in speech As for homework, the Early Childhood SLP was awesome with communication and homework. And, yes, we faithfully did it. His speech was very bad (severe phonological disorder). I could not sit there and not do his homework. The homework only took about 5 minutes a night and we continued with the homework sheets throughout the summer break. The SLP in elementary is dfferent. I have requested homework and progress reports from her. Even with that request, she only occassionally gives homework or a report on what they worked on. I am not as strict with hounding her for homework or write ups because my son is doing well with speech and, like you said,I realize the SLP is busy too. My son continues to progress with his speech and continues to make his goals in a very timely manner. If another child who is struggling has the same SLP my son has, I could there being issues though. I have also heard from other parents on speech forums about their SLP at school and some seem like a nightmare. Luckily our school district, for the most part, is okay with services. Not the best, not the worst. Yes, I agree that it a collaborative effort between therapist and parent.

 

To add, my son's progress did hault when he was in exacerbation.