still need help

[Ebunny59]

How does one get the school to agree to individualized education?

This year, the 4th graders are changing classes/teachers every class.
This is physically dangerous for Kendra, but she is doing it. My
problem is that they once again are mumbling (not outloud, but
indirectly) that she misses too much classroom time and instruction
for pull out therapies. Their schedule is so crammed packed, all day
long, they can't take 5 minutes a class, to set Kendra, or any other
student for that matter, off in their own direction. Kendra really
needs to be part of the class, They touch lightly on the IEP goals,
but don't elaborate on many of them. Basically, they test her to see
if she can do it yet, so they can complete their progress report every
9 weeks. Some goals, I get not addressed yet, on the progress report,
and some never do get addressed.

Meanwhile, she is starting to fall behind what everyone else does
again. I do NOT want a repeat of first grade, where she spent every
free minute, including recess, trying to keep up. Then, she brought a
2 inch stack of unfinished papers home at the end of the school year.
Her spelling grades were straight Fs, she was a year and a half behind
peers in reading, and she couldn't write anything at that point. She
used a page based Vantage at that point, but they hardly used it all
year. How do you give the kids time with typical kids, and ask for
tutoring or resource room at the same time? How can I possibly get
them to give her 3 spare minutes of instruction, per class, to assign
her something else to do at her level? She does not have to do state
testing, that requires the kids pass proficency tests, that decides
how much money the school gets a year from the government. She does
alternative testing, which I think shows that she is progressing a
year's worth every year, and working towards her IEP goals. So, if
she is not being held to passing a proficiency test, why does she have
to cover all the same information the rest are learning, at an
accelrated pace?

There is a new reading program, called Project MORE. It is bascially
for children who are learning language as a second language. But our
school is touting that it as a reading program for kids with
disabilites. Well, I have seen a couple of sample lessons, and I am
convinced that if Kendra had that half hour of time every day, 5 days
a week, to use her communication device for language and reading
skills, it would greatly benefit her. If the teachers are hinting
about 5 therapy sessions a week, at half an hour each, I am sure they
would really throw a fit about 5 more half hour sessions of missed
education a week. So I am not sure how to approach it. I will be
working with Project MORE, starting on the 13th, with one or 2 other
students. It is 1:1 for the half hour, but I am doing 2 sessions a
week. We are just getting the program started, so only have 6 or 7
students we are doing it with, but will add more if/when we feel we
can. Kendra isn't one of the original 6 or 7.

So, my question is how to request that she not be so included? I
always say I am the one that does stuff backwards. She started out
fully included, and we have pulled back or intervened when necessary.
And I feel like I am sort of expecting less from Kendra. She is a
smart, funny, loving child. She wants to keep up with everyone else,
but just can't. I know the key to keeping up is the Eco. They know
it is and have commented that at the end of last year also. But, here
we still are, with very little being done to help her keep up, or to
learn to use the Eco more effectively.

I know I ask this every year. Every year, goes pretty much the same
as the previous year, except they are expect more from the kids from
year to year. If she has barely kept up or fallen behind so far, it
will only get worse each consecutive year when more is expected.

I am not fighting with the school this year. I love the new
principal, as he encourages parent volunteers and the PTO to get
involved. He doesn't need to know every piece of communication going
from home to school and back. He is allowing PTO more than half an
hour before a party, to decorate and get ready for a party, He
doesn't complain when he sees me in the school building for whatever
reason. This is all a precursor to the IEP coming up in January/
February. One of these years, i am going to get it where I want it.
I just don't know what I should be asking for. Less inclusion?
DIfferent level of work? Tutoring? 1/2 day inclusion and 1/2 day
tutoring? I let them have free reign last year, and she survived, but
they are asking more from her this year (16 spelling words, instead of
10-12 last year, containing sound blends she will mostl likely never
be able to say with her apraxia) pre-algebra and metrics, and what
not. She still has trouble with adding and subtracting, and is still
a year behind in her reading level.

Just getting my dander up again, and I still have 3 months until the
IEP. Last year, i had the flu, and had spent the day before the
rescheduled IEP with a fever of 102 all day. So, when i went, they
were shocked I did not protest, add much, or run the meeting as I
usually do. I think I threw them off, as they expect me to do that.
Luckily, i had had contact with the special ed teacher for a month or
so before that, so she kind of knew what i wanted. Is there any help
for me?

[Trishasmom]

Amy,

At the school where my sister teaches they have a special education teacher that gets the work from the regular teachers and modifies it for each child so maybe you can have that done for Kendra.  The other thing I would do is write down what you expect of Kendra, the teachers and what you know she is capable of doing or not doing and then have the teacher(s) do the same and then have a parent/teacher meeting (not an IEP) and go over the lists.  When it comes to the IEP if they are working on 16 spelling words you just write in that Kendra will work on 10-12 if that is what you think she can do.  How hard is that, so they drop a few from her list no big deal.  I know you see the ECO as the answer to it all but personally, I think there are other issues that need to be addressed which isn't about the ECO but more about making sure Kendra's curriculum is better suited for her needs because once you do that then you'll have more time to work at getting them to use the ECO more.  Even in the best of schools with teachers who care and want to do as much as they can using communication devices I have found that it still takes adjustment and getting used to using something different.  It does not come natural so therefore it tends to not get used as it should be but more of an after thought most of the time.  Does Kendra use a visual schedule?  If not you might include one to be used daily and put on it spelling using ECO, or writing using whatever it is you use and this would be more of a reminder for the staff than for Kendra.  I honestly don't think every time it's because they don't want to use it, I just think they need to get in the habit of using it.  Hope that makes sense.  

Carol

[Eleanor Giriyappa]

Thank you Amy for your reasonable answer.. Though I am not ebunny I have to remind myself that the school can not do everything and that I should remind them of things on a daily basis. Eleanor --- On Tue, 10/6/09, Trishasmom <csvi...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Trishasmom]

your welcome.  :-)

Carol

--
Trishasmom
If we always do what we've always done, we'll always get what we've always gotten

[Eleanor Giriyappa]

After I sent it I realized it was Carol who wrote it. Sorry about that. Eleanor

[Trishasmom]

no need to be sorry at all. 

 

Carol

[MommaNecey]

I just wanted to say thank you for posting this.

My daughter has a vantage lite and has only had it for a short time (2
months or so). She is currently in a self-contained special ed. room,
but is "mainstreamed" into 1st grade (she should be in 2nd). Our
school is actually "old school" when it comes to special ed. I am
currently in college to be an elementary school teacher and I am
taking a class entitled "The Inclusive Classroom", which has led me to
question everything we've done for her and what we are currently
doing. All of that to say, it has been extremely hard to figure out
what's best for my daughter. She is a twin, with her sister being
typical in every sense of the word, so I have a VERY good idea of
where she SHOULD be, if she were a typical kid. Sometimes that's
helpful, but sometimes it just makes things even more frustrating.

We started her out in K5 in a typical classroom, which was NOT
appropriate for her, so we put her in a self-contained special ed
preschool - this was two years ago. Last year was her first year in
the K5-5th self-contained special ed room, and she mainstreamed into
kindergarten (but it seemed like they didn't do it very often, only
when they "remembered"). I felt like we were still trying to "feel
things out", so this was fine. This year I feel that she is capable
of much more, even though she is FAR from typical, even for a first
grader. I've been beating myself up over what is best for her.
Should I insist on her being in a more "inclusive" classroom vs. self-
contained with mainstreaming? Is she good the way things are now? I
just don't know. I am a single mom and her dad is not much help in
this area. He thinks all she needs is speech. (argh) I guess what I
am trying to say is, thank you for posting this - for letting me know
I am not alone. I see now that this is not a one time struggle, but
it's something I am going to go up against forever, or at least until
she's 21. I think she can handle more regular ed, but they will have
to make some SERIOUS modifications to the curriculum for her. Her 1st
grade teacher is more than willing, I just don't know what she can do
time-wise. The teachers are so pushed to cram so much in to these
kids, it's just frustrating. Even for the typical kids. There's not
a whole lot of collaboration with the special ed teacher and the
regular ed teacher, at least from what I can tell. And there's not a
whole lot of REAL communication from school to me. I get "fly-bys"
every afternoon, but that's about it. And it's RARELY about
education, if EVER.

I like the special ed room she is in, but I feel that she can do so
much more than what they are doing. She gets pulled out for PT, OT,
speech, and adaptive PE. I understand what you are saying about being
taken away from the regular instruction and being behind. What is
best? It's not best to clump all of these special ed kids into a
room, no matter what their abilities are, but at the same time, it's
not best to push them all into regular ed and leave them there to
struggle and fail, either. I would love to know what you find are the
answers for Kendra. I have seriously been struggling with this for
several weeks now. Her vantage lite has brought up even more concerns
and possibilities. We are actually having an IEP meeting to amend her
IEP in a couple of days (for the vantage, mostly, but also for the
whole inclusion thing), and they are all looking at me to tell them
what I want them to do. If I say nothing, it seems that they will do
nothing. I don't mean this as a slight against the wonderful teachers
that my daughter has, it's just the truth. I am more than willing to
fight, even thought I don't think it would take a fight, just me
telling them what to do. The problem is, I don't have a clue as to
what I should want them to do. (this is where I scream rather loudly)

Anyway...thanks for the honesty. This is the most real thing I've
heard....ever. :)

Denise

[Ebunny59]

Heck no, you aren't alone Denise. I think you are a member or our PRC
Parents yahoo group? if you go back and read all of my posts from day
one on there, you may be able to get some stuff figured out before
your IEP hopefully. You can at least learn what NOT to ask for, LOL
For instance, don't ever tell them it is to only be used to CLARIFY
SPEECH! That one went over as, well, we can't understand her, but we
know what she is saying, and no one has to learn how to use the
Vantage. Ask for Title 1 reading, as this will give some extra
attention. Does she have a 1:1 aide, to translate for her? Can she
write on her own?

Kendra has been in a school setting since she was 18 months old. She
is 10 now! She did 1.5 years of toddler class, with all early
intervention kids. She did 2 years of preschool at an MR/DD school,
where there were usually 2 typical peers per classroom. She did a
year of integrated preschool, which had a good mix of special needs
and typical kids, but the teachers would not touch/use the Vantage.

Kindergarten was good, in a regualr ed classroom. She used her
Vantage for circle time, which we had a pretty elaborate page set up,
I can probably send you if you want, if I can still find it Can your
daughter use 84 locations? She could do the days of the week, the
date, the month, weather, and a few phrases, all from one page. She
used a page based system at that point, because no one had ever
explained Minspeak to me, when we got the device. At that point, she
used Intellikeys to type the simple kindergarten sentences on paper.
therapy for that year, included 2- half hour sessions of speech with
another child, and half hour each of pull out occupational and
physical therapy. She also missed a day of school every week, for
half an hour of each (SLP, OT, PT) for private therapy.

First grade was awful, had the teacher from hell, in a regualr ed
classroom. She didn't allow Kendra to use a bingo marker to mark
pages, she couldn't use highlighters either. We switched to using
Minspeak, half way through that year, thanks to our PRC rep,
explaining it to us. She failed all the wy through spelling, for a
year and a half at that point. It was taking over an hour to do a
simple 10 word spelling test and a sentence. Her attention span was
about 10 minutes at that point, so an hour long spelling test would
send her into meltdown mode, and she refused to do the sentences after
the first few Fs. She figured why bother, if she was just going to
fail it anyway. YES, that was HER frame of mind in first grade, not
mine. Whil all the other kids got rewards for reading AR books, she
got to watch when they went to pick out prizes, because she couldn't
pass an y of the AR tests with 80% or better. She spent every free
second, trying to do every sngle worksheet and piece of paper the
other kids did. The aide would cut answers out, and she would glue
the answers on the test. At that point, gluing was a difficult task
too, which took even longer to do everything. Therapy this year, ws
the same as above for kindergarten, except we switched it to one
school day missed for private therapy, every 2 weeks. No kids barely
touched any computer, all year long, even though there were 3 in their
classroom. During ESY speeh over the summer of that year, she worked
with the SLP for an hour, once every 2 weeks, for 5 sessions. She got
to take pictues with a digital camera, and had to use the Vantage to
write captions for them. The SLP never followed through, and we never
saw the finished product..

2nd grade was an awesome year, with an awesome teacher, that had been
a MH (multi-handicapped) teacher for like 14 years. This was still in
regular ed. We gave Kendra a new MFE this year, and placed her in
special ed title 1 reading. Thid alone, gave her a little extra time,
because she got less spelling words, they were given to her a weekend
ahead of time, and they were specific words to study for. In first
grade, it was you will have 15 words, from a list of 200 words, with
nothing specific. Too hard to study for! She then started getting As
on almost every spelling test, and even attempted to do the 2
sentences, which were pre-picked by her to study the spelling of each
word in the sentence. Just the way they presented the tests to her,
made all the difference in the world. Still only used the Vantage for
Show and Tell and circle time, and for spelling tests. It only took
her half an hour per spelling test during this year. This was the
year, it started to make a difference with Minspeak. We started
really emphasizing parts of speech. I got her in 2-half hour by
herself speech therapy, half an hour pull out of each for OT and PT.
BUT, she still wasn't using the Vantage in the school setting much.
She still was doing private therapy every other week, but only missed
half a day of school for this at this point. It was during this year,
when they started to allow Kendra to do less math problems, or less
sentences, and they worked on her reading skills. She started to
catch up a little bit with the rest of the kids, just by less being
expected of her. She only had to type her spelling words 3 times
each, when everyone else had to write them 5 times each. The very day
she started special ed, half way through the year, was the day her
Eco-14 arrived. During ESY speech over the summer, she really learned
a lot of how to use Minspeak, by writing words for Mercer Mayer's
wordless book, A Frog On His Own.

3rd grade. was a good teacher, that really had little to do with
Kendra though. She had an awesome special ed teacher though, for just
that one period for language and some help with other subjects too.
They started using the Eco for her to answer everything though.
Kendra hated it, and felt there was a lot of pressure for her to KNOW
how to always use the Eco, with pretty much not much support from the
staff, if she messed up. So, I had them start asking her if she
wanted to use the Eco, to answer things, at least a couple of times a
day. She still had to use it for spelling tests though. We also
started making test pages on the Eco, with all the answers on it, so
she could answer the test questions when they were read to her. Her
aide would write the ansewers she indicated on the test. She did about
1 or 2 tests a month this way, other than the spelling tests.
Spelling tests were still pretty good grades, and took 20-30 minutes
to complete. Once she felt like she wasn't being forced to use the
Eco all the time, she started liking to use it more. I kept
emphasizing to not expect her to just KNOW how to use it correctly,
100% of the time. She still would have liked to chuck the device out
the window, if someone would've let her. For therapy, she started out
3 half hour individual sessions of speech at school. She would work
on spelling words during one, articulation and spelling of them. For
6 weeks, which this made the biggest difference with the staff, and i
highly recommend it, she did Literacy Through Unity Word Study 84 from
PRC. She got bored, and they moved onto using The Unity Reading
Project. Those happened one speech session a week. She did Earobics
on the computer 1 session a week. Still pull out half an hour of each
for Ot an PT.Half way through the school year though, when she had her
IEP, they started doing instead of the Minspeak speech session, a
classroom observation with the speech therapist. This went over like
a ton of bricks. Kendra, her aide, and I all hated it, It didn't
teach her how to use Minspeak in the classroom or to use it with her
classmates for communication and was bascially a waste of time. Still
did the half day, every other week for each of priavte therapy.
During ESY speech, she wrote the words for a wordless Carl book
(rottwieler), and she really got to show off her Minspeak skills, and
we got to show everyone the new Proloquo2go ipod application. She
improved speedwise from the first, until the last session. This is
how I KNOW, if they just spent half an hour a week, working on
Minspeak, she would improve in speed. But they don't.

4th grade. Awesome teacher again, but the year hasn't lasted long
enough to form much of an impression of her. Also an adequate special
ed teacher. She is good with Kendra, but not into the Eco like last
year's special ed teacher was. I want Kendra to learn how to use the
Eco, to do her own work, and send it to WORD and print it by herself.
I just am not sure how to make it happen. I bought the wireless
printer, but don't want to send it to school, until they have figured
out how to use Microsoft Word well. They just don't have enough time
for her to use WORD though, and this totally ticks me off, as it would
only take less than 5 minutes a class to get it turned on and
running. It all translates into, it takes too much time, and we don't
have any. Kendra will sit with me, and play our conversation game,
where we have to use Minspeak and not allowed to talk, for HOURS at a
time. Usually i wear out before she does. And she KNOWS the
sequences. But yet, we still hear Minspeak takes too much time for her
to use, so they don't use it much. She is taking more tests using the
page based method though. Almost all of them are done using it now.
Which is good, but it usually takes a few hours of me programming in
all the answers fom the notes. If she could use CORE words in
Minspeak, I wouldn't need to do this.

So, that is our school life so far. Any of it sound familiar?

Amy

.

[Robin Hurd]

Denise,   It may be a really good thing that they are waiting for you to tell them what to do.  It sounds like they will be very willing to try whatever you suggest.   The tough part is figuring out WHAT to suggest! What kinds of things is she currently saying on the Vantage right now?  What are her literacy skills and what are they working on, literacy wise, in the current IEP?   Depending on where she's at with literacy and using the device, I may be able to suggest some ideas for goals that might expect a bit more out of her acedemically and also build some skills on the new device.   Robin --- On Sun, 10/18/09, MommaNecey <momma...@gmail.com> wrote:

From: MommaNecey <momma...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: still need help

[Weeru...@aol.com]

Robin

 

You are welcome to suggest some goals for Jessie....its IEP month (yuck). :o)

 

 

 

Merlie (Jessie's mom.....the coolest teenager in the world)


Always remember......the mighty oak is just one little crazy nut that stood its ground! - unknown

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." ~ Francis of Assisi

[Ebunny59]

Robin, please suggest away for Kendra also. You seem to be the expert
at getting the devices used in the school. Some of us have no clue
what we are doing, what to ask for, or where to go.

I have come up with a new proposal for them, see if they follow
through with it. They don't want to do anything off of the Eco, like
use WORD. And it seems they have been having trouble with Kendra
hitting the CLEAR display key, before the aide gets a chance to write
everything that is on the screen (because Kendra can just wiz away
using MInspeak now, LOL). So, first of all, I changed the Clear
display key to WAIT ANY KEY, then CLEAR DISPLAY, so she has to hit it
twice to actually clear it. Then, i suggested they put everything
into a notebook. the aide said they would need an awful lot. I think
people forget that the Eco is a computer also. Knowing hom many
thousands of files is on my regular computer, and how many hundreds of
files I can fit on a flashdrive, I don't think it will be a problem
storing them all. We can always delete or back up every 9 weeks. I
think they need to follow the same format for naming the notebooks
though, So they can find what they were previously working on, like a
6 digit date, then the subject, then a content name. If they knew
they were working on a notebook last Tuesday,they can easily locate it
by date first. Also, you can print a notebook, save it to a file or
flashdrive, open it in MAC Word or Microsoft Word for editing, and
what not. Maybe this is where I should have started 6 weeks ago.
They do know how to open and close notebooks, so I will improve her
NOTEBOOK activity, to do the things she needs it to do.

Amy