Thursday, March 1, 2012

IEPs: My favorite subject.

Dani at I'm Just That Way decided to tag me in a meme this week that is all about IEPs.  Her reasoning was that I'm super tough when it comes to IEPs.  I haven't always been that way, I don't always feel that way, but I'm glad it comes across that way!

Today is the perfect day for me to post about this as I was busy reorganizing the boys' folders.  Multiple folders. This is an example of what I pack to IEPs:

Special Ed regs, binders full of evals/reports, copies of communication, etc.
 So this is the rules from the original meme about what I'm suppose to share:


Brian:  

Brian has quite the list of aids, services, modifications, and supports.  He needs to be provided with a visual schedule, regular gross motor breaks, sensory breaks every half hour, 1:1 adult support at all times of the day, a quiet work space within the classroom as needed, visual communication board (his alternative to PECs that we are seeing great progress with), home/school communication book that is filled out each day in 15 minute increments so I know exactly what he is working on, and weekly behavioral consultation notes from the behavior specialist.

In school he receives specially designed instruction at 3.5 hours a day, 90 minutes a week of speech, 60 minutes a week of OT, and 60 minutes a week with the behavior consultant.  He also gets consultation from speech, OT, behavior consultant, and augmentative communication consultant on a monthly basis. Once a week the entire team meets to discuss Brian and to make sure they are all on the same page.  


Corbin:

Corbin has in his IEP that he is to be able to use a word processor for writing and visual aids for all aspects of the classroom (he needs a step-by-step visual schedule for most things).  Though Corbin has as much, if not more, sensory-processing difficulties than his brother it has been hard to get them included in his IEP.  However, we have implemented a ton of sensory stuff this year which have helped immensely!  He is now allowed to chew gum in the classroom and he is no longer coming home with shirts soaked from the cuff of the sleeve to his shoulder.  He had noise-cancelling headphones that he wears during all independent work.  He has fidget toys at his desk and theraband attached to his chair.

He gets 300 minutes a week of specially designed instruction that includes his extra help for reading and writing AND his time working in his accelerated math program which is in addition to his classroom's math curriculum, 60 minutes a week of OT, and 60 minutes a week of speech.

Another important thing that I have worked out with Corbin's classroom and resource room teacher is allowing Corbin to do most of his reading work on non-fiction texts.  Corbin loves non-fiction and will only check out books such as almanacs from the library.  He gets it.  He does not get fiction.  I know, he needs to get it at some point, but I also feel like he needs to be able to enjoy reading for him to be able to make any gains in it.  So right now he is doing about 75% of his work on non-fiction texts and the rest on fiction.



I am happy, for now, with both boys' services.  Could they be better? Yes.  I am still dying for them to take into account their dominance profiles and put them into their IEPs.  I'd also love for their OT to do some manual reflex integration rather than concentrating on goddamn handwriting.  I'd prefer a different behavioral consultant.  But compared to where we were in September, I have to say I'm very pleased.



5 comments:

Butterflylady97 said...

We just had an IEP this week.

Marsupial Mama said...

Wow, you seriously rock the IEPs!!  **high fives and fist bumps**  I've just started organizing my boy's files for the IEPs, it's been a steep learning curve for me.  I *heart* your multiple folders, nicely done!

Dani G said...

you're awesome! I tag because I love :)

Heather said...

hi

Marybeth said...

Now THAT looks mighty familiar! Binders bursting at the seams. LOL