Today was Bryce’s end of the year Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting. I think it’s been awhile since I blogged about Bryce’s IEP so I figured I’d update you.

Here were our goals for this year.

Goal Area: Academic/Cognitive
Person/Position Responsible: Education Assistant
Current Level of Performance: Recognizes upper and lower case letters, working on receptive and expressive letter sounds.

Goal Statement: Recognize upper and lower case letters, working on receptive and expressive letter sounds.

• Bryce will receptive identify letter sounds with 80% accuracy. Meeting expectations.
• Bryce will expressively identify letter sounds with 80% accuracy. Meeting expectations.
• Bryce will sequence and retell a 4 step story with 80% accuracy. Approaching expectations. Has mastered 3 stories. Will continue to add new stories until Bryce can easily retell a 4 step story with no verbal or visual prompts. He’s currently using a “first, then, next, last” visual.
• Bryce will be able to recognize and create a sentence with 5 large sight words with 80% accuracy. This objective was replaced with teaching the pre-primer Dolch words. It was felt that they are more meaningful.

Goal Area: Academic/Cognitive
Person/Position Responsible: Education Assistant
Current Level of Performance: Counts 1-11

Goal Statement: Bryce will improve number sense.

• Bryce will recognize, count and sequence numbers 1-20 independently with 80% accuracy. Meeting expectations.

Goal Area: Functional/Life Skills
Person/Position Responsible: Education Assistant
Current Level of Performance: Learning cutlery

Goal Statement: Bryce will learn discrimination skills.

• Bryce will learn to independently sort and indentify cutlery with 80% accuracy. Meeting expectations.
• Will expressively identify all 26 peers in the class with 80% accuracy. Meeting expectations.

Goal Area: Functional/Life Skills
Person/Position Responsible: Education Assistant
Current Level of Performance: Learning all the steps to brush teeth properly

Goal Statement: Bryce will learn self grooming skills.

• Bryce will learn to independently brush his teeth with 80% accuracy. Meeting expectations.

Goal Area: Communication
Person/Position Responsible: Education Assistant, District Behaviour Consultant, or Speech-Language Pathologist
Current Level of Performance: Role answers, echolalia, little initiation. Bryce rarely indicates his wants and needs. He needs prompting to request what he wants. He most often plays alongside peer in parallel play and requires support during social interactions.

Goal Statement: Bryce will improve social communication skills.

• Bryce will independently find a peer and ask 4 questions using a visual card in 4 out of 5 observable opportunities. Approaching expectations. Using a sentence strip, Bryce is able to ask 1-2 questions with some verbal prompts.
• Bryce will learn to talk on topic with a peer with up to 4 exchanges in 4 out of 5 observable opportunities. Approaching expectations. Bryce is able to have 1-2 exchanges, but is difficult as he will want to copy what the other person said. Needs many verbal prompts.
• Bryce will independently request for a break during times of frustration on a daily basis given visual prompts. Approaching expectations. Bryce continues to require prompting to ask for a break.
• Bryce will independently greet or respond to greetings from peers and adults within the school, using an appropriate combination of gestures, eye contact and speech (i.e. Hi) 80% of the time. Approaching expectations. Bryce has shown increased eye contact and use of speech when responding to greetings. He continues to require cueing most of the time. This will be an ongoing goal for Bryce.
• Bryce will demonstrate appropriate use of the following social behaviours in 8 out of 10 structured opportunities: ask classmates to play, staying with friends during play, taking turns, eye contact while playing. Approaching expectations. In therapy sessions, Bryce will ask the therapist to play with support. He is able to take turns and indicate, “my turn”, “your turn” with prompting during structured game takes. We’ll continue to work on this next year.

Goal Area: Communication
Person/Position Responsible: Speech-Language Pathologist
Current Level of Performance: Bryce has delays in his receptive langue skills. He can follow short and simple one to two step directions. He also needs time to process spoken information.

Goal Statement: Bryce will develop his receptive language skills.

• Bryce will follow two to three step oral directions in 8 out of 10 opportunities. Approaching expectations. Bryce has shown improvements in retaining and processing two step simple directions. He is able to follow these directions with 70% accuracy with some cueing. Listening skills will continue to be a focus in therapy next year
• Bryce will demonstrate an understanding of the prepositions “in”, “on”, “under”, “above”, “behind” by following directions involving prepositions with 90% accuracy. Meeting expectations. Bryce has worked hard on this goal and has shown good progress following directions containing these concepts. In structured activities, he is able to follow directions with “in”, “on”, “under” with 90% accuracy and “in front”, “above”, “behind” with 80% accuracy given minimal cueing. We’ll work towards generalizing these concepts next year.

Goal Area: Communication
Person/Position Responsible: Speech-Language Pathologist
Current Level of Performance: As a student diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Bryce demonstrates delays in the area of expressive language. He uses echolalia, body language, along with some spontaneous verbal output.

Goal Statement: Bryce will improve his expressive language skills.

• When shown a picture, Bryce will describe the picture using specific sentence structures in 8 out of 10 opportunities. Approaching expectations. Bryce has made good progress in this goal. He can now independently describe pictures using the Noun + Verb (e.g. The boy is eating.) and Noun + Verb + Direct Object (e.g. The boy is reading a newspaper) sentence structure. We’ve also progressed to more complex structures such as Noun + Prepositional Phrase + Verb (e.g. The boy in the bed is sleeping) and those that contain plural nouns. Bryce is also starting to learn the difference between is/are and how to use them correctly in sentences. Sentence structure will continue to be a goal for next year.
• Bryce will correctly label the position of an item with the prepositions “in”, “on”, “under”, “above”, “behind” using the phrase “It is ________” with 80% accuracy. Approaching expectations. Bryce has shown improvements in this area. He is able to answer “Where” questions that require him to answer with “in”, “on”, “under” with 80% accuracy in structured activities. He has more difficulty with concepts such as “in front”, “above”, “behind”, performing at about 70% accuracy when given cueing.

I never was a fan of IEPs and always thought of it as just a piece of paper that gets filled in, revised once or twice a year through a meeting, and then gets filed until next revision. However, I have warmed up to them. Maybe it’s the new school and new staff, or the way this school district does the IEPs, but I actually visually see the progress and goals being met and new goals set and those being met. I’m a changed mom!

Don’t forget that it’s very important to get together and meet with everyone involved in your child’s education. Your child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting is a great opportunity to make sure all your concerns are addressed, ideas are written down, suggestions are implemented, questions are answered and to make sure what you want to see out of the school year happens!

This is your time to have a voice and be heard.

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya

Today was Bryce’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting.

Without going into huge details and in depth in Bryce’s IEP, here’s the basics.

His strengths include:

• Can sit and participate in class activities with support
• Enjoys coming to school each day
• Is more aware and engaged in class activities
• Is usually able to adapt to new situations
• Enjoys drawing and PE activities
• Enjoys going to the computer lab and using Kids Pix and ZAC Browser

His needs, and things we are working on:

• Needs some support and guidance with daily routines
• Needs support with classroom and individual seat work
• Needs support with staying in seat and completing work
• Requires support (with verbal prompts or natural cues) for transitions within classroom and throughout school
• Needs reminders to work more quietly (gets silly at times)
• Needs help to calm and self-regulate when he gets frustrated
• More teaching/coaching of acceptable interactions with peers

While I’m not a huge fan of the IEP itself, as it’s just a piece of paper that gets filled in, revised once or twice a year through a meeting, and then gets filed until next revision.

That being said, it’s very important to get together and meet with everyone involved in your child’s education. Your child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting is a great opportunity to make sure all your concerns are addressed, ideas are written down, suggestions are implemented, questions are answered and to make sure what you want to see out of the school year happens!

This is your time to have a voice and be heard.

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya

Everything you need to know about Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and tips to getting what your child needs: http://www.kidstogether.org/IEP.htm

Students with special needs who are receiving ongoing special education service require an IEP. This plan is a concise and usable document which summarizes the student's educational program. The IEP should be implemented and reviewed/updated at least annually. Its development should be seen as a dynamic, ongoing process:

• are written records of planning prepared with input from students, parents/guardians, school personnel and other service providers, i.e., preschool staff
• describe students' current learning, strengths, styles and needs, and identify appropriate goals
• help in determining the degree of intervention needed
• describe individual team members’ responsibilities
• provide coherent plans for student learning and service needs
• should include planning for students' transitions
• assist in determining criteria for evaluation
• help in determining how well students are meeting their goals, and form the basis of reporting students’ progress

Even though we are not the biggest fans of IEPs, our advice would be to ask a lot of questions. Even if the IEP just gets tossed into a filing cabinet at the end of the day, this is your child’s education, their future in your hands, and you need to make sure that you have done everything in your power as their parent and get all the answers you need.

It’s very important to get together and meet with everyone involved in your child’s education. Your child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting is a great opportunity to make sure all your concerns are addressed, ideas are written down, suggestions are implemented, questions are answered and to make sure what you want to see out of the school year happens!

Always remember that no one knows your child more than you and that you are their biggest advocate.

Daniel

With school just around the corner and Individualized Education Plan (IEP) close behind, are you prepared?

I found this poem today and couldn’t help but laugh. I’m sure any parent that has a child with an IEP can agree that almost nothing but a headache comes from them. Enjoy!

IEPs According to Dr. Suess
author unknown

I do not like these IEPs
I do not like them, Jeeze Louise
We test, we check
we plan, we meet
but nothing ever seems complete.

Would you, could you
like the form?

I do not like the form I see.
Not page 1, not 2, not 3.
Another change,
a brand new box, I think we all
Have lost our rocks.

Could you all meet here or there?

We could not all meet here or there.
We cannot all fit anywhere.
Not in a room
Not in a hall
There seems to be no space at all.

Would you, could you meet again?

I cannot meet again next week
No lunch, no prep
Please here me speak.
No, not at dusk and not at dawn
At 4 p.m. I should be gone.

Could you hear while all speak out?
Would you write the words they spout?

I could not hear, I would not write
This does not need to be a fight.

Sign here, date there,
Mark this, check that,
Beware the student’s ad-vo-cat(e).

You do not like them
so you say
Try it again! Try it again!
and then you may.

If you let me be,
I’ll try again
and you will see.

Say!

I almost like these IEPs
I think I’ll write 6,003.
And I will practice day and night
Until they say
"You’ve got it right."

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya