Parents and IEPs

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Parents and IEPs

• Building successful relationships with our
  childrens schools

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Our themes

• Where are we, as parents, coming from?
• What tools can we bring?
• What do we know?
• Putting it into practice

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Where are we coming from?

• Imagine that you have been in a car accident and
  you have lost a leg.
• How does this affect your life?

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Parents tell us

• Anger
• Frustration
• Guilt
• Loss of control
• Change in relationships
• Dependence on others
• Fear of the unknown

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Who comes into our life?

• Doctors
• Therapists OT and PT
• Social services
• Rehabilitation specialists
• Support groups
• Employment counsellors

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Lets look at the difference

• Parents talk about their heart
• Service providers talk about service
• How do we tie these together?
• Acknowledge the difference
• Build relationships

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Relationships home and school

• Key to making an IEP work
• An IEP is a formal piece of paper
• Relationship is what turns that piece of paper
  into a living document
• Relationship turns it from something to fear into
  something to work on together

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Building that relationship

• Qualities parents want
• Openness
• Sharing of good and bad
• Problem solving together
• Learning from failure
• Learning from success
• What you want also applies to school.

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Tips to foster collaboration

• Keep your meeting small.
• Know who will attend.
• Use a visual to track what is being said.
• Talk about what helps you to be involved.
• Share your feelings.
• Keep goals simple.
• Make failure okay.
• Ask questions.

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Eduspeak

• Sometimes schools use words that make it hard for
  us to contribute.
• You know how your child learns.
• You know what you do to tell your child something
  important.

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My child learns best when

• She has a chance to watch something being done
  before trying it herself.
• She sits close to the teacher.
• Instructions are simple.
• He can talk about it first.
• He works with others.
• He has quiet time to absorb.

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Building goals together

• Keep to 4 or 5 goals.
• Prioritize what is important.
• Include both short term and long term goals.
• Look at how you will measure the goal.
• Set up a process for reviewing the draft.
• Ensure goals include what you know about your
  child.

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Sample IEP goal

• Josh is entering kindergarten. He has physical
  handicaps and a severe speech delay. At home, you
  use sign language to help him communicate. He
  uses a wheelchair and has leg braces.
• The goal is to help Josh develop relationships
  with other students in the class.

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Putting the goal into practice

• The teacher will use selected words in sign
  language with the class, beginning with hello
  and goodbye.
• Josh will illustrate the signs for other
  students.
• The parent will bring in a simple sign language
  book for the class.
• The speech pathologist will teach the class a
  song in sign language.

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• The parent will bring in Joshs old leg braces to
  add to the dress-up corner of the class.
• The classroom will be organized so that Josh sits
  in the middle of the class, with a small group of
  boys.
• Other students will be invited to have a turn
  helping the aide to push Joshs chair to the
  library and the gym.

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In summary

• The IEP is a tool to help our child succeed.
• It comes alive when we build relationships to
  support our child.
• The IEP is the beginning not the end.
• Working together, we put our child first.