Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The New IEP

It's been a few years now, since Genea got her first IEP (Individualized Education Plan for special education) at school. The team met last week to discuss progress and updates. Genea will be going to middle school next year and I can assure you, I shuddered just typing those words.

The good news is- there's lots of good news! The point of the IEP was to give Genea a few extra little things that would help her get through her day.  It has been successful. Where she was falling the in the average- below average range, she is now average across the board! She is now equal with her classmates! In ALL her classes!

They adore her, the team at her grade school. In our meeting the room teacher,  special ed teacher,  OT and someone -else- I- forgot were there. They went on for 10 minutes about how generous she is, kind and helpful. And I agree. It can be odd sometimes, that characteristic of RAD where the child is charming and delightful to everyone outside the home. But I like to think that it's working for her and she's ultimately benefitting from it (certainly far better than having her home behavior at school!). I started to twitch a little when they commented on how happy she is all the time, but again, I like to hope the success and positive responses will carry over.

We discussed how much Genea dislikes writing. It's one area that has not improved. Out of curiosity, I asked if the issue was language processing or fine motor. So, do the words get stuck or jumbled before she can write them or is it that the message from brain to fingers doesn't go smoothly. Lots of hmmms, muttering and looking away. Seems no one had thought about that one. I didn't think it was a big ol' issue but I guess it was.

My instinct when everyone looks so uncomfortable is to 'make it nice'. I want to smile and say, that's ok! Don't worry about it! Then I feel like over talking, about all the aspects of her writing skills, all the things we do at home, etc. One thing I learned a few IEP's ago is to sit still and shut up. Silence takes over the room as everyone starts shuffling papers and examining specks of dust. Mmm hmmm.

The director calls in another teacher, who doesn't know about her writing either. It gets more uncomfortable.

They try to explain, and it was kind of funny watching them try to pass the buck but since most of the team was there, they couldn't exactly point fingers at themselves.

"Seems like the sort of thing we should work on," I finally say. I guess it doesn't matter what the origin of the issue is, but her writing is awful and yet she loves to tell stories. Somehow or another it doesn't get to the paper.

This year Genea's deliberate malfunction has been getting assignments in. She might do half, or none. She might write one thing in her planner for us to sign, then alter it on the bus. She has an aide that comes to her class at the end of the day to ensure she has her materials organized and packed up for home. Genea, my dear Genea, will then remove a few items. Maybe a book gets lost, or an important paper is missing.  However. With this level of assistance she has to actually put a specific effort into NOT bringing home what she needs. She has to TRY and it is obvious. So.

The team had come up with a reinforcement plan. If she got 3 of 5 days of assignments in she would get a reward. I listened intently, with eyebrows raised. They wanted to leave her an 'out' because everyone forgets stuff sometimes. Ummmmm, no. They are thinking of ordinary people. Genea has a superhuman memory. I said, if you give Genea 2 chances, I guarantee you she will miss 2 assignments every single week. My suggestion is zero chances.

I was then on the receiving end of the "I- can't -believe -this -parent- can -you" eyeballs being passed around. Argh. Discussions ensued. One teacher finally just asked Genea why she was not getting in her work. She turned red and said "I um, I just don't feel like doing it sometimes". Expressions changed abruptly to "omg- I- can't -believe -this -kid -can -you" and every one decided she would need to get her work in every day.

That was about it. She has some new goals to address writing. Most of everything else is aimed at her extreme hyper- vigilance. She sits in the back of the room so she can monitor everyone for safety while maintaining focus, things like that.

Other than my few little inputs, I try to let school deal with school. It's hard because I feel a compulsion to be involved and a gigantic guilt/shame for hanging back. We are so exceptionally lucky to have had wonderful teachers for Genea in a fantastic school. I think overall most people who teach are good at it (way better than I would be), but she has had some who are great!

9 comments:

  1. I love your IEP update. :> It sounds like she has a great team. Middle school is SCARY!!

    A parent I don't know (foaf) with several sn children told me she found that elementary school teachers were the most difficult to work with and that MS/HS teachers were great. As an ES teacher myself I find that hard to believe…but it gives me hope for the future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lets hope your friend the parent you don't know is right. Its as much the other hormone addled kids I worry about. Unghguh.

      Delete
  2. Wow, I seem to have her little clone living at my house. The deliberate 'losing' of important things is our norm, too. We also have the 'accidental' acquiring of other people's things. His reading book is missing, but somehow he has a very pretty pink necklace. Of course he has umpteen stories of how he got the necklace, none of which make any sense whatsoever. At least he sucks at lying. Then again, he NEVER tells the truth so it's not hard to tell he is lying!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HA, Judge Judy says how do you know the kid is lying? Their mouth is open HA HA. Its nice of him to make it easy for you. Genea's pupils dilate when she lies, so also easy for us too!

      Delete
  3. My son also has an IEP, but unfortunately we've not seen as much growth over the past ten years in public school. Don't get me wrong....I'm a public school advocate and he's always had well-meaning, intelligent teachers who have cared and loved him deeply. But something is missing...If I could do it all over again, I would probably choose to homeschool or place in a small homeschool setting. My daughter has no IEP and graduated with honors from the same public high school that my son attends. I just like sometimes schools try to take a cookie cutter approach to education and it just doesn't work sometimes. Some cookies require extra baking time.

    Melissa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "think"...I just "think" sometimes schools...

      Delete
    2. That's an awesome line-- some cookies require extra baking time. SO TRUE!

      Delete
  4. I was happy to read the report of your IEP meeting as we will have ours in a few weeks too. I am not optimistic...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not that you asked, but I'd suggest valium first. Also, I learned from another parent to be the one asking questions, as in "so, what ARE you going to do"?. Helps if they give a bunch of reasons why they can't do xyz.
    Is there a blog post coming on this?

    ReplyDelete

I love comments! If you agree or disagree, comment away! However if you are a butthead about it, you may be excised.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...