FoggyRock General Forum

No, my wife and I will go ourselves. Thanks for the link!

I usually come with a list of where I have seen success and where my concerns are. When listing the concern I try to be as specific as I can.

When talking about social skills/ pragmatics, look up some social skills articles and bring them along. Also, have some ideas for how the team can implement a social skills program as well as social skills improvement through the day. Use things like that you had heard some children are having success by having the Speech therapist sit at the lunch table with a few friends and help guide and prompt conversation. She prepares the child by helping him practice a few topics or opening sentiences.  Ask that all speech therapies be with one or two peers....depending on age....this helps continue the social component. Then ask what the teacher can do in the class to help facilitate conversation.

There is so much going on in this area. Hopefully you will find articles that talk about how challenged these children are when they get older if they can't navigate the social world. Anxiety increases, depression, it's an important issue and school are now expected to address these areas.

Good luck.

When we started putting our on in the ECD (Early Childhood Development) classes in our school district.  I had a horrible time with IEP meetings.  The school psychologist and I did not get along on almost any level, but that is another story.  I highly recommend having someone else go with you, preferably Parent Advocate.  We have some in our area, and as soon as I got them involved in an IEP meeting it was a whole new ball game.  I mean way different, everyone who was supposed to be there on their end was there (and stayed the entire time), no excuses.  Everyone was provided copies of all paperwork at the meeting, everyone signed.  Even though I like the IEP team at his new school much better, I so not take it for granted.  I have called and requested IEP meetings, just to discuss something on his progress report, to get everyone's interpretation and input.  Don't always wait for them to call one.  I invited his non-school affiliated therapists to attend and provide input.  After a steep learning curve, I have learned a lot, but it never hurts to bring in someone, who has gone through several dozen IEP's.

As an educator and a parent one suggestion that I would offer prior to an IEP meeting is to share some of your written comments on the type of goals that you would like for your child to work on for the following year.  Sometimes, by "assisting" the team to think about the direction that you are seeking for your child you can lead team members into a train of thought or assist them to begin processing information and thinking of implementation techniques to meet those goals.

Last edited by kimmietn (2008-03-02 03:44:16)