SAMPLE Strengths & Needs for IEP... and School Safety Pl

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Our (five year old) son just started Kindergarten and we're in the process getting an IEP. This is incredibly helpful (THANK YOU!) and I'll be interested to see what the school comes up with, especially since they sound like they're prepared to disagree with the Asperger's diagnosis we got earlier this year (though they do admit that he isn't normal and they still definitely want an IEP). And this is at a school where the principal's child is on the Spectrum!

I've also been told that we're not obligated to sign any IEP right then and there--we can take it home, think about things, get input from others (like professionals or advocates).

Did you miss the IEP meeting or something?

As a non-AS computer scientist who never learned to properly "type" or as we now refer to it "keyboarding", I think that typing/keyboarding is a useful, yet over-emphasized skill taught by the schools. My typing method (the "hunt-peck-swear-erase" method) has served me just as well throughout life - Even now when my job has me write more lines of English text than computer code. The way that I learned to type has also made it really easy to finger type on the new small touchscreen devices (such as the ipod touch) where the normal typing method is impossible.

Also, I have found that many people are unaware that there is fairly inexpensive speech-to-text software that can be used in lieu of or in addition to keyboarding. Windows has some built-in software (you can find it in windows 7 under: control panels -> ease of access -> speech recognition) and I know of at least one third-party package (Dragon Naturally Speaking) that is availiable. Here's how it works - you basically plug a quality microphone into the computer (typically a headset/microphone) and after a short setup/training period dictate into a text document. It is that simple to use. However, the software is not 100% accurate - some wrong words that sound alike (but are not the words that you meant) will be placed in the text. I find this technology most useful for getting my thoughts on paper quickly and in generating rough drafts of documents that I can then edit (and clean up) later.

For my purposes, I find the Dragon software much better at accuracy than the built-in software - but my advice is to try the built-in software first before spending the money on Dragon. I also use the cheapest version of Dragon. (The more expensive versions are IMHO not worth the money unless you are dictating medical or legal terms) I would also imagine that if your child is having a very hard time with the physical aspects of writing words on paper, the software would be very useful to help with that issue as well.

Hi... brand new member today and wanted to put in just a quick note to correct a misconception: Homeschoolers *do* socialize... with all types of people. My 14 yr old son is diagnosed with Aspergers and is homeschooled... he has more real *relationships* with NT people (and other Aspies) in our regular activities (both in and out of 'homeschool circles') than he would ever be able to form in the five minutes between one class and the next at a public school. And I will *never* have to worry about the school messing up writing or implementing his IEP.

I am also new here. My son is 5 and has started prep this year. Since starting school his behaviour has worsened, not yet clinically diagnosed with Aspergers, yet he fills most of the spectrum perfectly.
I have expressed some concerns to my sons teacher, mostly defining him as quirky, she has never mentioned anything out of the ordinary, to me that she is concerned about except his confidence and resiliance issues. Should i have a meeting with her to discuss his appointment to be assessed, and what types of questions should i be asking her???? I AM SCARED THE SCHOOL SYSTEM WILL FAIL HIM>
kel x

LOVE your behavior plan. I can't stress that enough. My daughter's is a joke. Do remember, you should be an active participant in your child's IEP. My daughter has an advocate that goes with us to meeting (also, I teach special education so they know that I know when they are doing something stupid...they still try).

I agree with what statesman said. I do think "Keyboarding" is over-rated..... The only proffessions that I feel really need it from what Ive seen would be things like Lawyers or people that do Social Networking, and lawyers are probably gonna make enough to have a secretary anyway.

I will say that I hated keyboarding in school. It had more to do with the pointlessness of rote typing for practice then anything else.... My school had a program that followed the ideology behind teaching the alphabet. So one Letter at a time it would have you press each letter three times (And this was an involved process, for the software anyway, it took about 5 minutes to explain where the key was and then let you actually press the key three times). And then it would give you basic words > Sentences to Type out, again in threes, and then it added a "Drill" function to it which it would then report to the teacher at the primary server. I hated it, it just seemed so pointless to me. The only thing that that program did for me was to make me aware of what "home row" is, and I used that later to build my own keyboarding skills as the interest struck me. That didn't come until I was about 21, and the only reason it happened was the introduction of MMO Video games and not really wanting to jump into Voice Chat.

I could suggest, if you want him/them to learn to type, let them learn it in their own time, but don't buy them a Headset or Microphone. If they ever play online video games, they'll learn how to communicate in it quick enough. Let them know theres a typing method available if they get frustrated about not being able to communicate, and let them explore what they want to do on their own. If they're made to be responsible for their own communication skills, they'll figure it out, particularly if they know that help is available if they get truly stuck

Thanks for reading if you have

I disagree with the last two posters. For me the most useful thing I learnt at school was touch typing and I am incredibly angry that children are not learning that in Australia. They spend hours on computers, but NONE are taught to type. The simple fact is that an effective touch typist can type at up to 100 words a minute and I would love to see a one finger typist do that!! Given the amount of time we ALL spend on computers these days it is an essential skill to learn.

But it does depend on how it is learnt and many of the programs out are absolutely stupid and do not encourage or support the development of the skills and instead encourage kids not to learn it. I was not taught one letter at a time. I was taught a few letters at a time and using them in a whole range of different words. I was also expected very very early on to type up real documents, stories, etc, and a cloth was put over my hands and so I had no choice but to learn.

I have seen touch typing programs that engage kids and others that alienate them. Just becuase someone experienced a poor program does not make them all poor, it does mean that you need to look around for another program. I am yet to know of any professional who does not send hundreds of emails every day, and I can assure you that secretaries rarely if ever exist anywhere anymore. Sure they have admin staff and many of them do type up any useful information, but everyone has to be computer savvy and the most useful skill a person can use is touch typing, it makes life so so so much easier. The smaller devices are not made for long term use and would never be used in a workplace for that purpose. They breach all occupational health and safety guidelines. They are useful for people on the move, but you do not use them to run a business from.

You lost me at "they have extensive training" I find that most/many schools have inadequate training and they create the illusion that they know what they're doing when it comes to working with kids on the spectrum. I've found further evidence of this when school staff routinely blame our kids for behaviors that they deem rude/disrespectful/fill in the blank instead autistic.

I found really, one effective way of getting a semi-decent iep is to refuse to sign the garbage they draft until they accept my input. I'm not asking for the stars here either. It's been a long painful process and I hate it.

What I have learned is that if your part time job isn't documenting every interaction you have with a teacher that is about your child then you're not doing your job. This is really the only way to get proof, which you WILL need, that your child is having difficulties. Most/many/all schools want to say your child is progressing when they are not. If you don't have any proof to counter what they say, you're SOL. When you document, you can show that things aren't the way they claim. I'm in a district that lies and covers their asses and their fellow teacher's ass. I trust no one. Especially the vice principal. I wish to God she would have a baby that is autistic. She needs to learn our world and what better way.

Oh I remember IED when I was in a special education program for a bit, it got -really- silly because they wanted to have on paper that they had a high success rate and I could rationally discuss with them how political and everything was and they'd acknowledge it.

So I might have 3-5 goals on mine and 2-3 of them would absolutely silly so they could just say they were quickly and easily achieved both to inflate my progress and to inflate their success rate as professionals and the organization. I think I had "tie my shoes on my own", "use bathroom by himself", "shower by himself" and a few others at times along side things more like "Take GED test", "take driving lessons", etc

For those who are confused, I could do most things at a normal developmental level and at this point could be most things somebody at my age could do with no trouble.

I went along with the bull because high success rate can mean greater funding for the program that could help those who needed far more resources then I did. And yes people who reviewed these plans either didn't view the details or were that stupid to believe the goals, or simply were going along with them.

I was being picked on at school by a girl, I told her to f**k off I or I would blow her brains out, and I felt horrible for it, I instantly went to the counceler and asked for help. I told her everything and they ruled to have me expelled...it just seems wrong I told her several times I had no intention of hurting anyone, I just wanted to be left alone so I could talk with my friend and do my school work. they only let me come back to school, because I diagnosed is this wrong? I would have never been expelled if I didn't go for help...I found out the counseller was related to someone my father had beaten in a local election...I feel like she tried to get back at him..its disguisting.

Thanks. It gives me an idea on planning for my children ..

I'm new here and am very interested in this thread. We're in California USA.

My 4YO son has a diagnosed speech & language delay but not autism, although we're suspecting a 'strong' probability based on our observation of his behaviors that he's on the spectrum.

I have an IEP scheduled end of November. The goals have to change. I'm finding out now that whenever there is a goal about "based on teacher observations" you might as well regard it as the school can keep doing what its doing that's the easiest on resources and you can't prove otherwise. Now that I suspect our son may be on the spectrum, I'm waiting for a pediatrician appt (then referral out -- we have an HMO, which I constantly curse) to get a comprehensive psych eval.

I had also met with an educational advocate, ordered books from wrightslaw (including the IEP book), read the IEP document we have... and what frustrates me the most is that these IEP are written in a way that is at once vague and confusing, that most parents can't comprehend what it means when the objective is "met" versus "partially met" or "progressing". I have a science PhD and I'm confused by all this jargon!

If it helps I'll share my experience with the upcoming IEP. This time I'm not going to sign the document right there. I did that the 1st time because the school held the meeting the day before my son's 3rd birthday and I was afraid of interrupting services while we haggle the language. No more. I feel like I've already wasted a year of my kid's time and I want to do it right this time and hereafter.

My son is 22 now, but when he was your son's age, the California school system was the only place we got help. My son wasn't diagnosed until 18 with PDD-NOS. When he was 4, the school called him a reluctant talker and put him in preschool classes twice a week with 2 other little boys, one of whom was like my son - very shy, quiet, afraid of people, etc.
My experience has been that no matter what is in the IEP, the only thing that matters is the quality of the people who will be teaching or helping your child. He was very lucky to have had fantastic kindergarten and first grade teachers who did so much to help him. One thing that was very surprising to me was how nice the other kids were, even at that young age. They were almost protective of him. One popular boy became his best friend even though my son rarely talked. He would never talk when there was more than one person listening until he was 6.
When my son was in high school, we had a meeting with all of his teachers. We described the behavior to expect and what to do if it happened. It was all in the IEP. Some of the teachers were great and went out of their way, but others were horrible. Other than suing the school district, there was nothing we could do. One teacher was convinced that my son was doing these things on purpose to annoy him. One teacher flunked him when we had a two week period where he wouldn't go to school. The teacher wouldn't let him make up the work he had missed.
Good luck. My son has come so far since he left school. If you didn't know it, you might not even recognize that he is autistic now.

jstriding, it sounds like you've already started getting resources in place. In my experience, nothing much can be done without a complete assessment and official dx. After that, the school is under an obligation to make accomodations or modifications to the program on a regular basis. I wrote out a list of recommendations (some based on the ones in this thread, others found on the Internet or, once I got the hang of it, from my own trial and error). I have copied it for the Methods & Resource teacher who is responsible (with teachers' and parents' input) to make up the plan. He has it now. Since this is the first year since the diagnosis, the teachers seem to be trying my child on the regular program with some accomodations until they see how they have to modify it for her to complete the work. I'm pretty satisfied but eager for the next appointment, since I don't think a series of failed test and requests for her to come for extra help are very useful.

I wonder if you could do the same with the goals? Look at the previous goals, or these ones, on your own (not at the appointment) and make some suggestions about what you think your child could accomplish? You can think in terms of social and life skills goals: what do you see your child doing in the next few months? The academic ones are harder with a young child, I think.

Good luck with it. I do think we're lucky that awareness of what autism and Asperger's means is higher now than in the past, but school is still a struggle. (OTOH, it has been with my NT kids, too, so this is a difference in degree and not in nature.)

J.

I'm new to all of this. I fail at the lingo and I'm sorry if I sound dumb. My son has not been diagnosed yet, but through some research (I'm not a doctor but it all makes sense) I believe my son may have Asperger's. He has an appointment approaching quickly and I'm eagerly awaiting some answers.

Lunch time is a HUGE deal for him (I saw it was a trigger in your plan), it is when his daycare/school has the most issues with him. I'm assuming because all the kids are gathered in the same place and it's noisey and overwhelming. Is this a correct assumption?
Is this common?