What’s in a classification?
“My son has been diagnosed with a learning disability in the area of reading. The school psychologist told me he had a Specific Learning Disability in auditory processing. But my pediatrician is telling me that he thinks my son is showing signs of autism. In terms of the services he receives at school, does it matter what his eligibility is?”
I see this often.
I hear this often.
Parents express concern when multiple labels are slapped (or swapped around) on their child. They fear that their child may not get the services that they need.
At the end of the day, it is plain and simple.
The label doesn’t drive decisions. It gets the student to a threshold so an appropriate program can be created.
When your child qualifies for special education services under a specific eligibility, it is not the eligibility that the team looks at to start developing a plan for your child.
Related Article: Q&A about SpED Services – Asked by Parents
How to Develop an IEP
First, the team – including you, the parent! – looks at the specific areas that the child may be struggling in. While the disability or “criteria” plays a hand in these deficits, the team looks specifically at what skills your child may be lagging in.
Next, the team creates an annual goal to address those lagging skills. It can range from anything from reading fluency to adaptive skills. Again, it goes back to the area of deficit that is identified. If your child is far below grade level in the area of reading, he/she will have a reading goal. If your child can’t make their way around school without getting lost, the team will likely create a goal in adaptive skills.
The school offers services. Based on the child’s goal. If, a year from now, you expect that the child will be able to read ____ amount of words per minute based on his/her current ROI (rate of improvement), the team needs to think about what services and interventions need to be put in place in order for the student to meet that goal.
The #IEP eligibility doesn't drive decisions. It gets the student to a threshold so an appropriate program can be created. #SpED Share on XSure, there’s the added bit of accommodations and additional supports and other IEP meeting fluff. But, the important thing to keep in mind is that the eligibility is what allows your child to access the supports and services. It does not determine what he/she will receive.
The team determines what the child will need. Based on the child. Not the disability.
Questions of the Day:
- Do you know anyone who recently became eligible for an IEP? Do you feel they are getting the services and support they need?
From an IEP Mama I want to say thank you for this post. I just posted about Jake’s IEP meeting.
http://berlyjo.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-tale-of-and-iep-meeting-gone-right.html
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As a legally blind kid I had an IEP. It made a big difference when it came to testing which also carried a special ed stigma. However I was also in gifted in talented for people with exceptionally high IQ’s so the right help definitely helped me excel. I just wish the labels that come with people who have IEP’s was not so negative. As science is discovering that some people learn equally yet differently. Beautiful well written post!
Our oldest had an IEP for being speech-delayed. With the extra attention, it was lifted and we’re grateful for the program!
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Thanks for explaining this. I have several friends who have IEP meetings and I wasn’t sure what they really entailed. I am so glad that this is in place to help kids and their parents!
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I admit… that I don’t know very much about this issue but I have heard about some experiences my friends have gone through (one in particular who has a child with a learning disability). I’m glad there are milestones and goals in place to help kids (and parents!) further along to improve the areas where there are struggles.
Hope you have a great weekend, my sweet! XOXO
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I am an OT and I work in a school district so I have lots of experience with IEP meetings. I’m so glad you mentioned that the IEP is developed based on the needs of the child, not the disability. In my experience, some parents talk to other parents and want whatever services/hours the other child gets not realizing or wanting to realize it may not be right for their child. I would also like to add that each person at the meeting is a part of the TEAM and it’s important to respect the professional recommendations of each team member and their discipline. Even if you don’t like or agree with what they reported. We therapists experience this quite a bit lol!
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Thanks for this! IEPs are very confusing to us non-teachers; your post really helped me to understand.
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I don’t know if you have a lot of resources where you are. In Toronto, the resources are in abundance. Still nowhere is perfect and there are still issues parents face when dealing with this type of thing. The parents I know who have children with a learning disability are incredibly progressive so the children are privy to a variety of resources.
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Great advice for parents out there who might be worrying about their children’s education. And it’s great that the kids will get the extra support they need no matter what 🙂
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You post will help a lot of people. Thanks for writing it, no child should be wasted.
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If I ever have to put my child in public school, he will need an IEP. I don’t know the first thing about one, so I”m glad to have resources like this.
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I actually went to a learning disability school when I was younger. It was an interesting experience because… I wound up learning a lot faster than so many other students. However, when I was told I no longer needed to be there, I had to stay back a grade at my new school because they taught subjects as a slower speed than an average school. I remember being, BEYOND angry about that.
I think you explained this so well! Hearing “labels” and all of these acronyms can be very overwhelming for parents! It is so important for parents to understand that we teachers do not view or judge our students by a piece of paper, but instead, can tailor our teaching to best meet the student’s needs. Very helpful post!
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Great Post. Our system is different here in Canada, but I know that there are many children who need that extra help. It’s great to know that they can indeed get the help to spur them on to greater heights. I just did a piece on Autism and it ended up being a blessing in disguise as my husband goes into the schools to meet with all grade levels and wasn’t sure how to deal the the Special needs kids. He scored a touchdown with the teacher for those children. She was so pleased with his sharing for the special ed kids.
My five year old is at preschool in the public school system and he is on an IEP and I am so grateful for it! He is doing so great and learning so much! I love how the teachers discuss his progress with me.
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Another one of your informational posts. It will be so helpful to people all over.
Thanks Mrs. DBM teacher for always sharing such important information on teaching and education awareness.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN WASHINGTON, DC needs to see your blogs to make a difference in
the lives of children and parents.
God Bless you!!
This is great advice! I often think parents worry so much about the “label” that they don’t get their child the help they need.
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I can see how worried a parent would be about their child not getting the proper help they need. Having a team of people ready and willing to help is key.
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What an informative and very interesting post. It is so important for everyone to understand these things so our kids don’t get judged by others for being “different”!
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This is such great information. Parents are often confused by it. Sure they have to have a disability to be eligible, so in that sense, the label matters/ However it is the committee making the decisions on how to serve the student. Not a cookie cutter every child has the same accommodation with this disability list. 🙂
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It’s so hard being a parent when your child is having difficulties learning. Especially when the school wants to deny the problem because of the cost.
there’s a mark on my face, a blue-gray dot that’s the same size as the freckles around it. it’s from a pencil that was jabbed in my face by a classmate in fifth grade on the i took my standardized test. he was pissed at me because i was taking too long to sharpen my fistful of pencils. i hated dull lead. i loved filling in the bubbles on those things. that was the only thing i liked about testing. i didn’t know until years later how important that particular test was. my mother told me: my teachers had wanted to place me in special education classes; my principal had approved the recommendation and called my mother to inform her of his decision. my mother was a teacher; my father was a school superintendent… that principal’s boss. that conversation did not go well.
this was in ‘eighty-three. back then, the idea was to get children OUT of special education classrooms, not in them. you could have teacher recommendation, principal approval, even parental approval. but if standardized test scores said the child didn’t belong in spec. ed,, all of those other things were irrelevant. i had the second-highest score of the entire fifth grade. i was placed in honors classes the following year; i suffered major depression and battled suicidal tendencies daily then and saw no good in myself… for years, i’d witnessed teachers not giving a shit about me, and then there’s this woman, this sixth grade language arts teacher telling me i had a talent for writing. she saw me. she SAW me, saw all the good that was in me. she was a light in the midst of a horrible, debilitating darkness. i clung to that for the next decade. i survived my hell in part because of a compliment she’d paid me one day before i’d left her classroom to go to math and science.
i say all this for two reasons: school is not supposed to be easy; special education designations or whatever won’t make it easier, and special education teachers aren’t anymore special. but more, i can’t imagine EVER asking a teacher whether a child of mine, were i to have had one, whether he or she was eligible for this.
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I’m sorry you had such a horrible experience. I do believe that the end goal is to push all our kids out of restrictive settings such as a special-ed specific class. I do feel kids can be eligible for services within the regular classroom. And, with a push toward inclusion, we see this happen often. The point of my post was not to say that an eligibility is going to make an educational experience easier. I’m saying that if a child is eligible for special education services, it’s not the eligibility that determines what services the child receives. It is the team making the call. So, even if a child is eligible due to learning difficulties, the team can still decide to keep the student in the classroom and get the services they need IN the classroom.
My two older kids both had IEP, and my ex was concerned about how they would be percieved and treated by others on a more personal level. The truth is I liked it because my daughter had slipped thru the cracks until second grade and now it was like a guarantee that she would recieve the best services and quality of education tailored directly to her for really all of her school life. They always had mainstreaming in mind and one of them was able to sooner than the other.
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