Reviewing your child's IEP (individualized education plan)

It is the time of year when your child's individualized education plan (IEP) will come home for you to review. Here are a few definitions and links to more information

Accommodations
This refers to instruction methods that are specific to your child. It will help tailor the curriculum to your child's learning needs. However, there are no changes to the learning material. Examples might be using special technology such as voice to text software or getting extra time on tests.

Modifications
This refers to changes in the child's curriculum. If there are modifications listed in your child's IEP it means he/she is not working at the same grade level as the rest of the children. If your child has modifications listed on the plan it is important to consider the downside. It could have trickle effects in the rest of their schooling. For example, if they graduate from high school with a modified curriculum they will get a high school certificate and not a diploma. However, you don't want your child to have a negative school experience by doing a curriculum that is too difficult for them.

Alternative
This includes goals that are outside of the standard curriculum. It is the opportunity for the school to help your child with some things that are difficult for your child, but fall outside the curriculum. Some examples include, social skills, organizational skills, and tolerating sensory difficulties. It is important to make sure these goals are written in a specific way and there is a specific plan to reach the goals.

Make sure you review the IEP carefully before you sign it. Don't be afraid to arrange a meeting with the school to have them explain components and make changes. Also, keep in mind that this is a working document and can change at any time.

Here is a link to the IEP guide used by educators in Ontario

Tips for getting your child to do less preferred activities

There are times when children will have to participate in a less preferred activity. Examples, may be doing homework, visiting a relatives house, participating in circle time. Here are some tips to get through it without a full meltdown.



1. Clearly state when the activity is going to end
This can be a simple strategy, and perhaps all that is needed. If a child doesn't know when something is going to end, they think it will go on forever. Just telling them a time can be enough for them to be able to tolerate the activity. If your child doesn't understand time concepts yet, you can use something more concrete. For example, circle time will end after 4 songs. Or we will leave our family reunion after dessert.

2. Use a strategy to allow them to see progress
If the above isn't quite enough you can use a fill in a grid with checkmarks or stickers. Divide a piece of paper into sections that represent even time intervals. After each interval (say 5 minutes) with acceptable behaviour, the child gets to give them self a check (or a sticker). It allows them to see the progression of time, and you can put a reinforcer at the end for them to look forward to.

3. Use a reinforcer at the end
Ideally, the reinforcer should be related to the activity. For example, leaving, or finishing the activity might be a reinforcer in itself. However, you also may need something a little more powerful, such as a favourite activity.

4. Try to include things they like
If possible, try to use elements of things they like in the activity. For circle time ask the teacher to sing songs about their favourite things (like animals, or letters). At a relatives house, try to get others to talk to them about their favourite things, or have a favourite game to play.

5. Offer choice
Every activity has some opportunities for choice if you think creatively. For example, at circle time they can choose where to sit, or what song to start with. For homework, it can be where to sit, what colour pen to use, what subject to do first. These great tips and more can be found in the following book

Getting a conversation with your child going about school

Getting my son to talk about what happened at school as always been difficult. He doesn't provide a lot of information, and he is not particularly motivated to talk about it. Here are some things we have used to improve our conversations about school. It is by no means perfect, but we do get some information.

Share information about your day
Talk about things that happened in your own day to model the type of information you want to hear about. Don't expect your child to share information about their day immediately. But, with time they will understand what type of information to share.

Don't force the conversation
Right after school or at the dinner table is generally when we want to hear about the day. This might not be the best time for your child. They might prefer to give information just before bed, or when you are playing together. You can try asking a general question like "how was school today?". If the aren't interested in sharing anything further than fine, try again later. My son often likes to share information in the bathtub or right before bed. I guess this is when he is relaxed and there are no competing toys or screens.

Try being silly
One of our therapists recommended this approach. You can try asking them if they did something completely wacky to get them to open. For example, ask "Did you fly to the moon today?". Hopefully, they will think that it such as silly thing to say they will tell you something they actually did. I have found that this didn't work particularly well for my son. But, there is no harm in trying.

Get the teacher to send home a calendar or agenda
It is always nice to have a clue as to how to start the conversation. An agenda can be helpful to give you this piece of information. If you know that your child had gym or went to the library, it can be a conversation starter.

Ask specific questions
Once you have your agenda with at least a snippet of information, you're set to ask questions. You can ask "what did you do in gym today", or even "did you play soccer in gym today". This might be just enough to get the conversation started.

Questions to ask your child's teacher

Sometimes it can be hard to get information from your child's teacher about what happens during the day. Likewise, it can be hard to get information from your child with ASD.

In our previous school, it was extremely difficult to get accurate information from the teachers. Often, we would get a response such as "he's doing fine". But fine can mean many different things:
1) Everything is going well
This was mean your child is following the routines, listening to directions, and interacting with the other children. Everything really is fine.
2)Your child is not disrupting the classroom
This one means that your child is not causing any problems for the teacher and other classmates. It also might mean that your child is involved in repetitive interests as a method of not being disruptive. But it also means that they are not necessarily learning anything and not interacting with the other children.
3) There are problems, but the teacher thinks they can handle it
This is what happened at our last school. We set up a meeting with the teacher early on in the school year to discuss what was happening. The teacher reported everything was going well. However, when we got his report card there were signs that this was not the case. For example it said, that he only follows directions when he wants to.

Here are some strategies you can try:
Determine the best way to communicate with the teacher
Determine which time of day is best for the teacher. For example, it may be best to try to call or meet during the teacher's spare versus after school. They may have other things they need to do after school (such as picking up their own kids).

Ask the right questions If you ask general questions, everyone's first instinct is to say things are going fine. You can start with this general question. However, you should follow up with more specific questions. Here are a few examples: Is he interacting with the other kids?, Has he had any disruptive behaviours?, Is he following classroom routines? Is he doing the same level of school work as the other kids?.

Set up a communication log
You can try developing a piece of paper that is quick for the teacher to fill out and gives you meaningful information. It could include a section for desired behaviour (asking questions, playing with the other children, finishing school work) and disruptive behaviour (engaging in repetitive interests, aggression to the other kids, yelling or crying, intolerance to loud noises). Make sure it is simple and is not time consuming.