Apraxia Network sept 30 meeting notes

[Guest guest]

Apraxia Network Meeting Notes Sept 30th 2009

Sorry that I took so long with these there was a lot to go through still

haven't finished.. I have so much information that I had to summarize it

all. Please contact Mr Dickman for specific questions.

The Apraxia meeting opened up at 7pm when Jeanne introduced Emerson Dickman

a special education lawyer who has a practice in Maywood. Mr Dickman also

belongs to many organizations. He can be reached at www.dickmanalliance.com,

and 201-909-0404. The night started off with a lot of questions on what the

difference between a 504 and an IEP was. What is ADAPT? IDEA? What is a

learning Disability? What it isn't? What is important a crisis of

confidence. What is Are you listening versus hearing what is being said at a

meetings. The IEP ,What isn't being said. " being honest and informative.

Example. PROGRAM-This is what we are going to do. This is who is going to do

it.

(Instructor.) Trained- this is how it is going to be done (with fidelity)

this is when it is going to be done ( 3x's per week.

This is where it is going to be done - pull out.

The IEP smoke and mirrors. All goals 80% or less, accuracy = mastered.

Demonstrate appropriate conversational skills and appropriate times. Will

write sentences of varying length and complexity Use models to represent and

solve problems. Read with meaning and expression. Be able to read write

speak and listen for a variety of purposes. How old is the student? Who

grade is the student in? What does the student know? What is the student

expected to learn? There are no baselines. There is no bench marks. There is

no progress monitoring, and no commitment to adjust instruction necessary to

meet a less than expected rate of growth. Educational professionals ask

parents to sit back and let them do their jobs, by doing so parents are dis

empowered as participants in their child's education. Instead of

facilitating, reinforcing and monitoring their child's progress they spend

their energies monitoring the school's success. This is no a new thought!

The issue parents have an obligation to protect and nurture their child. The

law requires parents to be equal partners in the IEP process.

Something about Conflict. Two major types of conflict. Consensus conflict-

occurs when opinions ideas, or beliefs differ resources competition exists

when there are limited resources to meet the needs of both parties. 4

subtypes- real ( veridical) conflict exists and is perceived to exist.

Latent conflict exists, but is no perceived to exist. False conflict is only

perceived to exist . There is no conflict when conflict does not exist and

is not perceived to exist. Conflict 2 types, consensus- resource. -4

subtypes 1/ read, 2 latent, 3 false and 4 no conflict.

Consensus, conflict, real goal of education. One half parent's perspective,

a happy and productive child. Other half schools perspective adequate

academic development. The goad of education - prepare all children to lead

independent adult lives to the maximum extent possible. The congress of the

united states) Education academic development emotional development social

development meta cognitive development adaptive and vocational development

" ability is nothing without opportunity " Napoleon I. Resource conflict

read reallocation of limited resources. Personnel time, space money. Patents

perspective the good of the child. School's perspective, the good of the

whole child. Fighting words. Attach the problem not the person. The finger

of blame does not point to solutions. Where and how you sit make a

difference at the meeting table. ation is gained by empowering parents

not by over whelming them. Cecil Dust, happiness, goodwill and trust are

contagious, it is hard to dislike someone who is happy. Besides a positive

attitude will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Herm

albright.

Active listening. Let the other guy finish. Ask clarifying questions

paraphrase to display your understanding. Meta meaning- consider the meta

meaning shat is really being said or asked. Fixed pre bias inability to talk

about isues not on the agenda. Self serving bias, self serving bias

predisposes an individual to attribute successes to internal forces and

failures. To forces beyond the individuals control. Parents are prone to see

the childs 'difficulty as a fault of the school, the school is prone to see

the child's difficulties as the fault of the parents of the child. Empower

parents help parents prepare for the meeting. Observe classroom, provide

opportunity to meet with case manager to review parents role at the IEP

meeting. Provide a tool to help parents organize their thoughts before the

meeting. eg strengths, weaknesses, goal, questions, we don't want to forget

to ask. The real challenge limited resources knowing the child is more

important than knowing the law. Intra individual profile, normal

distribution- a pattern of skills and abilities falls within a predictable

range above and below average potential. Promote visual spatial, (CRAP

compensate, remediate, accommodate and promote. (loved this one). Adaptive

functioning the physical mental and social ability necessary to carry out

the activities demanded by the culture in which one lives. A working

definition the term learning disability refers to neurobiological deficits

that are intrinsic to the individual and are deficient relative to other

neurobiological skills and ability. Such deficits result in deficiencies in

expected performance, in spite of quality instruction and predict

difficulties in the development of adaptive functioning. This definition

does not preclude the possibility that learning disabilities simply reflect

a variation of normal.

In other words a learning disability is a relative neurobiological

deficiency that places at risk the development of tan ability that is valued

by the culture in which individual is expected to perform. There were also

many charts too. (o) core neurological barioable that is predictive of

difficulty in the development of adaptive functioning. ( focal weakness).