NEED SPEECH IEP HELP ASAP!!!!

March 16, 2010

We have an IEP meeting tomorrow morning for our 4 year old apraxic son. I have

listed the goals from his SLP below, which we don't have issue with. What we do

have issue with is that he has only been receiving speech therapy 2 days per

week, and we've been providing private therapy 2 days per week (insurance

doesn't cover, so not cheap). We really want them to increase Austin to at

least 3 sessions per week. When we have brought it up in the past, they said

since he had not regressed, they could not offer him any additional therapy.

How can we fight/convince them to increase his therapy? Thanks!

Language Goals:

Austin has continued to make steady gains in the area of articulation. He is

now producing early developing sounds(p,b,m,d,n,t,k,g,h,w) at the phrase level

in CVC, VCV, VC, and CVCV(with changing vowels only) combinations. He is

producing CVCV with changing vowels and consonants at the carrier phrase

level(ex: I see, I want) with consistently, but continues to omit the middle

sound in 2 syllable words beyond that level. Austin continues to have

difficulties with mult-syllable words, as well as, pairing 2 consonants together

in words with blends(ie: spoon, star). Austin continues to need modeling for /f/

in the beginning of simple words. He is producing many later developing

sounds(sh,s,ch,j,z) in the beginning and end of simple CVC words as well. When

the context is not know, it continues to be very difficult at times to

understand what Austin's message is. This impacts his ability to share ideas

and communicate effectively within his early learning environment at times.

#1 Austin will produce all early developing sounds in CVCV(with changing vowels

and consonants ie: dirty, muddy, pony) words at the sentence level 90% of the

time.

#2 Austin will produce early developing sounds in CVCV +CVC words(ie: pony ride,

bunny hop) at the phrase level 90% of the time.

#3 Austin will produce early developing sounds in 3 syllable words(ie: banana,

tornado) at the phrase level 90% of the time.

#4 Austin will produce CCVC(ie: spoon, blue) words at the carrier phrase level

90% of the time.

#5 Austin will produce all early developing sounds in CVC words at the sentence

level 90% of the time.

*early developing sounds include: p,m,b,n,t,d,h,w,f,k,g

Articulation Goals:

Austin has made steady growth in the area of language and communication in his

early learning environment at school. He is using language to participate in

circle time activities, occasionally needing reminders to use words while

singing. He will answer questions consistently(with the exception of 'when'

?'s), make appropriate comments, and is just beginning to share experiences

related to the story or activity when prompted. He is able to ask questions and

make requests throughout his day. Austin is using many 3-4+ word sentences(ex:

hey, that's my chair, I don't wanna hop, He's too heavy, I have muscles, I put

pirate in, I want still jump, I want play games). He is consistently using is

auxiliary verbs + -ing verb marker, as well as, using I/you, he/she pronouns in

his sentences. Austin continues to need modeling for /s/ and /ed/ verb markers,

as well as, use of his/her, they/we pronouns in his sentences. Austin is

labeling newly presented vocabulary with ease. He is able to label categories

that various items belong to. Austin is able to identify objects that are being

described to him. He is understanding and labeling a variety of spatial

concepts, and is able to follow directions that incorporate those concepts.

Austin's delays in language, in conjunction with his articulation, impact his

ability to express himself clearly in his early learning environment.

#1 Austin will use 4-6 word utterances that include: a)pronouns his/her, they/we

b. auxiliary verbs(are,can,do) c. verb endings /ed/ and /s/ 90% of the time

#2 Austin will answer when questions 90% of the time.

#3 Austin will share an experience related to a story/activity or talk about a

remote event(what he did before school/over weekend, etc.) independently 90% of

the time.

_________________________________________________________________

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March 16, 2010

am running out but found this one archive to post for now which may

help -please do search the archives either here or Big Tent and look a the

discussion board at http://www.apraxia.org as well as read The Late Talker book

for more information for now. I hope to get more specifically to you to answer

this later -Cheryl's at school now so will see if I can reach her later today:

Re: IEP meeting for apraxia- (HELP PLEASE)

So much of this doesn't sound right. Just hang tight I'm going to get you help

from 2 incredible people, award winning educators Cheryl and Kathy (who I copied

on here), and for now I have a bunch of archives below. Below are just a few

clips from Cheryl- and I'll call her later and see if she can answer...Cheryl is

our very shy VP award winning teacher/SLP http://cherab.org/about/cheryl.html

and in order for her to answer I have to call her and type what she says which

I'll do.

and one from our also now mainly not active as her boys are all doing AMAZING

(she's been a member since her twins were little and an incredible advocate- and

a HUGE fan of ProEFAs and now nutriiveda too) award winning teacher Kathy (I'll

see if she can answer this as well as it's so bizarre and Kathy loves the

bizzare as you'll see from below) And here's a link when Kathy won " teacher of

the year " in Seaside NJ 2006 http://www.ssheights.k12.nj.us/teacher_of_year.html

2007 http://www.ocgazette.com/trschools/4-20-07.swf and I'm sure if I kept

searching she's got all the other years too

PS -and Kathy's the one in this group that came up with the idea of bringing The

Late Talker book and (you sign) the inside as if I signed it and tell them that

we are friends- they won't know if I am or not- but many are aware that we were

asked to write another book -and if we did we would need more stories which we

would (again) pull from here with parent permissions of course.

And PPS -there are so many wrongs in the following paragraph alone you wrote I

don't know where to start -but won't get Jersey sarcastic (which I do when

people say or do things that don't get it) and let the experts handle all that

is so wrong in this... but off the top...get all new therapists (Dave Hammer too

also said " they'll only offer group " ???? (You say you have an eval from

him)...Did they mean " they will ONLY offer group " (translate to me would be

don't expect anything else which would be crazy for a professional to say to

you) or " they will only OFFER group " (translates to me that to start they'll

only offer group and you'll have to advocate for more)

and either way - as far as " they'll only offer group " I'd say smile and say

(with your tape recorder there of course- let them know you will be bringing it

as they need to know) " So you are telling me you will only offer group therapy

for my son regardless of the evaluations and expert opinion on what is

appropriate for him? That's interesting. Would you mind putting that in

writing for me and explain why? "

" My current Therapists and my EI Coordinator have all told me that my School

District will only offer Group Therapy..... they made it seem like it will

not make a difference if I print out articles that support individual vs

group therapy in the treatment of Apraxia. I am also worried because an

evaluation from Dave Hammer, an Apraxia expert in my area states " SUSPECTED

moderate to severe Apraxia "

And don't forget this regardless of diagnosis!!!

http://www.cherab.org/information/speechlanguage/therapymatrix.html

(it's developed for school based SLPs as a model of what's appropriate)

and PPP(?)S -It was a Pennsylvania school system that was sued for abuse against

our real life little mermaid Ketchum -and it was the Pennsylvania school

system that LOST!!!! More about the law suit and educational aspects here

http://www.cherab.org/news/.html

(the Ketchums have since moved to Georgia) and way more how finally now at 25

the little girl who grew up silent with apraxia in Pennsylvania is finally

finding her voice, and her life, thanks to nutriiveda!!!! (in her case that's

for SURE as the Ketchums at this point have tried everything else out there

under the sun -have seen just about every expert except a few that consider

apraxia " childhood apraxia of speech " and said it was too late to help Mel...not

kidding -but THEY WERE WRONG!!!!! (boy does it feel good to write that but I

won't say anyone's name who said it but some of them are very well known...I

guess if Mel's story is out there the world would figure out how horrible and

cruel the name childhood apraxia of speech really is huh???)

http://littlemermaidmelanie.wordpress.com/about

(I'm sure Robin will speak to you!!!!)

Anyway -I wasn't going to say anything because stuff like what you are going

through does bring out the Jersey in me for sure!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kayce I know you posted a message after this about what the one

special ed attorney said. Just to let you know I informed Cheryl of

that as well when I spoke with her today. (and for those that don't

know the shy Miss award winning teacher SLP for the state of NJ and

VP of CHERAB Cheryl -here's her page

http://cherab.org/about/cheryl.html )

Today Cheryl was driving in the car on her way home from the school.

She talked just as fast and she's still a wealth of information.

Which this grouplist came with a recorder!

Notes from Cheryl the best I could keep up with her (I researched the

links for ya!)

" I suggest you call SPAN and ask for their attorney list of special

education lawyers. In addition they offer guidance over the phone.

They will not provide an advocate but will tell what the process is

so that you can advocate for your child. Also The Education Law

Center in Newark NJ http://www.edlawcenter.org/ deals with special

education issues and has a list of attorneys.

I don't know of any special education attorney that takes cases on

contingency and they are all very expensive. Diane Autin

http://www.tapartnership.org/consultant_pool/resumes/DAutin.pdf is

the co director of SPAN and a special education attorney. "

(not sure if this helps but found this person as the Regional

Director for NJ from this same site and to everyone else in the US -

every state has a coordinator

http://www.tapartnership.org/Regions/RegionI/default.asp )

" I would call SPAN http://www.spannj.org/ and ask if she (Diane

Autin) is taking on any new private special education cases because

she's the best.

a Leib is another special education lawyer based out of New

Brunswick NJ and call her through the NJ Coalition for Inclusive

Education http://njcie.net/ it's a group that wants children that

are classified placed in the mainstream with appropriate supports.

a used to be an administrative law judge for the state of NJ.

Sussan and Greenwald in Spotswood NJ have been a great resource to

the CHERAB group http://www.special-ed-law.com/

If you can not afford a special education attorney your best bet is

to contact SPAN. SPAN is listed in the education handbook that they

received from the school. (973-642-8100) Follow the process that

SPAN gives you to fight this. SPAN has the written documents that

you can send for for a nominal fee (around 5 dollars?) for that will

guide you through the process. Very thorough. And again they will

guide you over the phone. "

(I asked Cheryl if she is willing to be an advocate but she said due

to school she doesn't have time. She said advocates charge around

200 dollars and hour or more. Perhaps if you list the county where

you live there is a parent or professional that's in this group

willing to help you for free or for a nominal fee?)

" Also The Education Law Center in Newark NJ

http://www.edlawcenter.org/ provides some special education guidance

over the phone. There is a group in Teaneck NJ " (she couldn't

remember the name but said there is a huge amount of resources in

Bergen County NJ -so when you call SPAN ask them)

(For the IEP)

" You want to make sure that the words " best practice " are in the IEP

and not the words " best method " . If you say " best method " the team

realizes that they are dealing with someone that thinks they know all

that child needs and it drives the team crazy. Best practice means

we have to try this and see if this works and if it doesn't we can

try something else. Method limits you but practice opens it up to

try different strategies until you find a method that works for that

child. You have not decided upon a method yet.

For example can insist that the best method for their apraxic child

is PROMPT and want that written as best method in the IEP. Using the

words " best method " may not open the door to other strategies which

best practices does and Prompt can be included in best practice.

PROMPT is very good but some children are tactile defensive and it's

very difficult if you can't get near the child's face. "

(About sign)

" Research has shown us that when a child is exposed to gestures along

with oral language their spoken speech improves. And ASHA has done

numerous research project of gesture language leading to verbal

output enhancement. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Again I typed as she spoke so hope I have it all clear:

" In order to be qualified for services there needs to be educational

impact that greatly impacts his educational experience. The

educational impact must affect his reading, writing and speaking.

The therapist would have to say that his speech is not affecting his

educational impact.

The fact that SLP does not have the time to evaluate new children in

the first grade is not a valid reason for the child not to be

evaluated.

All mom has to do is call ASHA and say the SLP doesn't " have time to

evaluate my son " to the ASHA school affairs committee and they

will " go crazy " because that is not a clinical valid reason.

What is the response to intervention? If they don't want to pick him

up as IEP classification why didn't the SLP use a consultation model

with the parent and classroom teacher as to how to help the child

communicate intelligibly. I can't even believe this.

As far as what happened in kindergarten some schools do follow the

guide that your school was using. If mom didn't agree with that at

that time she should have gone due process to secure speech therapy.

If the child is unintelligible it can affect self esteem and how he

plays and interacts with other children. He may not even want to go

to school because the other children don't understand him and mom

should have taken him for evaluations at that time.

Have mom call her department of special education and begin due

process. She'll have to have an independent evaluation first that

should cover how often her child needs therapy and what type,

individual or group. Who knows if it goes to due process mediation

the administrative law judge may decide based on the individual

service that the.child is owed additional speech services since he

hasn't been receiving either direct or consultative services since

kindergarten and he is now 7 years old and unintelligible. She

really has a strong case. It's irrelevant whether he has apraxia or

not as he is unintelligible. "

I then informed Cheryl that I thought you said he is doing well in

school. This perplexed her as of course that's not typical.

" Have they made accommodations or modifications or for his lack of

verbal acuity when grading him? If he is doing well in school and he

is given accommodations and modifications so he is grading well in

school that may be how the school is getting around providing

services. This again is why the mother needs a private evaluation. "

She did also say that sadly this may be yet another reason why it

would have been best to advocate sooner. If he is doing well in

school and his speech does not impacts his educational

experience..they may use that as their reason against services for

your child. (or try to use that)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: IEP's

Hey Lori!

I just left you a message today! Anyway -I was talking to Cheryl

tonight -I hadn't seen your post so I didn't ask, but

it came up for some other aspect of the IEP and I believe she said

that they need to provide you with a written IEP within 10 days of

the completion of the evaluations/testing -even if they just provide

you with a draft -so ask for that. They need to put it in writing if

they say they can't, and you would need to agree with that and sign

it for them not to provide it by then -I believe it's one of the

laws. If I'm messing this up she'll correct me. I'm sure she'll let

you (and us) know!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One on One Therapy

A Review of Apraxia Remediation

The Cherab Foundation gratefully acknowledges permission to print

the following, cited by Hecker, a parent advocate for her

apraxic son, .

" The type of treatment appeared to influence whether patients

improved. More patients improved and improvement was greater in

Group A, individual stimulus-response treatment, than in Group B,

group treatment. These result imply the way to treat AOS (Apraxia Of

Speech) is to treat is aggressively by direct manipulation and not

by general group discussion. This is consistent with what has been

recommended (Rosenbek, 1978).

The type of treatment appeared to influence whether improvement

occurred or not. Four of the five patients who did not improve

received group treatment with no direct manipulation of their motor

speech deficit. " Apraxia of Speech: Physiology, Acoustics,

Linguistics, Management. Rosenbek et al. 1984

" The frequency of professional speech assistance is critical in the

habilitation of children with developmental apraxia of speech. This

disability call for all-out attention and deserve serious

instruction to the limits of the child's attention and motivation.

When normal children begin their formal education, they do not go to

school two or three times a week for just a half-hour at a time,

even in kindergarten. Thus, I do no expect to provide special

education for children with developmental apraxia of speech on a

cursory basis, for it may be the most important part of the entire

education. " Current Therapy of Communication Disorders, Dysarthria

and Apraxia. H. Perkins 1984

" They use the term developmental apraxia to describe a disorder that

is not confined to the phonologic and motoric aspects of speech

production, but includes difficulty in selection and sequencing of

syntactic and lexical units during utterance productions. Most

clinicians agree that planning the appropriate treatment approach

and methods is crucial to the efficacy of intervention. A variety of

factors can facilitate treatment of DAS. DAS is often characterized

as being resistant to traditional methods of treatment. Group

therapy decreases the potential of responses per session for each

child and therefore, the motor practice needed by children with

apraxia and dysarthria. " Treatment of Motor Speech Disorders in

Children by Edythe Strand in " Seminars of Speech and Language " Vol.

16, No. 2. May 1995

" Early stages of treatment need to be carried out on a one-to-one

basis for it is only in this way that the patient can learn to

develop his own particular strengths and adopt compensatory measures

for weaknesses. " Disorders of Articulation, Aspects of Dysarthria

and Verbal Apraxia. Margaret 1984 " These children do not seem

to make good progress with the usual approaches to clinical

treatment of articulation problems. Carefully structures programs

that combine muscle movement, speech sound production, and sometimes

even work on grammar seem to get better results. " " Developmental

Verbal Dyspraxia " on Healthtouch Online, ASHA website

" Children must be seen one-on-one, at least in the early stages of

treatment. " Kaufman, author of the Kaufman Speech Praxis Test

and expert on Apraxia, on The Kaufman Children's Center for Speech

and Language Disorders website .

" However, many of the theories, principles, and hierarchies

described for adult apraxics are potentially helpful to the

clinician designing motor-programming remedial program for an

individual child. (We stress the word individual since the program

development for children with DAS must meet the individual, and

often unique, needs of each child.) " " Intensive services are needed

for the child with DAS. Children with DAS are reported to make slow

progress in the remediation of their speech problems. They seem to

require a great deal of professional service, typically done on an

individual basis. Therefore, clinicians working with DAS must

accommodate this need and schedule as much intervention time with

the child as the child and/or his/her schedule can allow. The

definition " intensive " varies from clinician to clinician and from

work setting to work setting. Rosenbek (1985), when discussing

therapy with adult apraxics, defines the word as meaning that the

patient and the clinician should have daily sessions: Macaluso

Haynes (1978), Haynes (1985), and Blakeley (1983) also advocate

daily remediation sessions. " Also, " our experience has been that the

overall outcome has been best for those children with DAS who were

identified as possibly exhibiting DAS and received services as very

young children. " Developmental Apraxia of Speech, Theory and

Clinical Practice. Penelope Hall et al. 1994

" We recommend therapy as intensively and as often as possible. Five

short sessions (e.g., 30 minutes) a week is better than two 90

minute sessions. Regression will occur if the therapy is

discontinued for a long-time (e.g. over the summer). Most of the

therapy (2-3/week) must be provided individually. If group therapy

is provided, it will not help unless the other children in the group

have the same diagnoses and are at the same level phonologically. "

Velleman, authority and published author on Apraxia, on her

website (velleman.html). " Our clinic has had tremendous success with

the half-hour format, we find these session to be very intense,

packed with therapy, and have little

down time. The earlier and more intensive the intervention, the more

successful the therapy. Group therapy can be effective for

articulation disorders and some phonological processing disorder,

but children with Apraxia really need intensive individual therapy. "

Lucker-Lazerson, MA, CCC-SLP, and Clinic Coordinator for the

ish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders San Diego, on

the Apraxia Kids website.

" A few major principles in particular have direct relevance to the

treatment of motor speech disorders. The most obvious, yet

surprisingly often disregarded, is that of repetitive practice.

Pairing of auditory and visual stimuli is included in most

approaches, and intensive, frequent, and systematic practice toward

habituation of a particular movement pattern is suggested instead of

teaching isolated phonemes. It is important to

consider the treatment needs of each child and attempt to find

creative solutions that

> allow frequent individual treatment for children that will most

benefit. "

Childhood Motor Speech Disorders Edythe Strand

" Given the controlled conditions stipulated in the studies..., it is

clear that speech dyspraxia can respond to therapy. All approaches

involved an intensive pattern of therapy. Even if not seen daily by

a therapist, patients carried out daily practice. " Acquired Speech

Dyspraxia, Disorders of Communication: The Science of Intervention.

Margaret M. Leahy 1989

" Consistent and frequent therapy sessions are recommended. The

intensity and duration of each session will depend on the child. At

least three sessions per week are recommended for the child to make

consistent progress. " Easy Does it for Apraxia-Preschool, Materials

Book. Robin Strode and Chamberlain

" In stark contrast, the children with apraxia of speech whose parent

stated that three quarters of their child's speech could be

understood following treatment, required 151 individual sessions

(ranging from 144-168). In other words, the children with apraxia of

speech required 81% more individual treatment sessions than the

children with severe phonological disorders in order to achieve a

similar function outcome. " Functional treatment outcomes for young

children with motor-speech disorders by in Clinical

Management of Motor Speech Disorders A.J. Caruso and E.A. Strand

1999.

(In addition to the information on this page, a great page on 1:1

therapy is at Apraxia-Kids)

1:1 Therapy Question Sent To Children's Apraxia Network:

Advice From our nonprofit's SLS/MA/ EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANT, Cheryl

- SLS/MA (Hi Cheryl you quiet little cutie you!

http://www.cherab.org/about/cheryl.html )

It is interesting to note that when a child is receiving Early

Intervention services in the home, therapy is 1:1. It is also

interesting to note that children as young as 6 months of age have

received 1:1 services. Every apraxic child is different, with a

diagnosis of severe apraxia, the child would benefit from 1:1

therapy. What data is the school SLP (Speech Language Pathologist)

presenting indicating that the age of 5 is too young for 1:1

services?

Remember when a request for services is not given as requested, the

denying party must give a written rationale as to why. The IEP

(Individualized Education Program) is an individualized Education

Program. How will the SLP (Speech & Language Pathologist) address

the severe oral motor needs of the child within the group setting?

What are the short and long term goals and objectives that are

specific to the nature of this child's severe apraxia? Does the SLP

plan to devote x amount of minutes providing 1:1 therapy to your

child within the group setting? Your child's disability of apraxia

affects his involvement and progress in the general curriculum and

access to nonacademic and extra curricular activities due to the

fact that he is not able to communicate appropriately to school

personnel when needed and communicate effectively through speech

and/or writing to class- mates and teachers. The severity of his

disability warrants 1:1 speech therapy intervention. Your child's

disability of apraxia of speech affects his ability to engage in age

relevant behaviors that typical students of the same age would be

expected to be performing or would have achieved {IDEA-Code of

Federal Regulations (C.F.R.): 34 C.F R.300.347 (a)(1)(i) Statue 20

United State Code (U.S.C.) 1414 (d)(1)(A)(i)(1).

I am requesting that the parent draft a letter to the Dr. of the

Child Study Team including the information listed above. Indicate

that you are not in agreement with the type /amount/duration of the

speech therapy services that will be provided to your child. State

that you are seeking 1:1 therapy services for your child because...

Send the letter certified receipt return requested. Send a copy to

the SLP, the District Superintendent of Schools, and Board of

Education President. Severe Apraxia requires the parent to advocate

for 1:1 services in the area of speech therapy.

http://www.cherab.org/information/speechlanguage/therapyintensity.html

Here's some more from Speechville including one quote from apraxia

kids the website that originally built and hosted for over 7

years.

http://www.speechville.com/diagnosis-destinations/apraxia/speech-therapy-frequen\

\

cy.html

It's also worked for people to bring in The Late Talker book which

of course has in it the severity intervention matrix. (we also were

granted permission to put this up on the CHERAB and Speechville

websites) And as Kathy, a kindergarten teacher; single mom of apraxic

twins from this group always says -you can let

them know you know the authors and that we are interested in what

the outcome for our next book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One message from Kathy (single mom of 4 boys including apraxic twins;

kindergarten teacher)

some IEP mtgs are bizzare

TAPE RECORD!!!!! I live in NJ, but assume it is legal everywhere..although we

all know that the " CST Professionals " make up their own district laws...(at

least mine does)...so after writing this I probably will not have a job...

Hey ..maybe Disney needs a tour guide..

I am a teacher and a mom with 3 classified kids..so I sit on both sides of the

table.

If you are going to tape record I suggest letting them know as I was told (from

probably someone on this site) that if I record then of course they do and if

they cannot find a tape recorder or cassette then your scheduled mtg could be

cancelled...but I have on tape the many idiotic, ridiculous things that if it

was not on tape you would not believe me. One example was when I questioned the

score that my then 4th grader rec'd on his tri-ennial educational eval...I

questioned how we were going to use these results in the IEP..how could be

incorporate them so that we could see some success....because in my district

they open the drawer and pull out the already made IEPs...(what law is

that?)...the LD said to me (on tape) that I really needn't worry as she has many

10th, 11th and 12th graders that cannot read on the 5th grade level....I often

think I am on the show Candid Camera...so of course, I told her that that did

not make me feel any better...it made no sense..so I guess I was supposed to be

happy that my son reached a mark where the kids graduate from...

Another time, I asked for a sensory diet to be incorporated during a mtg and

they all looked at me and said that we would have to talk about that another

time as the SLP would have to be there because she would be the one to talk

about FOOD...WHAT?? and I said that it was not about food....blah blah blah

My twins are apraxic and their 3 yr eval was months ago..they are classified

COMMUNICATION IMPAIRED...so the mtg was to determine what tests they should

take...so now that you are still reading and know the kind of district that I am

dealing with, I am sure you must know what test they were not

considering....they were not going to give them a speech and lang eval...only an

educational...so again I questioned their reasoning as that is why they are

classified...

I think the next book written should be one that could be called " THE RIDICULOUS

THINGS SAID AT IEP MEETINGS THAT ARE TOTALLY AGAINST THE LAW. I hate writing,

but have tons of things I could add...

from not allowing a kid to be OT evaled unless they are classified (against the

law) to having kids that are eligible to be classified and not classifying them

or classifying them and giving them NO SERVICES!!!!

Another mistake on the current Speech and Lang eval that I mentioned above was a

paragraph about each twin. It was the teacher interview and consisted of perhaps

4 sentences...the last sentence said that the teacher was concerned about their

lack of eye contact...so with the psychologist, SLP, Social Worker (their case

mgr), the Resource Room teacher and Regular Ed teacher all present I asked if I

could read the paragraph---written by the SLP from what the teacher told her...

When I read the part about the teacher's concern, the teacher said " I never said

that " ....so with all heads turning, the SLP said oh that must be an error....

I have twins so the next teacher enters and I do the same thing and that twin's

teacher says " I never said that " ...again the SLP says " That is an error, I'll

fix that " ...that was about the 10th error that I found and I finally kindly

pleaded that next time could the " errors " be fixed before I get to the mtg...

On a Speech IEP yrs ago for my then 4 th grader, who needed only the R sound

" fixed " , the IEP said that he was to learn sign language...another error and

changed without a revision mtg..

So for all the parents/ guardians going through mtgs where the " professionals "

are clearly not knowledgeable, or are told do say or do things which are clearly

not in our children's best interest, don't give up, try not to get upset during

the mtgs..(I had to really work on that area....like not saying something that I

would truely regret later) and keep learning the laws..which I know we shouldn't

have to..and if you stay with a group such as this one, you'll get the support

and knowledge needed to keep going and a place to vent...

..kathy..who will probably be in the unemployment line, sleeping in a tent

somewhere with my 4 kids ....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And because I don't want this to be all about " bad " educators

Re: problems with " educators "

Hi !

As always good and bad in all professions. And I'm sure that as a

teacher you are at times horrified by the lack of involvement from

some of the parents so it works both ways. I happen to know that

you are right in how many teachers do have to buy their own supplies

for class. One of my friends, Ann, is a teacher. Ann had a gun

pulled on her by a student she had given detention to when she worked in

Irvington, NJ !!!! Her immediate

response she told us one of anger -she yelled " You put that gun down right this

minute young man! " And he did. She said she didn't know it was real. Can you

believe that?! That was about 3 or 4 years ago now. So teachers

have rights to complain too -don't apologize -if we all share it

will lead to understanding.

Cheryl , CHERAB's VP and award winning teacher is

just one of the many wonderful teachers in this group.

http://www.cherab.org/about/cheryl.html And Kathy our resident

mom/kindergarten teacher always fills in the other side. I love

both Cheryl and Kathy's advice to me to all the stuff that went on

with Tanner.

Carnell from NC has heard nothing but incredible good things

about one of the most famous special ed teachers we all know today -

Clay Aiken. You may all want to go out and buy his new CD for two

reasons. Number one is here

http://www.wral.com/news/2219698/detail.html

And number two is that once I told Tanner that Clay is a teacher

that teaches children to talk he is Tanner's favorite singer. (the

other day we had to drive an hour and Tanner wanted to listen to

only Clay Aiken the whole way)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and about the positive of being an advocate

Re: advice about school and a ?

Hi Diane!

Actually –just like you being a rebel behind the scenes to protect

the parents –there are other school personal that go out of their

way to help the parents help the children. I actually have been

fortunate to have found a few teachers like this both in my

children's teachers as well as in working with CHERAB. I'm one of

the parents who has been told " Please don't tell anyone I'm telling

you this, I could lose my job, but… " and was informed of information

to help my child.

Cheryl MA CCC/SLS/Educational Consultant years ago

grew tired on sitting in IEP meeting after IEP meeting watching

parents cry while their children's services were inappropriately

stripped away due to lack of knowledge on the parents part. At

first she got in trouble for sticking up for these parent's

children –and then she began to receive recognition for it and was

asked to give lectures to others. Out of the state of NJ 2 years

ago there were 800 teachers nominated for the Award of Excellence in

Teaching –and out of that Cheryl was one of the three selected as

the recipricant of the Award of Excellence for Teaching in NJ!

Cheryl can be seen on commercials still all over NJ representing NJ

Education.

I don't always bring tape recorders to the IEP meetings –it depends

if I believe there is a game going on. I did bring one to Tanner's

recent IEP. I not only brought a tape recorder –I also at one point

said " I'm here to make a difference and hopefully make things better

for my son and others. I mean Florida is 49th in the country in

education, so there is room for improvement here. " Then paused a

second, and added " well actually –if you think about it –it can't

get much worse now can it?! " And I started laughing.

Then a few days later a member of the exceptional student services

here called me in Florida who was at my recent IEP meeting. I was

asked to present at a conference on education here in Florida in

November. There will be representatives from the Universities

presenting as well and I was told that " most people don't know how

to advocate for their child and we want you to talk about what you

do " I'll give all of you more information at the conference I'll

present at when I have more details!

I don't believe I'm hated in the school. I was also elected as the

PTO's Director of Fund Raising (without running for it!) I love

many of the school personal I've sat in IEP meetings with –and I

also realize that much can be a game. I don't go in nasty –but

believe me –I do know how to stand up in a professional way to

anyone that tries to pull a fast one on my child's future. Good

teachers, I've been told by teachers, look for parents like us to

help make a difference –because sometimes their hands are tied.

In addition-we have many school professionals on this list including

Cheryl (who is one of my best friends and also the VP of CHERAB.) I

stand by that if they are here –they are awesome. Anyone that is

out to learn more how to help our children is –and that includes us,

the parents.

=====

March 16, 2010

Thanks ! I had read the archives, but find we are a bit in the in-between

category. Austin's private SLP did an evaluation in January, and he was at age

level for language was 104 (avg 85- 115) or (4 yrs and 5 months), but his

articualtion score was 77 (avg 85-115) or age equivalency of 2 yrs 7 months.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

From: kiddietalk@...

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:28:23 +0000

Subject: [ ] Re: NEED SPEECH IEP HELP ASAP!!!!