Kindergarten help please!!!

[Guest guest]

Isaac's teacher phoned me after school today and requested that I come in after

school on Thursday so we can talk about him. Her topics were: how do we

discipline him; is he understanding the work being done; what does he need to

be working on; how will we grade him; what am I getting from him at home; etc.

This is where I need help!!

He is obviously not understanding the work being done at school because no one

is modifying it! Who is supposed to do that? He's bringing home papers about

noticing the difference between uppercase/lowercase letters and I don't even

think he knows what letters even are. How am I supposed to know how he is to be

graded? I'm sure they're worried about the " no child left behind " here. I

don't " get " much from him at home because he's not very verbal. He isn't like

the typical kid who comes home and you can say, " what did you do at school

today? " and you'll get the whole story! You all understand this I'm sure.

His goals are too few in his IEP (I'm putting them at the bottom of the e-mail)

and I need to know what SPECIFIC goals should be included in an IEP for a

kindergarten student who has DS! If anyone can please give me some help/info by

Thursday I'd greatly appreciate it. At the time his IEP was written, we had

asked for an extra year in the EC program but were denied it. So, the way I

figure it is that they must now deal with him and make modifications. Am I

wrong here?

Thanks,

Jill

Mom to Isaac (5.5, DS)

Here are his current goals:

Speech:

Goal: Isaac will improve articulation

Benchmark: Isaac will imitate clapping out each word of a phrase/sentence or

use alternative methods to learn segmentation of sentence elements.

Benchmark: Isaac will attempt correct word productions

Goal: Improve receptive language skills.

Benchmark: follow 2-step directions.

Benchmark: Identify descriptive concepts such as big/little, wet/dry, etc.

Benchmark: Identify quantity concepts such as " some " and " the rest of " .

Goal: Improve expressive language skills

Benchmark: Imitate simple question words (why, what where)

Benchmark: Increase usage of 3 word string utterances.

Benchamrk: Increase usage of -ing verb forms.

Physical Therapy:

Goal: Improve muscle strength within both ankles and lower extremeties

Benchmark: Jump 2-footed over rope hanging 3 inches off floor w/o losing

balance.

Occupational Therapy:

Goal: Improve fine motor skills

Benchmark: Use both hands appropriately in 2-handed activities.

Benchmark: Make a minimum of 3 attempts at a challenging fine motor activity.

Classroom:

Goal: Improve language and pre-readiness skills in the classroom

Benchmark: When shown 20 pictures/objects from thematic units, Isaac will

identify & label each.

Benchmark: Label and identify 8 basic colors and 8 geometric shapes.

Benchmark: Match letters of the alphabet and begin to label individual letters.

[Guest guest]

wow, haven't they ever had a child with an IEP before? I will address the

classroom goals only since this is where the teacher fits in best I think.

I know with Nic we had the color and shape goals and some pre writing goals like

Nic will draw vertical and horizontal lines independantly 5 out of 8 tries. or

with 85 % accuracy...something like that. for letters I believe we started with

letter recognition then moved up to letter labeling. As far as the grading goes,

they are to collect data like for instance, if he is to recognize the letters A

- F 5 out of 8 times, they need to ask your child 8 times to " point to the A "

and mark down how many right and wrong.

This should also be in the IEP I know Nic's is, there's a column on the IEP

after each goal/benchmark that says " Method of evaluation. "

Here's a sample from Nic's IEP, he's 7.5 but you'll get the gist...

In the classroom Nic will demonstrate functional readings skills by identifying

words from the Edmark functional reading series Signs Around You with 80%

accuracy on five out of five consecutive trial dates.

expected level of achievement: 80-100% 5 out of 5 consecutive test dates

Method of evaluation: data collection

once he can identify the words 5/5 consecutive days, he has mastered that goal.

of course your goals will be different and more appropriate for your child. but

the " grading " should be something they already know...geeze!

As for discipling him, that should all be spelled out in the iep also,

Bottom line, instead of meeting casually on Thursday you should request in

writing an IEP meeting. If the behavior requires " discipline " then you can also

request a Behavior Assessment (also in writing). This way everyone is on the

same page.

Hope this helped... Keep us informd

Di

[Guest guest]

Jill, What about computer games? What about social skills? Could he use some

assistive technology that speaks for him or a hand-made picture book for

communication, or signing? We were specific about what pictures we wanted

identified (i.e. animals, numbers). If he can sign, he can identify words with

pics. Hope this help.

Elaine

Kindergarten help please!!!

Isaac's teacher phoned me after school today and requested that I come in

after school on Thursday so we can talk about him. Her topics were: how do we

discipline him; is he understanding the work being done; what does he need to

be working on; how will we grade him; what am I getting from him at home; etc.

This is where I need help!!

He is obviously not understanding the work being done at school because no one

is modifying it! Who is supposed to do that? He's bringing home papers about

noticing the difference between uppercase/lowercase letters and I don't even

think he knows what letters even are. How am I supposed to know how he is to be

graded? I'm sure they're worried about the " no child left behind " here. I

don't " get " much from him at home because he's not very verbal. He isn't like

the typical kid who comes home and you can say, " what did you do at school

today? " and you'll get the whole story! You all understand this I'm sure.

His goals are too few in his IEP (I'm putting them at the bottom of the

e-mail) and I need to know what SPECIFIC goals should be included in an IEP for

a kindergarten student who has DS! If anyone can please give me some help/info

by Thursday I'd greatly appreciate it. At the time his IEP was written, we had

asked for an extra year in the EC program but were denied it. So, the way I

figure it is that they must now deal with him and make modifications. Am I

wrong here?

Thanks,

Jill

Mom to Isaac (5.5, DS)

Here are his current goals:

Speech:

Goal: Isaac will improve articulation

Benchmark: Isaac will imitate clapping out each word of a phrase/sentence or

use alternative methods to learn segmentation of sentence elements.

Benchmark: Isaac will attempt correct word productions

Goal: Improve receptive language skills.

Benchmark: follow 2-step directions.

Benchmark: Identify descriptive concepts such as big/little, wet/dry, etc.

Benchmark: Identify quantity concepts such as " some " and " the rest of " .

Goal: Improve expressive language skills

Benchmark: Imitate simple question words (why, what where)

Benchmark: Increase usage of 3 word string utterances.

Benchamrk: Increase usage of -ing verb forms.

Physical Therapy:

Goal: Improve muscle strength within both ankles and lower extremeties

Benchmark: Jump 2-footed over rope hanging 3 inches off floor w/o losing

balance.

Occupational Therapy:

Goal: Improve fine motor skills

Benchmark: Use both hands appropriately in 2-handed activities.

Benchmark: Make a minimum of 3 attempts at a challenging fine motor activity.

Classroom:

Goal: Improve language and pre-readiness skills in the classroom

Benchmark: When shown 20 pictures/objects from thematic units, Isaac will

identify & label each.

Benchmark: Label and identify 8 basic colors and 8 geometric shapes.

Benchmark: Match letters of the alphabet and begin to label individual

letters.

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 9/15/2004 3:33:28 PM Eastern Standard Time,

drf218@... writes:

> I know with Nic we had the color and shape goals and some pre writing goals

> like Nic will draw vertical and horizontal lines independantly 5 out of 8

> tries. or with 85 % accuracy...something like that. for letters I believe we

> started with letter recognition then moved up to letter labeling. As far as

> the grading goes, they are to collect data like for instance, if he is to

> recognize the letters A - F 5 out of 8 times, they need to ask your child 8

> times to " point to the A " and mark down how many right and wrong.

Jill,

Our goals were similar to these. The IEP goals are written by the OT for

fine motor goals, PT for gross motor, ST (speech) and the resource and classroom

teacher for academic goals, generally 3-4 goals each. I also write some based

on some things that I would like worked on. The goals are generally based on

his current level of ability and practical things he should achieve based on

his age and development. Then the team, which includes the therapists, sits

down and reviews the goals and how best to achieve them, some of which overlap.

For example, in kindergarten, the OT worked on letters, numbers, gross and

fine motor goals by playing a game where Nick throws a beanbag on a large

number or letter chart on the floor (like a hop scotch pad). He has to jump on

one

foot to pick up the bean bag, then write the letter/number on the chalk

board. It may start out by tracing the number on a worksheet (the kind with

dots

outlining the letter). If a number, he may also have to count that number of

an object.

Here the resource teacher modifies the curriculum. In kindergarten, the

teacher recommended a DynaMyte communication device which the school district

purchased. They use it a lot in school and Nick does very well with it. Prior

to

that he has a Picture Exchange System (PECS) to assist with communication,

but the DynaMyte is much easier. For " grading " , we use a combination of the

standard report card (only for the areas that apply) and a narrative of progress

based on teacher and therapist observations to monitor progress of his IEP

goals. I try to meet with them regularly, or at least drive him to school often

to get some informal feedback. The communication notebook is also good for

this.

Hope this helps, although you probably did not get it in time if your meeting

was today.

Donna