Re: Library skills

[Guest guest]

> I am sorry it took me this long to stand up for my child's

rights, I believe in giving second and third, fouth chances but I

finally had enough and just spelled it out to them. >

> Carol

> She isn't Typical, She's Trisha!

This is how I had built my self-esteem and courage just wanted to

find answers to what I wanted for . I finally have had enough

and now the school district are being wonderful . Especially when

good results are shown on 's behavior . Starting from the

teacher to the very top of the Administration Special Education

Board . I was always stressed and what I know now, that everyone has

a role in our children's education . We've experienced some degree of

frustration and confusion at the amount of information we are faced

with . There is no " one size fits all " solution to helping a student

with a disability . Special Education is not a place . It is a

service specially designed to help with children cope with

disabilities and find strengths needed to compensate for their

learning differences . We must all become positive partners as we

work to help our child become the best student possible .

Irma, 13,DS/ASD.

[Guest guest]

Right on Carol!! i second that. shawna.

Re: Library skills

Gail,

don't let them try to sell you that bull! That's what the schools have been

telling me for years, is that it was better to work on social skills because

functionally Trisha wasn't ready for any kind of academics and I want you to

know we have proved them wrong this year. What all of our kids need are

teachers who believe in them and who are willing to work in all areas of our

children's education. I sat down with the teacher we have this year for a

long time explaining how I feel about Trisha being taught academics as much

as social skills and she agreed, she doesn't believe in just babysitting or

just giving them the basics she believes in giving them a rounded education

that includes all areas even if they have to be adapted or modified. I

remember her asking how did I want her to start with Trisha and I said start

with her like she has never been in school before and that is what she is

doing. Although nothing is ever perfect, things are so much better this year

and Trisha has learned since the beginning of this year to recognize the

letters A B C and the numbers 1-10 and has been able to match the colors red,

green, blue, yellow. Oh and she has mastered recognizing her first name and

they are starting on her recognizing her last name. Trisha can not read a

complete word yet nor can she count like we do yet but that will come in

time. The other thing we noticed is that it appears that Trisha's

accessments seem to be incorrect from the previous year (s). It looks like

her accessments were done incorrectly and because of being non-verbal they

just assumed she didn't know more because when accessing her they would ask a

question and Trisha did not have the means to answer so they up down that she

didn't know. It's great to watch this teacher because she tries many

different ways to access Trishas development instead of just asking

questions. That is how we found out she knows some of her colors and

recognizes some letters and numbers. In previous years I was told the

picture system was too abstract for Trisha but it's funny when the teacher

and the therapists started using the picture system with her on a consistant

basis, Trisha is doing pretty good with it. We were blessed this year with a

teacher who really seems to care about these kids, who has also worked at a

special needs camp and who keeps taking more classes on special education.

I'm sorry this is long but I thought it was very important that you know how

much a teacher who believes in her kids can make such a big difference in

their abilities. The teacher doesn't let a little thing like Trisha can't

read stop her from encouraging Trisha to look/read books. Trisha is a

mouther also, so the teacher has put clear contact paper on the paperback

books and that has helped alot. I just want to let everyone know that it's

so important to our children not to allow the schools to give up on them

before they even get started. I pushed every year for the system to do more

in educating Trisha but this year I stopped pushing and I just told them flat

out what I would or would not accept and I stood my ground. I wasn't ugly,

just firm. This year I told them the first time that her IEP wasn't being

followed we would go to due process because I was tired of playing their

games and I also let them know that I knew our rights and that I knew how to

contact the department of education and would do so if they didn't start

doing their jobs correctly. Now when I go into Trisha's class the teacher

has a copy of the IEP which she uses to make lesson plans and we are even

thinking we need to revamp the IEP because Trisha has mastered a few thing we

put on it from last year when they believed Trisha couldn't do anything but

because I insisted they work on academics they put recognizing letters,

numbers name etc into the IEP. This will be the first time for us having an

IEP meeting because of mastering some skills and adding new ones. Hang in

there, stick to your gut feelings about your children, usually they are

right.

Carol

She isn't Typical, She's Trisha!

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 11/8/01 6:23:52 AM Pacific Standard Time,

burnett@... writes:

<< Dear Gail,

I think it's imperative for ALL children to have access to books.

It's never too early to introduce books to children. I teach Kindermusik to

newborns & we have a literature component to the program. >>

Wow ! Kindermusik? Cool! Share, share, share. LOL We read here

all the time too. I don't even mind Seth chewing his books because at least

they are there if he wants to look at them, and we try all the time to read

*at* him LOL. Even the girls will sit and read his books to him, even

though he won't pay any attention to them. I don't remember EVER seeing a

book in Seth's class. The class that I observed, that was the bad one, had a

mini library set up in it. I was very impressed with that. Little table and

chair and a whole shelf of books. We've got the tub books, talking books,

squeaky books...you name it. LOL Being a homeschooler, we have hundreds of

books from preschool to junior high. LOL Share about the Kindermusik?

Gail :-)