Re: iep teams

May 12, 2004

,

You can ask for all of that stuff and even insist on it. You can insist on the

audiologist being there but no they don't always attend. Some schools make it a

point to attend but others don't. I haven't found our school audi to be helpful

at all but more arguementitive, but we needed her. The thing is that she wasn't

at our first meeting and they kept telling me that I needed to talk to her when

asking about an FM system. So it never did get into the IEP. This time I

insisted that she be there. He currently has one available to him but refused

to wear the head phones. I want the teacher and staff to be more firm with him

all around though because he needs more discipline, but they are used to working

with kids where they are at, and performs to meet others expectations, so

if their expectations are low he will meet that and nothing more. Anyway the

teacher has started using a soundfield system and so far he has had a great

response, he is more attentive and vocal, and even using his hands more too. We

are going to hold our next meeting in Aug. We haven't made changes to his

current IEP on paper, but they are going by the changes I said I wanted, they

aren't using the comm device anymore they are focusing on hand over hand sign if

he won't do it himself and auditory training and lip reading. We are going to

try to incorprate him into a more advanced class for children with communication

issues and he will have an aid during the summer, and then when we reconvien the

IEP meeting we will take his progress and what has or hasn't work into account

when comming up with his new IEP. My teem is being great but the audi turns out

was useless because she doesn't feel a system will help when the teacher or

therapist is working one on one with him. I brought up the background noise and

she argued that it isn't enough to detain his focus. I beg to differ, but

either way it turns out that they are willing to use one anyway. I was told in

the first meeting that we had to talk to her and they ended up using the system

without her say so, so I'm not sure how that works, next time I probably won't

ask for her to be there since she obviously doesn't know crap about classroom

background noise and the effects of it.

So In the end my point is that you can request that the audi be there, and if

you have a meeting soon and she isn't on the schedule then tell them you want

her there and that they can reschedule the meeting if they need to.

As far as services in the summer, yes they still need to follow his IEP, so if

that hasn't changed then the services can't either.

iep teams

Do you all always have the school audiologist on your IEP team? We had them

there for our very first IEP with and I assumed they would be at our next

one this Friday. I'm still waiting for the confirmation letter with the list

of everyone who will be in attendence.

I just got off the phone with 's teacher and when I inquired about the

people who would be at the meeting she told me that the audiologist and the

special ed coordinator didn't feel it was necessary for the audiologists to be

in

the IEP meeting. WHAT? I was so surprised. I'm already lacking support in

that I have no one that really seems to get the auditory challenges

faces.

She even told me that the audiologists are recommending that they not

include any of their services in the IEP. How could this be? I immediately

told

the teacher that I need someone that has knowledge of 's hearing issues as

it pertains to the classroom and education. She said that the Hearing

itinerant would be serving in that function. But I know for a fact that she

doesn't

have any CI experience and I doubt she has knowledge of audiology issues

because I believe her background is with signing deaf. This is already making

me so

nervous. I had just talked to the audiologist last week and she was telling

me that they were going to be testing 's hearing aid this week and doing

some booth testing with his CI and hearing aid. I just assumed these results

would be discussed in the IEP meeting and we would discuss next year's plan.

I

also wanted an evaluation of the current soundfield system and I need someone

knowledgable about the system to be able to determine if we should continue

with it or if there are other options. Geez, what are they thinking?

Am I overreacting? Am I missing something here? It's only our second IEP so

I'm still learning the ropes.

Also we want to decide on summer services. I was told that can qualify

for 1/2 day preschool to maintain fine motor skills but not for speech and

language goals. The teacher doesn't feel that he would regress with language

and

I suppose she doesn't think he's on the cusp of any emerging skills.

(another shocker for me) When discussing the summer classroom environment at

the pre

meeting I got the impression that I couldn't really ask for anything for

as it pertains to his speech and language issues. Okay, if I accept that

they're not going to be addressing speech and language goals can I not still

expect them to make accomodations because of his disability? Sometimes I

think

they forget that he still needs someone who understands how he listens and

understands and what challenges he faces in the classroom. Afterall even if

they

are working on fine motor skills they're still instructing him orally and he

needs to be able to hear them! I'm really confused about this. They are

making

me feel that I shouldn't expect the summer staff to have any special training

in hearing impairment. In the least I expect them to replace his batteries

or even understand what it means if his light starts flashing. Their response

was... well, I don't know if the teacher would be expected to do that. Maybe

the speech pathologist would be responsible for that. I can't settle for

someone outside the classroom to have to be located and then come down to the

classroom for that responsibility. I don't trust that one bit. I'm so

flabbergasted. Someone please tell me if I'm off base here. I need to go in

with the

right frame of mind. Thanks for listening.

K

mom to , 3.5 years, CI 7/30/02

May 12, 2004