RE: Sara : I.E.P.s ....

[Guest guest]

> ask. I wanted to ask you how do you approach your child's teacher

> about the I.E.P. saying not ready yet when a skill is never

> introduced ? I mean how do they know if a child can do anything if

> they never try to work with them on it ? (mom to Will 4 ASD)

You bring in your own examples of what your child can do in order to prove

to them that he IS ready. For example if he can recite his name, address,

and telephone number, there seems no reason not to work on letters and

numbers.

For other goals, like holding the crayon, you find out from the teacher

where she thinks he is on this skill, and then you work out step by step how

to get him to where you want him to be (age level skills). You can look up

age-by-age milestones and use those as goals.

This is an example from my own experience to demonstrate what you might do.

I have no idea if this is anything you would deal with or not.

For example, you want them to work on how he holds a crayon. The teacher

might see that as superfluous at the moment because he can't sit down at the

table to color. So you would compromise and maybe start with working on

helping him to sit at the table for x amount of time doing whatever he likes

the best -- whatever would motivate him to sit still -- and then work to

generalize sitting down to color. And/or you could suggest that he be

allowed to color standing at an easel or some such.

's current goal is 3 minutes, with the support of adaptive

equipment - a special chair cushion, a rocking chair, weights, sitting in

the teacher's lap for deep pressure (hugs) and movement (bouncing him on her

legs)...but without restraint; movement is a NEED and if he is not able to

sit still he should be encouraged to participate in large motor activities

such as jumping or climbing stairs -- and yes all of this is spelled out in

our IEP.

Oh btw, does not like painting with a brush or with his fingers. His

teacher puts paint in squeeze bottles & he drips it onto the paper. That

way he doesn't have to touch it or get messy. It takes a long time to dry

but the results are really quite fascinating to look at and touch. This is

actually really good for him to do because he has a very weak grip, so

squeezing the bottles is good therapy.

But, naturally, the teacher has to be willing to work with you on these

kinds of things. :/

Good luck!!

Oh and I am really really new to all this but the list is pretty good about

helping with IEP stuff. This year was our first and I know it's not a

very good one, but we got super lucky with the teacher!

-Sara.