From Mom to Special Education Advocate

You sit down to read an email from your child’s school only to discover they are dodging the issue, question, or situation with condescending language when suddenly you feel your own temper start to flare and are flooded with emotions, STOP ! Do not hit the respond button. This rage we feel is our instinct when as parents we are seeing school agencies violating our children’s rights, but this reaction will not get you anywhere.   Unfortunately, emotions will not win the battle, but facts and the law will. Its these types of moments I tell families to take a breath, step away from the laptops and reset. You must let the dust settle before you respond. This is also where knowing the law and your child’s rights are essential. If you “roar” back as the mama or papa bear, most likely your emails will be ignored. You must go back look at the issue or issues at hand and pull out the FACTUAL data not the emotion.   I know this is difficult especially when it comes to our children ...

  If you are like most parents, when the annual IEP meeting rolls around you feel an increase of emotions. The anxiety, the defensiveness, the frustrations. Feelings that only an IEP parent can truly understand as what can be a grueling and adversarial process  sometimes. The key to staying calm and successful is being overly organized and knowing how to present your concerns and requests. I know, easier said than done when it comes to our children.   A great tool to bring to an IEP meeting is your Pre-Meeting Worksheet. A Pre-Meeting Worksheet is an organized way to help stick to the facts of the meeting and leave the emotions at the door. Within this document you will write things such as ·         Purpose of the meeting ·         Who will be attending? ·         What do you want for your child? ·         What are they p...

Did you know that our brains are not born with the power to automatically start to read. Reading is not a natural process and therefore must be taught but taught correctly. For many years the approach to reading has been very basic, which explains why the learning process has been so difficult for so many young readers. Finally, more and more states and education agencies are stepping up their efforts and switching to more intensive reading instruction with a heavy base in phonics.   Typically, this scientifically based instruction is ideal for children with Dyslexia, however, this approach benefits ALL children.   Children would engage multiple senses in the learning process though sight, speech, touch, and sound to help imprint words into their brains.   Our school districts are slowing increasing their Dyslexia screeners, literacy instruction and teacher training. These programs have been shown to drastically improve the literacy rates of children across whole demogr...