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Some thoughts

2/17/2016

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Last night I was asked to be a guest speaker at UT for a class of speech and Language Pathologist students. I was asked to speak about dyslexia and to also talk about what it is like for a parent in an IEP meeting. I did ask multiple times if I could tell my daughter's whole story, the real story, and I was told yes, so I did.

It has almost been two years since we had the meeting that put me on the path to become an advocate, consultant and tutor. Two years. Some days it feels like that was forever ago and other days it feels like it just happened yesterday.

​Telling that story again though got me very emotional. Generally I am at peace with all of what happened. I love what I do and really if it wasn't for that meeting, I would never have decided to research and take classes and become who I am today.

​I was asked last night if I ever lost my cool in those meetings, oh yes! Definitely. The teacher then told the class that as a parent, these meetings are hard. We are all discussing that parents own child, their baby. It is emotional. It always will be.

​I have my daughter's annual IEP meeting this morning. I always feel a bit anxious the day before her meetings but I also know everything will be ok. My daughter's current IEP team, IS a team and we all want what is best for her and I am grateful for all of them.

​So, what is my point of this post? I just wanted to take a few minutes to put my thoughts and feelings down and to remind all of you that the emotion you feel is normal and trainings are happening and everyone is getting more knowledgeable on the subject of dyslexia.

​
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More TNReady information

11/17/2015

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Last week I posted about the TNReady accessibility and accommodations that are being offered this year with the new testing. You can find those right here.

Today I want to dig a little deeper about two parts in the accommodations for children with IEP's or 504's, Text to speech and Word Prediction.

First let me talk about the easier of the two...word prediction. What is word prediction? From the SC Assistive Technology Program: Word prediction programs work with word processors. They predict the word a person wants to enter into the computer. The person types the first letter of a word, and the program offers a list of words beginning with that letter. If the right word appears on the list, it can be chosen and automatically inserted into the sentence. If the right word doesn’t appear, the student continues to type the next letter until it does appear. After the user chooses a word, the computer predicts the next word in the sentence. Again, it offers a list of possible words, even before the first letter is typed. Predictions are based upon the sentence content and spelling, as well as the number of times a word is used. Word prediction may be helpful to students who have trouble with spelling, grammar, or using a keyboard (by reducing the number of keystrokes needed). These programs may also help people who struggle to come up with the exact word they want to use in a sentence.

Knox County uses a program called Solo 6 which has word prediction so if your child is using Solo 6, your child is already familiar with word prediction. Sadly though, a memo dated October 14, 2015 stated that word prediction would not be live for the 2015/2016 school year. Here is the exact statement from the memo...
Due to current technology limitations on the testing platform, MIST, the embedded word-prediction accommodation for assessments will not be live for the 2015-16 school year. Students who require the word-prediction accommodation may use the word-prediction feature on their stand-alone assistive technology devices, and then, an adult may transcribe their responses into the MIST platform.
I am currently looking for clarification on this. This seems mean that a student can use their own assistive technology device to use for word prediction but would that also mean that the assistive technology accommodation would also need to be added to the IEP accommodation as well?

Next let's talk about Text to Speech which seems to be a bit controversial this year. In the same assessment accommodation memo it states the following...

The decision to provide the text-to-speech accommodation for both the TNReady English language arts assessment and the social studies assessment must be made based on a student’s ability to access text. Below are key questions to ask when determining the need for the text-to-speech accommodation.

504 Plans:
  • •Does student have a documented decoding or fluency deficit which precludes access to printed text?
  • •Is student engaged in intense Tier III intervention to address specific deficit?
  • •Does student need supported reading in core academic instruction?
IEP's:
  • •Does student have a documented decoding or fluency deficit which precludes access to printed text?
  • •Does student have a goal to address deficit listed in the present level of educational performance?
  • •Is student engaged in intense intervention to address specific deficit?
  • •Is inability to access printed text included in the impact statement?
  • •Does student need supported reading in core academic instruction?

Make sure when you go into your child's IEP that you aren't just being told that the state says we have to remove read aloud, now called text to speech. These questions must be asked before the IEP team, and that includes you as the parent, decides whether a child should have the text to speech accommodation. Don't just take no for an answer.
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It's about that time again

10/26/2015

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Time for an IEP meeting for my daughter.

Last year I did a blog post about my advice, you can click here to read it, but I forgot one bit of advice and that is something that I have to work on every year...putting a notebook together.

My daughter's notebook is a 3" 3 ring binder, and that is not even including the 2 full file folders I have for all of her testing and school work from the previous years. 

This is what I recommend you keep in your child's notebook...
  • All Progress Monitoring and Universal Screener papers. These should come home every 4.5 weeks if your child is in RTI tier 2 or 3 but you may need to ask your child's teacher for them.
  • Report cards and state testing results. Make sure you make a copy of the report card before you send it back in to school.
  • If your child has an IEP keep all those papers together as well. ALL papers...prior written notice, notes, the actual IEP including any drafts you receive.
  • Emails. Print all emails and keep them together in one spot.
  • Current schoolwork. Now, I am not saying keep every single piece of paper that comes home but anything that is significant. If you are concerned about math, keep math papers, if you are concerned about spelling and writing, then be sure to save those papers.
  • I also keep a tab for dyslexia papers and I make sure I have extra copies. You have heard me say this before but teachers don't get trained on what dyslexia looks like while they are in college, so having some information to hand out will be helpful.
The more organized you are the easier it is to attend meetings and be able to speak about your child.

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My advice

12/11/2014

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Being an advocate I have many parents asking me for advice for meetings with their children's schools and I am always happy to help. One of the main reasons why I decided to get into advocacy was to help others. It made me very sad to realize that what is being said to parents isn't always all the information available, and I had to find that out the hard way, and I didn't want any others to go through that.

When a parent comes to me and asks for guidance my number one recommendation is always, record all meetings! As a parent you are advocating for your child, you will get emotional. I have gotten angry in meetings about my daughter and I once left one of her meetings and sat in my car and cried. When you are sitting in a meeting for your own child, it is near impossible to catch everything that is said. Emotions are high. When you record it you can go back and listen again, and you will be amazed at what you missed.

In most schools, if not all, if a parent records the meeting the school must record as well. I know that is the policy in Knox County Schools. All you need to do is send an email and inform the school that you will be recording. In the state of Tennessee only one party needs to know about the recording but I highly recommend letting the school know.

My second piece of advice is do not sign anything. You can sign that you were in attendance but do not sign that you agree with something when you don't. Even if you do agree with an IEP for example, tell the rest of the team that you would like a few days to look it over and that you would like a copy of all papers. Go back and listen to your recording and make sure you are indeed happy with what those papers say.

Last thing I always tell parents, remember you are a part of the team. No decisions can be made without your input. I was at a recent meeting where a team member suggested that the parent fill out a parent input form. I had never been asked to fill one out about my daughter. Interesting realization for me.  Even advocates need advocates.
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