[blindkid] IEP Questions

Deborah Kent Stein dkent5817 at att.net
Wed Feb 13 16:08:38 UTC 2013


 This is a great thread with lots of good ideas coming forward.  I'd love to 
capture some of them for Future Reflections, since we're working on a 
special issue on advocacy.  Would anyone like to write an article about your 
experiences advocating for your child at school, inside and outside the IEP 
process?  All responses welcome!

Debbie Stein
Future Reflections
dkent5817 at att.net
773-203-1394

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <SCDUFFLEY at aol.com>
To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 7:39 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] IEP Questions


> My two cents:
>
> The tics may be because of anxiety.  We found a small does of  medication
> helped tremendously (given only for school).  I resisted for two  years 
> but
> it was night and day at school.  It is just a thought,  I am  not 
> promoting
> medicating,.. but in my case it was helpful.   My PCP  was wonderful as we
> explored this option due to his behavior of rocking, poking,  etc...
>
> YES, movies should be either audio described or aide described, that is
> unjust to not have description.  If there was deaf child, you bet  the 
> closed
> captions would be on.  Again, for a professional to not  treat this with 
> any
> sensitivity is unprofessional in my opinion.
>
> Sound.... my son was sensitive to sound for the first three years and
> eventually needed his headphones less and less.  Christopher has Ryobi
> Construction Sound cancellation headphones (from Lowe's I think) that he 
> uses
> during assemblies and out on the playground (not as much now in 5th 
> grades, but
> all the time in 1st).  The noise with these headphones CAN be adjusted, so
> they hear what is going on without blocking everything.
>
> Books, yes, story boxes are great! (and preteaching is put in our IEP)  or
> if the teacher tells me ahead of time, I can help expose him to a topic
> ahead of time.
>
> I have to remember that my child was the first totally blind child to 
> enter
> their school.  I calmly bring issues to them and ask for a reply.  We  are
> always educating, we are always being educated by our kiddos!!  I am  pro
> at notes, emails and visits now.  Whatever I bring up to my manager or 
> team
> is taken seriously and they provide a timely response to me about it.
> Sometimes it is in the IEP, sometimes not, but whatever is going on, we 
> work on
> it together and I am successful  98% of the time.
>
> Good Luck!
>
>
> In a message dated 2/12/2013 2:14:26 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> lanesims at gmail.com writes:
>
> Julie,  there are folks here who know alot more about this stuff than
> I, but here  are my thoughts on your recent questions:
>
> 1. My only concern with touch  typing would be that it does not
> re-enforce the developing braille skills  in a young child. Its hard
> enough to get enough braille under the fingers  as it is. A computer
> set-up with braille keyboard and refreshable braille  display would
> re-enforce braille skills AND give your child the same level  of the
> computer access as the sighted children.
> 2. --
> 3. Like Carol  said, a lot of movies have descriptive audio now. If I
> remember right, all  Disney movies have it now (new movies). I'm amazed
> at how well this  actually works, and it tends not to be disruptive for
> sighted viewers...or  maybe our family is just used to it.
> 4.--
> 5. Repetitive behaviors: I  think this is really common. Everything you
> wrote has applied to our  daughter with only minor variations in detail
> - rocking, eye poking,  clapping, tapping. I think we've tried a little
> bit of everything over the  years - verbal reminding, physical barriers
> (eye poking), benign  neglect,...the only thing I think has really
> helped has been excercise  (trampoline and stationary bike for
> independent indoor excercise) and  simply growing up a little. None of
> these behaviors have anything to do  with getting attention.
>
> Brandon
>
>
>
> Thank you so much for  sharing your stories with me and for all the
> great advise! Our meeting is  set up for next week so I am trying to
> get everything together. I have a  few more questions for you guys.
> 1. Is it reasonable to ask for my daughter  to be started on a regular
> commenter keyboard like the other students or  should she just stick
> with the Perkins brailler and introduction to braille  lite?
> 2. what about asking for real objects to explore classroom  lessons.
> For example, when the class is reading a book about trees. All  the
> other kids are looking at pictures etc of all tree parts while it  is
> just described to my daughter. Couldn't she hold a little  plastic
> tree?
> 3. When a movie is shown, could she have someone describe  what s going 
> on?
> 4. If something is too loud, for example, a rainy day  movie at recess,
> couldn't she be excused to read a book with her aide? She  became
> uncomfortable recently when this happened and the aide wanted to  take
> her out and read but the Gen ed teacher said, " she just has to  learn
> to deal with it".
> 5. have any of your kids had problems with  unnecessary movements or
> tic type behaviors? My daughter has started having  some of these. I
> was wondering if we could have her take a fidget toy in  class to hold
> in her hand? She used to hum and they wont let her do that in  class,
> then she started biting on the pencils, then when they stopped  that
> she started coughing and picking her nose, now we have a handle  on
> that and she has started shrugging her shoulder,  knocking on  her
> head, tapping her forehead with her palm and a finger exercise  type
> movement that interferes with her braille skills. So, I am  thinking
> every time we stop a small movement or fidget, she just replaces  it
> with a different ad increasingly bigger movement. Any advise on this  ?
> her teacher seems to think she is just doing these things to  get
> attention, but I don't think so, I think she needs to move  for
> stimulation.
> Thank you again for all your help!  Julie
>
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