[blindkid] Middle schoolers

[Carol Castellano]

Hi Traci,

You bring up a lot of issues in your message.  It's great that you are on
it!

I would definitely put independence at the top of the list.  You can add
specific independence goals to her IEP.  It's so easy to put off the
child's becoming independent, but the years go by fast and you want her to
be ready to go off to college or work ON HER OWN!  If you need ideas for
all this, please do check out my books Making It Work: Educating the BVI
Student in the Regular School and Getting Ready for College Begins in Third
Grade, both available from NFB at
https://ecommerce.nfb.org/asp/prodtype.asp?prodtype=47&ph=&keywords=&recor=&SearchFor=&PT_ID=
.

It seems odd to me that she is at a VI school but they do not have the
ability to teach VI technology, ie, JAWS.  Is she getting some other
extraordinary benefit from being there?  If not, I'd look at the regular
school.

Regarding what services she might need in the regular school, it would
probably be someone to be in the background preparing materials, visits
from a TVI perhaps to teach new Braille signs for math or science when
needed and to check on materials, visits from a tech specialist to teach
her JAWS and any other VI-related technology she might need, and visits
from a mobility instructor to work on independent mobility skills in school
and in the community.

I would definitely NOT have a personal aide.  I would want her to change
classes on her own in the same amount of time as peers.  If she doesn't
have the skills for that, I would make sure she gets the training.

For math, maybe she needs someone to tutor her, as any child might who
finds learning math challenging.

Hope this helps.

Carol

Carol Castellano
Parents of Blind Children-NJ
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.blindchildren.org
www.nopbc.org

On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 8:24 AM, Traci W via blindkid <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Okay, my oldest will move up to middle next year and I'm really trying to
> prepare her but I'm getting way too much pushback from her TVI in preparing
> her and I"m really getting peeved.  I work in the middle as a braillist so
> I see what she needs to know, etc.  The kids come up with out enough
> computer experience, as I've expressed before, she will not teach laptop
> with Jaws ( I think due to her own inabilities) and solely relies on the
> iPad which my daughter is very good at luckily.  The school email is
> inaccessible and now they are saying she can't use gmail (this came up when
> we moved to the school iPad and away from using our own iPad, which we have
> for the last 3 years, I'm guessing we are moving back to our personal
> iPad.)
>
> I'm starting to think there is too much support in this school system.  The
> over helping is driving me nuts.  I'm wondering how I can amend her IEP to
> alleviate all this helping where it is more the TVI's work and not the
> child's.  The kids grades are not a reflection of what they know, but what
> the TVI does.  I'm even considering pulling her out of the VI school and
> letting her go to her base school, she definitely would not have a TVI
> everyday hovering over her if she wasn't in a VI resource school.  She
> would be left to her own devices for the most part.  My only concern is
> math, but I'm good at math so I could help out there (as I would probably
> quit my job if she went to another school, so that I could help her
> more).   And I have already started working with her personally with NVDA
> at home, since her TVI won't teach her and doesn't seem to think they need
> it for middle.  Ackkkk
>
> Anyways, I know I've kind of rambled, but I'm wondering what is the variety
> of level of services your child received in Middle - Olivia is very smart
> and independent and can't stand all the "help"' she is getting right now in
> 5th as it is.  The only place I really see support needed is in math when
> she struggles with a new concept, then she totally gets it once they
> review.  Do most middle schoolers test outside of the classroom for math, I
> know the braille writer can be distracting to the other kids?
> Unfortunately, math is where there is too much helping going on, on tests,
> and I've talked to Olivia about it but she doesn't want to be rude and say
> anything, it really puts the kids in a bad spot.
>
> Thanks everyone!
> Traci
>
> --
> Traci Wilkerson
> Cell – 919-971-6526
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