[Nfbf-l] help needed with IEP goals

[April Ogden]

	Hello Doreen,

Carrie Gilmer's (President-National Organization of Parents of Blind
Children) contact information is below, as well as a useful link below
regarding IEP's for blind students.

Carrie Gilmer, President
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
A Division of the National Federation of the Blind
NFB National Center: 410-659-9314
Phone: 763-784-8590
carrie.gilmer at gmail.com
www.nfb.org/nopbc
http://www.unco.edu/ncssd/bviIEP/index.shtml


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbf-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbf-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Doreen Franklin
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2008 2:04 PM
To: NFB/Blindkid; NFB/List
Subject: [Nfbf-l] help needed with IEP goals





We have been on this list and the info we have been reading has been
invaluable to us. Thanks! 
 
We are now looking for some help in rewriting our daughter's IEP goals. She
is 4 and we have just pulled her out of the Head Start program for pre-k3 yr
old kids (she has a b-day past their cut off date). Head Start was not
working for several reasons, including some effects from her adoption and
they have been affecting her attitude, sleep and eating. One of the problems
we had was that she was not being "taught" pre-writing - how to hold a
pencil and her paper, specifically for her eye conditions (born with
congenital cataracts, removed in Guatemala, false lens put in in both eyes,
also has nystagmus, light sensitivity, strabismus and is myopic/near
sighted). I will now be home schooling her. Her TVI did not give the teacher
any instructions for grip and paper, and the teacher herself told me to "let
it happen" and that her grip would evolve.
 
"Developing pre-writing skills needed for writing" is her first
short-term goal on the IEP. Her next 2 goals are for her to be able to
IDENTIFY AND WRITE the alphabet AND her full name in capital letters with
80% accuracy thru activities. Her 4th goal is to complete tasks with
2 redirections in a 30 MINUTES span. None of the goals were much more
specific than the above statements. 
 
Her next 2 goals are O&M; "using her vision, she will be able to walk up &
down a ramp and steps with minimal assistance" ....but with an O&M
observation, she is "doing this" so that this is NOT NEEDED as per the eval.
She does not have O&M except on a "consult" only basis (meaning, that if her
teacher or TVI see a problem, then he will be called in. (With us pulling
her out, I am unsure how this will work.) In the meantime, we are seeing her
hit/bump/trip into things for at least the last 2 months. I had been keeping
a log prior to our last meeting; I have just restarted that log. She has not
"seriously" hurt herself (and that is what the TVI/O&M continues to
say), but I hold her hand when outside as she is only 4 yrs old. At home,
she  usually bumps her shoulder into furniture or the door jams. She has hit
her head a few times when walking into the wall or getting off her stool in
the bathroom, she has banged her forehead. She has fallen
 over a rocker leg and hit the couch. She does not have depth perception as
several times on flat surfaces with contrast (2 different colored
tiles/cement), she picks up her foot as though there is a step there. She is
also "right on top of you" when talking to you. These are just a few
examples of why we think we need O&M. 
 
Our question though is .... what would be some "appropriate" VISION-RELATED
goals for her? The goals above are not vision related and we are supposed to
discuss the goals. My husband and I would like to come to the table with
some appropriate vision goals instead of "learning to write her alphabet and
name" with goals for a child in kindergarten (I have checked the pre-K state
curriculum and the kindergarten curriculum). She is using the Handwriting
without Tears curriculum at school and I already had it in my home to use
with her. We will continue to work with the letters using clay and their
wooden sticks to form  letters. We are looking at a goal for her to be able
to identify her letters using that curriculum. 
 

I am looking at "visual memory" games so that she will be able to use her
vision more efficiently as she gets older. That is one goal along with using
the clay & sticks from Handwriting without Tears to form her letters. I
would also like to expand on the pre-writing so that it specifically states
she will be holding her pencil and paper correctly for her visual problems.
I am asking for bold lined paper so that she is able to see the paper
correctly instead of just the gray-lined paper she had gotten from Head
Start; she had a hard time seeing the bottom line.
 
Unfortunately, the TVI and TVI/O&M people do not know how to work with a
pre-k child as evidence several times in what they asked/told her (show me
your house instead of show me the kitchen). 
 
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Many thanks .... 
Doreen and David, Florida 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


      
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