[Nfbf-l] help needed with IEP goals

[Holly Idler]

With the situation as far as you discribed. I would percist that your
daughter learn to use a cane. As a blind mobility instructor, I know that if
children are taught to use a cane from an early age, she will have a more
normal gate, stance, and posture. Fight for O&M services.
Contact me if you want to. Hbeanie at gmail.com
Holly Idler


On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 2:03 PM, Doreen Franklin <theconelady at yahoo.com>wrote:

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> We have been on this list and the info we have been reading has been
> invaluable to us. Thanks!
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> 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.
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> 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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