Well, we had the team meeting I posted about last week. I was pretty happy with how well it came together, especially when the gym teacher replied to the email and said that she was interested in attending the meeting or in somehow getting some assistance working with Michael. The autism consultant, who is available…
Category Archives: Education
Taking the Lead
I realized just the other day that we have not had a team meeting at my son’s school since mid-October, despite the fact that we had planned to meet every other month. The Learning Support Teacher, who is the lead person on the IEP, is also supposed to review the forms so that emerging issues…
Community-Based Instruction
One of my pet peeves with our special education system is the concept of community-based instruction (CBI). Such community trips are a regular part – actually a weekly part – of the curriculum for my children with special needs. And, I believe that is true for almost all school districts serving children with special needs….
Seclusion, Restraint and the Public School System
From My File of Things That Make Me See Red: I’m the mother of a medically fragile child with special needs. This kid has spent many an hour circling the drain. As a matter of fact, I writing this post from his hospital room after a very unexpected surgery on Sunday. The bottom line is…
Try This Tuesday #18: Speech Game
This week, Rickismom from beneath the wings shares a fun way to emphasize the use and meaning of pronouns through a game. SPEECH GAMEby Rickismom I want to present an easy, very useful game to teach the words “I”, “YOU”, “WE”, and “THEY”. These words are confusing, due to the fact that the terms are…
Try This Tuesday #17: Brainstorming
Note: I would like to continue expanding this column to include more of your ideas or challenges. If you would like to have one of your tips featured here or have a specific issue you would like some input on from fellow parents, please email me at trish[at]anotherpieceofthepuzzle[dot]com. As I was looking over the daily…
Try This Tuesday #16: Micro Schedules
I’ve posted before about how a visual schedule helps Michael move through his day more easily than just verbal prompts. Well, he has still been having difficulty off and on with the specials—art, library, and so on—mainly when something is different than the week before or when he is not clear on what he is…
A Mac In The Box
As a homeschool family infused with a variety of learning styles, sensory issues, and attention deficits…we get the job done any way, any where we can. “Would you could you in a box?” Mac would and frequently does. He’ll tell you it feels good, and he likes that his brothers can’t fit in there with…
And We Have A Schedule
One of the supports listed in my son’s IEP is the use of a visual schedule. Although it took almost two weeks, this is now in place and it is working beautifully. The SLP (Speech-Language Pathologist) actually made a different one for each of the five cycle days; here is one of them: Each schedule…
OMAC My Favorite Sanity Saver
It doesn’t seem to matter how much time I may have spent homeschooling, therapy-ing, and being the Mommy, my family still always expects dinner. Even if they just had it, you know, last night. Who came up with the bright idea to eat dinner every night, anyway? Because about the last thing I want to…