Looking for Special Education Experts

to Answer Your Education Questions?

It is often hard to find who to go to to get your special ed questions answered. What if you could find the top Special Ed experts all in one place? There is now a list of the 50 top special ed experts that are worth following on twitter. I was just informed that such a list exists…and I’m on it.

What type of Special Education Experts are on the list?

Each of these experts give you the best cutting edge information on special ed on a daily basis. The list includes 20 special educators worth following. I also includes the top 17 advocates and groups to follow. It also includes 18 special ed tools (materials, law information, news, and organizations) to follow.

This email just came in announcing the 50 Special Education experts…and I thought I’d share it.

Hello Bonnie

I’m just writing this to inform you that we’ve recently published an article on TeachTechTopia entitled, “50 Special Ed Teachers and Experts Worth Following on Twitter.” We were searching for some of the best twitter accounts to follow on the subject, and found @BonnieTerry_btl to be an excellent addition.

Best,

Alba Collazo

Co-founder, TeachTechTopia

Be sure to sign up for the free teaching tips above my photo on the right and email you special education questions to me.

Bonnie

Ever since I informed my daughter’s teacher that we suspect she has ADHD and that she is on a waiting list to have tests done, her teacher seems to be worse with her rather than more understanding. In fact, she no longer has time for her. She’s constantly shouting at my daughter now for struggling with her work and not getting it finished in time and getting it wrong. She is even giving my daughter extra assignments as a punishment for it. My daughter is really stressing out about this and she stays up late refusing to sleep until she completes this work. Is it just me or is the teacher doing the opposite of what she should do?? What should I do?

Pamela

Whether your daughter is diagnosed with ADHD or not, her teacher is responsible for teaching her and creating an environment that is safe and conducive to learning. It might be that your daughter’s teacher is feeling overwhelmed with the possibility of teaching someone that doesn’t fit into her square peg or round whole, so to speak.

That being said, you do have your work cut out for you. It sounds to me that you need to do some educating of the teacher, although I don’t know how receptive she will be.

There are two issues going on here. One is the ‘yelling’ or ‘shouting’ at your daughter. The other is the additional homework assignments. Short of sitting in the classroom all day long, you are limited at this point to some extent with changing the teacher’s behavior.

First, set up a meeting with your daughter’s teacher and say something to the effect of, “I know that you are being pushed at times by your daughter’s name and I know you know her ADHD is what is interfering with her learning and it can’t be helped until we get the official diagnosis and develop a plan to address it. In the meantime, I was wondering how we might be able to work together to help your daughter’s name cope better in the classroom.”

Coming in in a non-confrontational way and ‘giving her the benefit of the doubt’ by saying that you know she realizes it’s the ADHD should put her in a more receptive mood.

If that doesn’t help, you might want to enlist the help of the vice principal, principal, or counselor and ask them what they suggest you do. I would go in saying you know your daughter’s teacher is qualified, but your daughter and she seem to be having some issues. You think it might be related to the fact that you told her that you suspect your daughter has ADHD.

I know this sounds a bit ‘nice’ when you must be fuming, but you always get more accomplished when you ‘sugar coat’ things as best you can.

If you do not get any assistance with them, you can contact your County Office of Ed or your state advocate. (Most states have them – give the Dept. of Ed a call to find out.) Sometimes just mentioning the name of the state advocate gets the ball rolling for you with a school.

Regarding the additional homework…

One thing you need to do to start with is to judge for yourself if the additional homework is beyond the typical amount of homework that a student in her grade should have. So, put the ADHD aspect aside for a moment to measure the amount of time that students should spend on homework. Students should on a normal basis not have more that 10 minutes per grade level of homework per night (3rd grade – 30 minutes). Then, realizing the complications that the ADHD adds to your daughter’s focus, add some additional time to that (30 to 60 minutes).

The National Education Association along with the national PTA suggests adding 10 minutes of homework per night incrementally with each grade level, as a general rule of thumb. Thus, a first-grader gets a total of 10 minutes, a second-grader 20 minutes, a third-grader 30 minutes, and so on, not to exceed two hours per night total in high school.

For high school Spanish teacher Michael Bolyog, homework is designed to reinforce what happens in the classroom, but should never be used to supplant class work. He sees the teacher’s role as similar to that of a sports coach: The player can go out and practice on his own for hour after hour, but the best learning occurs when the coach is right there with him, to immediately correct any flaws. Therefore, more than 30 minutes of homework per class may be an exercise in futility because the student can feel overwhelmed by the quantity of work, get distracted or bored, and end up giving it a halfhearted effort just to get it done.

Just a few more rambling thoughts…

You can share this info with the teacher, saying something to the effect that the National Education Association as well as the PTA supports this, so that is what your daughter will be doing from now on. You might also let the principal know that you have been having some issues with this, so you are going to do this from now on. You can have your daughter present when you talk with the teacher, so she knows what has been discussed and will feel stronger about not overdoing.

You might want to ask the principle or your school district office what the policy on homework is and what is the school policy about punishment is for the ADHD problems -then talk with the teacher.  (Get your information first – then approach the teacher) You can say something to the effect that: “I thought the school policy or school district policy was ___________. Am I wrong here? Or Correct me if I’m wrong, but _____________.”

Once a diagnosis is made, you need to see what kinds of adjustments need to be made in the classroom. You might request a student study team meeting or suggest a meeting to set up a 504 to see what can be done to help your daughter succeed in the classroom.

There are a number of easy accommodations that can be put into place to help your daughter throughout the day, making learning easier and less stressful for both her and her teacher.

Hope this is helpful,

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Hi Bonnie,

We spoke with the principal at my son’s school this morning. The talk went well and he seemed very concerned about our son. But, the bottom line is, the school is reluctant to give my son 504 because it will stick with him for life (though they offered today if we really really want one). They are going to test him soon for gifted so that we can include additional accommodations in an IEP or 504 if necessary. What is my next step? Should I go ahead with a 504 Plan?

Candi

Having a 504 Plan in place is not a stigma, it is protection and accommodations for your son that will help him learn with greater ease. What is wrong with that? If the school needs to implement specific accommodations to help your son that is what needs to be done. The beauty of it is that it will carry him from one year to the next but can be changed and adjusted as your sons needs change. It will ensure that attention is brought to his learning needs. If at a later date – which may be a year or years down the line and he no longer needs them, fine, you don’t have to have him covered by a 504 at that point.

Here is an informal comprehensive learning difficulty/disability screening tool you can do as a parent and get a great picture of the underlying causes of your kids learning problems available. This tool actually helps you to understand why your child struggles, which may be accerbated by his ADHD. There is usually some underlying cause that may not be enough for the schools testing to show that there is a specific learning disability, but it is still actually interferring with their learning with ease.

For example, each of my own kids tested to be gifted, but they each had an area that made learning harder than it needed to be. Once we understood what that or those areas were, learning became easier for them.

Hope this helps,

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

P.S. Don’t forget to sign up for the FREE teaching & homework tips!

Bonnie Terry

I just came across this article on preparing for an IEP and wanted to share it with you.

As a parent, do you approach IEP meetings with fear and dread? If so, here are some suggestions to help you feel more at ease and able to participate as a full member of the team that plans your child’s special education program.

Before the Meeting:

• Build a positive relationship with at least one person on the IEP team, such as the classroom teacher, principal, or school psychologist, before the meeting. Such a relationship will help you feel more comfortable and know someone else hears your point of view.
• Plan ahead and put your thoughts down on paper, so you won’t forget to mention what’s important to you during the meeting. Complete the IEP Planning Form before the meeting. Know the purpose and format of the IEP meeting and who will be there ahead of time. That way you won’t be surprised by the number of people around the table or the process being followed. IDEA 2004 contains new provisions that you should be aware of, including who can be excused from IEP meetings, and alternative ways to hold IEP team meetings.
• If you wish to share the results of a private evaluation with the IEP team, send copies of the reports to the team ahead of time so they can be familiar with the data before the meeting, rather than take valuable time during the meeting to review them. In some cases parents may feel that sharing this report (or particular aspects of the report) will not be of benefit to the IEP process; it’s your choice whether to do so.
• Review current reports, last year’s IEP (if applicable), and Parents’ Rights and Responsibilities sent to you annually.

For more, go to: Tips for a Successful IEP Meeting

………………………………………………………………….

When preparing to attend your child’s IEP meeting, it is important to have a complete understanding of your child’s learning problems. One way to do this is to use an informal assessment tool. With it you gain the understanding of what the specific problems are and how they impact learning in the classroom. It empowers you to speak knowledgebly about your child’s struggles.

Hope this is helpful,

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

I received an email today where a parent stated “I think that if you have a choice that you should definitely do the IEP because it make the school more accountable and you have to be included in the review.”

Actually, both a 504 and an IEP are legal documents and must be complied with, and as a parent you must be involved in either meeting and you need to sign off on the plan. Since they are both legal documents, both 504′s and IEP’s hold the schools accountable.

An IEP is more encompassing than a 504 plan. If your child is under an IEP, in addition to specific measurable goals and extra services with a specialist, there are usually specific accommodations written regarding the child’s time spent within their regular classroom. These are things like extra time to do the assignment, modified assignments, planners, or recording answers to tests on tape recorders if writing is a problem. In effect, the accommodations that are written into an IEP are what a 504 plan would have. (The IEP should have anything in it they would put in a 504 plan + the goals and time with a resource specialist or other service provider).

A 504 is typically used for students that do not qualify for an IEP because there is no significant discrepancy between the IQ and performance of the student, BUT the student is struggling in the classroom.

The following paragraph is an excerpt from the book From Emotions to Advocacy, written by Pam Wright and Pete Wright

To be eligible for protections under Section 504, the child must have a physical or mental impairment. This impairment must substantially limit at least one major life activity. Major life activities include walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, writing, performing math calculations, working, caring for oneself, and performing manual tasks. The key is whether the child has an “impairment” that “substantially limits … one or more … major life activities.”

I usually suggest to parents that they not sign off on the plan at that meeting and say something to the effect, “we’ve talked about a lot of details today, it is a lot to absorb. I would like to go over them with my husband/spouse/ significant other or if you are both there – we need to go over them and review them.”

You may see some ‘jaws’ drop, but this will help you to be sure you are getting what you need. This does give you time to really look over the document and be sure it contains everything you need for your child. And, sometimes you realize you really need an additional service. Sometimes the additional service or accommodation is added without a problem because the school needs to get the IEP or 504 completed in a timely manner.

To help you have a better understanding of your child’s difficulties and the underlying causes of them, you will want to use a parent friendly informal LD dyslexia assessment tool.

Hope this is helpful.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

My daughter has learning disabilities (visual and auditory processing problems, ADHD, reading and math learning disabilities, sensory integration problems, etc.).  She will be going into the 9th grade this fall.  She has been in public school up through 7th grade and was in special ed programs there.  I pulled her out to homeschool her last year (her 8th grade year), and I really feel like she has been promoted to new grade levels just to promote her every year.  I am at a loss as to what to do with her for 9th grade.  We of course want the best for her but she is lacking in SO many areas.  How will this program help?  Do I use it in conjunction with another homeschool program?  I can’t imagine this is all I would use for 9th grade schooling.  What would you recommend?  If you can help point me in the right direction, I would truly appreciate it.  Thank you, and have a blessed night!

..• ´¨¨))  -:¦:-        Patter -:¦:-
¸.•´ .•´¨¨))

Patter,
The core program I would suggest you use is the Making Spelling Sense, Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills, and Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills. With those you will be working on not only her reading, spelling, and writing skills, but also the underlying causes of the problems (the visual and auditory processing problems.) You will need to add content material: a reader and social studies/history book, math book, and English book.

Each day you start off with addressing the underlying cause of the learning disabilities – the visual and auditory processing skills. Using the Making Spelling Sense and Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills does this. Then you would have her read a selection from a reader. There are many high interest low vocabulary readers available. (Making Spelling Sense addresses the auditory processing problems. Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills addresses the visual processing problems.)

After reading from the reader, you pull out the Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills and your daughter takes notes from what she has read. Then I would do an English page.

Then I would play The Comprehension Zone and/or The Sentence Zone. They work on reading comprehension and English grammar.

For math I would use the Math Zone for calculation practice and the BT Easy Math Reference Guide as the core information regarding math (how to add, subtract, multiply, & divide, calculating with fractions, decimals, and percents, and how to do word problems). You will need to get additional math workbook/s for actual problems for her for fractions, decimals, percents, and algebra. There are some great ones out there that would be great for her to use.

After math I would have her do history and science, using the forms from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills to help her get more out of the books.

Remember, the books and games I’ve mentioned are multi-level and can be used year after year, even with a 9th grader. Each activity takes just a few minutes so they are perfect to use with ADHD students. I created all of them from my work with learning disabilities – those with visual and auditory processing problems.

Hope this is helpful.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Dear Bonnie,

I have a 16- year old sophomore (homeschooled all her life) who is very bright and compliant. However I had suspected for some time that there was some sort of processing or automaticity problem because of her reading. After testing with a local public high school a reading fluency deficiency was noted in our IEP meeting this morning. Since her score was not completely awful (47th percentile for battery A and 30 for B) they did not approve her for extended time. I was modifying for her long before she was tested. I feel that high-risk testing will be very difficult and just plain unfair to her throughout high school, since it cannot possibly give her a fair assessment without extended time. I plan to proceed with 504-assessment in the fall. Is that a waste of time? Will your Five Minutes… book be of help with this?

Thank you,

Lisa Sharpe

You do want to follow through with the 504 Plan. It is a Plan, not an assessment. Since she was evaluated and you had an IEP meeting even though she didn’t qualify for services, it is now documented that she does have fluency problems that are contributing to difficulties at school. So, you should be able to get accommodation for her regarded extended time for assignments as well as a variety of other things. I wrote an article on 504 accommodations that lists a variety of common accommodations that might be put into the plan. There are two more articles on accommodations that should be useful: 10 Quick & Easy Accommodations for ADD & LD Within the Classroom and 10 More Easy to Implement LD & ADD/ADHD Accommodations in the Classroom or at Home.

The Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills book set (teacher’s and student’s books) will help you to address her fluency problems. Sally Shawitz, M. D., author of Overcoming Dyslexia states, “I urge parents of dyslexic children [or any child] to make fluency training – repeated oral reading – their number one priority. Because it involves reinforcement rather than teaching a child a new concept, it is ideally suited for the home.”

Parents often wonder how much time fluency training takes. Dr. Cecil Mercer, a researcher from the University of Florida published his research results in 2000:

Substantial gains in reading fluency came from repeated oral reading of various sorts such as letters or words for five or six minutes a day.  The key to the success was doing the repeated oral reading over a period of time e.g. six months to twenty-three months.

When using Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills you typically see progress within a three to five times of doing it. To see and maintain the progress, you will want to do it over a six month to twenty-three month time frame. We see tremendous progress by doing it only twice a week.

Debra Wilson, author of S’Cool Moves for Learning, did a five-year independent study using Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills. She states, “The reading fluency of kids in our school district improved dramatically.”

There is a short video of me using Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills with one of my students. It has been used very effectively with all ages, even adults with dyslexia.

Hope this is helpful.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Lyn B. wrote in…What is FAPE?

FAPE stands for Free and Appropriate Public Education. It is what every child is entitled to under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  This is how students qualify for Section 504 Plans and  for IEP plans due to learning disabilities, dyslexia, CAPD, ADHD, or other special education services.

The following is from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Washington, D.C. 20202:

For elementary and secondary education programs, a qualified person with a disability is a person with a disability who is:

• of an age during which it is mandatory under state law to provide such services to persons with disabilities;�
• of an age during which persons without disabilities are provided such services; or�
• a person for whom a state is required to provide a free appropriate public education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

In general, all school-age children who are individuals with disabilities as defined by Section 504 and IDEA are entitled to FAPE.

How Is an Appropriate Education Defined?

An appropriate education may comprise education in regular classes, education in regular classes with the use of related aids and services, or special education and related services in separate classrooms for all or portions of the school day. Special education may include specially designed instruction in classrooms, at home, or in private or public institutions, and may be accompanied by related services such as speech therapy, occupational and physical therapy, psychological counseling, and medical diagnostic services necessary to the child’s education.

An appropriate education will include:

• education services designed to meet the individual education needs of students with disabilities as adequately as the needs of nondisabled students are met;�
• the education of each student with a disability with non-disabled students, to the maximum extent appropriate to the needs of the student with a disability;�
• evaluation and placement procedures established to guard against mis-classification or inappropriate placement of students, and a periodic reevaluation of students who have been provided special education or related services; and�
• establishment of due process procedures that enable parents and guardians to receive required notices, review their child’s records, and challenge identification, evaluation and placement decisions, and that provide for an impartial hearing with the opportunity for participation by parents and representation by counsel, and a review procedure.

I hope this is helpful.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

LD Online just posted this interesting article from Educational Therapist Regina Richards. I thought you would enjoy it.

By: Regina G. Richards (2008)

I shake myself to stop daydreaming…Writing is definitely the worst task of all. It was just way too hard to remember all the things I need, like periods and capital letters. And then it’s almost impossible to think about how to spell words when I’m busy trying to think about the story. It’s so hard to remember what I’m writing about.

— Eli Richards from The Boy Who Hated to Write: Understanding Dysgraphia, p. 36

Students benefit when they compensate for writing problems. Why? Because the struggle to write often interferes with learning and prevents students from fully demonstrating what they have learned. Compensating helps them bypass the problem area and still accomplish the goal of the activity.

A few years ago a parent called me. She was distraught. She didn’t know what to do. She had just gotten off the phone with her daughter’s school. She was informed again that her 9th grade daughter did not qualify for any help within the school system. She had been trying to get help for her daughter for years. Every time the school did an evaluation on her daughter the answer was the same. “She scores very high in the auditory areas so she doesn’t qualify for help.”

The only way her daughter managed was that she and her husband read everything to her after school so she could keep up with her schoolwork and homework. The problem was that they couldn’t follow her around at school all day long year after year reading everything to her.

This practice has been going on for years. When this occurs, all is not lost. As hard as it is, as a parent, what you need to do is to keep advocating. You can actually make a case for a discrepancy if you become a bit educated in what is actually going on.

There are 3 areas of perception. We learn by hearing, seeing, and doing. The areas of perception are auditory, visual, and tactile/kinesthetic. A student can qualify for help when there is a severe discrepancy between the auditory processing and visual processing levels.

There are nine different areas each of auditory processing, visual processing, and tactile/kinesthetic processing. If you go through an informal assessment that is created for parents or teachers, you will be able to tell which areas are strong and which are weak. With that knowledge you can ask the school to do formal testing geared to those areas to see if there is an actual discrepancy. And, if there is, your child will qualify for additional IEP help.

I hope this is helpful.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET