50 Ways to Support Your Child's Special Education by Terri Mauro

50 Ways to Support Your Child's Special Education by Terri Mauro

Author:Terri Mauro
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 2008-04-06T04:00:00+00:00


26 Sit In on a Therapy Session

Quick: What does your child do in therapy?

Could you replicate that at home during a school break?

Do you know what you could do to reinforce those therapy activities at home?

While most of us have a reference for what a school day is like, what goes on between your child and the school therapist is a mystery.

And while back-to-school nights and teacher conferences can clue you in to your child’s particular classroom experience in any given year, there’s no Therapy Open House to clue you in on what speech therapy or occupational therapy or physical therapy looks like.

But if you ask, you can probably get a look.

Talk to the therapist—or, if you can’t manage to get a hold of that individual, try your caseworker instead—about setting up a visit to observe your child in therapy. The therapist should welcome the opportunity to meet you and to show you what your child does during these sessions. Some things to consider during your observation:

Where does it take place?

Is the room large enough and free from distractions?

Does the therapist have all of the furnishings and equipment necessary?

Who is in your child’s therapy group?

Do those other students seem to have similar needs to your child?

Does your child participate as fully as the other students?

Are your child’s needs met in a group setting?

Is this a good time of day for your child?

Is your child tired or distracted or upset to be missing class?

Does the therapist have a good rapport with your child?

Does your child seem to enjoy the therapy session?

Are there things your child is asked to do during therapy that he seems to be afraid of or resistant to?

If you see problems in any area, discuss them with the therapist. Then, if there are things that need to be changed or concerns that need to be reconciled, take them to your case manager or the person in the district in charge of that type of therapy. Maybe changes can be made and maybe they can’t; but if you’ve observed and commented and documented your conversations, you’ll be in a strong position at the next IEP meeting to attribute lack of progress to identified problems, and include language in the IEP to address that.



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