What IEP accommodations to ask for -Dysgraphia & Autism

[LifeLovePassion]

My girls are entering a charter school this year. They started today. Dd1 has a dysgraphia and high functioning autism. Does anyone have any recommended accommodations to ask for. I sent in our Neuro psych paperwork and her last IEP and previous school district testing results (for continuing her iep). Her previous paperwork didn't include the dysgraphia since she was homeschooled and I just accommodated as needed Our meeting is in a week. I did email all her teachers in the mean time so they are aware.

[PeterPan]

What age? Fwiw, you can advocate for services as well. If she has verbal deficits affecting the writing, try to get language goals in her IEP. Our ps was trying to put all the language goals in as academic goals, but our SLP wanted them as expressive language with the SLP. Also you'd like goals for self-regulation, social thinking goals, etc. 

[LifeLovePassion]

11 years, 6th grade.

No verbal deficits per se. Does need help keeping her train of thought on track (for example dictation I still need to guide quite a bit).

[Storygirl]

I think in your position, I would look carefully at what is already included in the IEP and think about what you have done at home that is not included. You can google the terms "dysgraphia" and "IEP" and get some good ideas about what you could ask for. But you will have to have documentation or data to show that what you are asking for is actually needed for your particular child.

 

It is probable that the school will call it "Specific Learning Disorder in written expression" rather than "dysgraphia." Same thing.

 

Without knowing more details, it's hard to say, which I why I suggest googling. I got a ton of ideas that way during our IEP process. Dysgraphia means different things to different people, so that complicates things as well.

* For some, dysgraphia is a motor planning and/or processing issue, where the physical act of writing is strenuous, resulting in illegible, weak, or atypical handwriting.

 

My kids both have writing goals in their IEPs .They both have typing as an accommodation. DS has things such as -- copies of the teacher's notes from the board, study guides already filled out, graph paper for math, simplified worksheets with lots of white space. I think they are both allowed to have a scribe or use speech-to-text technology. I expect that we will add a Smart pen to DD's IEP in future years, and perhaps for DS as well.

 

Make a list of the goals, modifications, and accommodations that you think she may need, and be prepared to support your reasoning with examples of her work or other supporting data. They may not want to add everything you ask for, so be able to state and prove why it is needed.

* For others, it means difficulty getting thoughts onto paper, resulting in composition difficulties.

 

I have two children with dygraphia/SLD written expression, and their root issues are completely different. One was diagnosed with dysgraphia by a neuropsych, due to motor planning AND trouble getting thoughts onto paper. He did not, however, get the SLD written expression designation from the school (strangely -- mostly due to his handwriting not being terrible enough). My daughter did NOT get a dysgraphia diagnosis from the NP but DID get SLD written expression from the schoo. (she is dyslexic, and her spelling was poor enough and handwriting messy enough to render her writing almost incomprehensible at the time of school testing).

 

Go figure. You just can't predict what the school will do until you have the meeting. Do you know for sure that they will accept the dysgraphia diagnosis that you have, or will they do their own testing to confirm it?

[Storygirl]

As for the autism .... it all depends upon what related learning and behavior needs are present. Autism presents so differently in each individual.

 

Has she had pragmatics/ social skills testing? Social skills are largely what determines employability, so making sure any deficits are being addressed is really important.

 

Reading comprehension is a common issue for kids with ASD.

[kbutton]

11 years, 6th grade.

No verbal deficits per se. Does need help keeping her train of thought on track (for example dictation I still need to guide quite a bit).

 

Language deficits I would look for include:

 

Telling back a story:

• Varying levels of detail--telling back at the same length vs. shorter vs. elaborating are all different skills
• Including typical conventions in stories, naming characters, referring to things correctly with pronouns
• Having a main focus for a plot, conflict, etc. and a driving force for action (this happened, and then that, and those things are CONNECTED)
• Being able to tell stories from a picture with details or a series of pictures that show action

Answering open-ended questions. They can be simple, but it's very different from answering with multiple choice or even from having a Socratic, back and forth dialog. Some kids seem really good with language because they can have a conversation, but then they cannot answer a question without that back and forth progression.

 

Writing introductory and concluding sentences or paragraphs--being able to start and wrap-up a series of thoughts vs. just spill out the facts. Being able to connect the facts into a meaningful order and subordinate ideas.

 

In general, I would also be concerned about the pace at which she works. A lot of kids are prodigiously slow.

 

Social skills and social language--this becomes a big deal in literature and even history.

 

Look at the description of skills on the TOPS-2 test. It has some categories that tend to trip up kids on the spectrum. It's a very eye-opening test. I think your DD might be on the border between the TOPS-2 and the version for younger kids. She might be fine on the younger version but struggle with the teenager version. It's a really, really good test.

[kbutton]

Sorry that those are not straightforward recommendations. Those are skills that you might try to rate and put into words to create accommodations and/or intervention.

 

You might also want to ask for some accommodations that involve self-regulation--being able to get up and go to the back of the room to calm, for instance. If a crowded hall bothers her, some kids are allowed to leave class a couple of minutes early. You can google for lots of ideas.

 

 

[LifeLovePassion]

I think in your position, I would look carefully at what is already included in the IEP and think about what you have done at home that is not included. You can google the terms "dysgraphia" and "IEP" and get some good ideas about what you could ask for. But you will have to have documentation or data to show that what you are asking for is actually needed for your particular child.

 

It is probable that the school will call it "Specific Learning Disorder in written expression" rather than "dysgraphia." Same thing.

 

Without knowing more details, it's hard to say, which I why I suggest googling. I got a ton of ideas that way during our IEP process. Dysgraphia means different things to different people, so that complicates things as well.

* For some, dysgraphia is a motor planning and/or processing issue, where the physical act of writing is strenuous, resulting in illegible, weak, or atypical handwriting.

 

My kids both have writing goals in their IEPs .They both have typing as an accommodation. DS has things such as -- copies of the teacher's notes from the board, study guides already filled out, graph paper for math, simplified worksheets with lots of white space. I think they are both allowed to have a scribe or use speech-to-text technology. I expect that we will add a Smart pen to DD's IEP in future years, and perhaps for DS as well.

 

Make a list of the goals, modifications, and accommodations that you think she may need, and be prepared to support your reasoning with examples of her work or other supporting data. They may not want to add everything you ask for, so be able to state and prove why it is needed.

* For others, it means difficulty getting thoughts onto paper, resulting in composition difficulties.

 

I have two children with dygraphia/SLD written expression, and their root issues are completely different. One was diagnosed with dysgraphia by a neuropsych, due to motor planning AND trouble getting thoughts onto paper. He did not, however, get the SLD written expression designation from the school (strangely -- mostly due to his handwriting not being terrible enough). My daughter did NOT get a dysgraphia diagnosis from the NP but DID get SLD written expression from the schoo. (she is dyslexic, and her spelling was poor enough and handwriting messy enough to render her writing almost incomprehensible at the time of school testing).

 

Go figure. You just can't predict what the school will do until you have the meeting. Do you know for sure that they will accept the dysgraphia diagnosis that you have, or will they do their own testing to confirm it?

She has some of both types going on. I will be working on a list for Wednesday, thank you for all the ideas.

[LifeLovePassion]

Language deficits I would look for include:

 

Telling back a story:

• Varying levels of detail--telling back at the same length vs. shorter vs. elaborating are all different skills
• Including typical conventions in stories, naming characters, referring to things correctly with pronouns
• Having a main focus for a plot, conflict, etc. and a driving force for action (this happened, and then that, and those things are CONNECTED)
• Being able to tell stories from a picture with details or a series of pictures that show action

Answering open-ended questions. They can be simple, but it's very different from answering with multiple choice or even from having a Socratic, back and forth dialog. Some kids seem really good with language because they can have a conversation, but then they cannot answer a question without that back and forth progression.

 

Writing introductory and concluding sentences or paragraphs--being able to start and wrap-up a series of thoughts vs. just spill out the facts. Being able to connect the facts into a meaningful order and subordinate ideas.

 

In general, I would also be concerned about the pace at which she works. A lot of kids are prodigiously slow.

 

Social skills and social language--this becomes a big deal in literature and even history.

 

Look at the description of skills on the TOPS-2 test. It has some categories that tend to trip up kids on the spectrum. It's a very eye-opening test. I think your DD might be on the border between the TOPS-2 and the version for younger kids. She might be fine on the younger version but struggle with the teenager version. It's a really, really good test.

Thank you! She definitely struggles with putting things together.

[boscopup]

I'm listening in. I have a 5th grader with the same diagnoses going through the IEP process for public virtual school (just doing it for a year until my toddler is a slightly more sane preschooler). Our meeting is later this week. I brought in the psych eval, and based on that they already said he'll get S.P.I.R.E. reading instruction. While he doesn't have dyslexia, he still has issues with phonics and can't spell to save his life. They did a writing test a few weeks ago. I feel 100% confident that they will agree that there is a writing disability - both in handwriting and in content. I know he'll be allowed to type, which he'd be doing for virtual school anyway. I'm really, really, really hoping they'll get him in a social skills class. One of the virtual school people had said she wanted to make such a class and had talked to special ed and arranged for it to be at the elementary closest to us as a central location for kids in our county, but I don't know if the class got off the ground.

[LifeLovePassion]

Ugh, they misplaced the copy they made at the open house of the neuro psych paperwork. And since what we actually had was the evaluation results, not an I they now have 10 school days to write the IEP. The teachers seem helpful and accommodating so far.

 

How does this work exactly, they write it and I agree to it 100% then we move forward? Or can I suggest edits? Our previous experience I just brought her to the school for speech and social skills and they worked on goals (since we homeschooling then). Now they want to pull out for some things, but she doesn't like that because then she misses everything in class (as I learned yesterday after she got a positive award from a teacher and got pulled out to get a prize, etc). I imagine the pull out stuff will be social related. Not sure what to expect on the writing front.

[PeterPan]

Usually an intervention specialist writes the IEP goals based on all the reports by the evaluation team. Yes, you can add goals or disagree with goals. In general, usually our goals have been pretty reasonable. The school knows their curriculum progression and how each subject progresses, so usually the goals follow that. Like my ds might have a goal for math that says 2 digit addition, etc., because that's the next thing in their curriculum that he would be doing. 

 

So the difficulty is more getting them to acknowledge there need to BE goals. Once they've identified those areas and are agreeing to write goals in them, it will probably be pretty pat. At least it has been here. We don't usually quibble over my ds' goals, because it's easy to see that they're moving him through the progression of skills they're teaching. What we quibble over is stuff they didn't even cover. For us, editing the goals is the easiest stage.

 

Hopefully yours will go well too! :)

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Edited August 24, 2017 by OhElizabeth

[kbutton]

As OhElizabeth says, the school will do a lot of the goal writing. I don't think it's a bad idea for you to be involved in seeing what kinds of accommodations are out there. Goals and accommodations are not the same thing--accommodations will be fairly standard, but you can be creative about simple ways to ease things for your kids. For instance, we asked for our kids to have access to a seating chart so that learning new names would be easier. The IEP team liked it so much they said, "We should do this for everyone." But goals are always tied to academics, and you will want to be sure they are appropriate, but you probably won't need to feel responsible to write them. 

 

They try to do pull-out instruction at times that won't be critical for catching something else that is important. Lots of kids get pull outs for lots of things. 

[Storygirl]

One thing to remember is that you as the parent are an equal member of the IEP team, legally. So the school is not supposed to write up a document and just expect you to sign it. An IEP is a living document, meaning it can be changed, revised, etc., and you as the parent can request for things to be included. Or not included, if you think they are suggesting something inappropriate.

 

With that said, with your child enrolled in school, you do have to accept that they have a way of doing things at that school, and it may not be 100% what you would choose if you had full responsibility for forming the IEP all by yourself. They do have to meet your child's needs, but only to such an extent that she is able to "access her education;" they do not have a mandate to make a plan that is IDEAL. Just a plan that allows her to learn at an acceptable rate, with accommodations, modifications, and goals that will enable her to learn the material that her classmates learn (to the best of her ability).

 

Have you googled ideas for dysgraphia accommodations? She may qualify for extra time on assignments, modified workbook pages with larger print, taking tests in a quiet room, copies of notes written on the board, speech to text (so that she can dictate her answers) or a human scribe.

 

Being pulled out of class is very common. And, yes, many kids don't like it. DS13 complains sometimes, but it doesn't change the fact that it helps him, and he needs it, whether he likes it or not. It's a common problem that teachers understand and try to work around -- by selecting the pull out times thoughtfully, by requesting the students to come out of the room unobtrusively, etc. --  but it still may be part of the way that they do things.

[Lecka]

I let my older son decline OT for a year or so. He was just over it, felt like he had worked hard, felt like he had made progress, etc. Then about a year or so later he was willing to accept more help. When he had help again, his resource teacher was very positive about him having a good attitude, trying hard, etc.

 

So I think -- there is a time when getting pulled out is just what is needed and it needs to happen. But I think other times kids can have an opinion.

 

My son had been in a lot of speech therapy too, though, and had had a heavy year of speech therapy in 1st grade (after school twice a week, in school 3 days a week) and he was legitimately burned out on therapy for a while.

 

There may be some compromise too, where maybe you decline one thing but keep one thing, or veto your daughter missing a certain thing she really doesn't want to miss.

 

On the flip side -- if you know thinks that would make pull-out go better for her, recommend those things! A snack, a reward to earn, etc.

 

You can do something at home too if you want, if there is something she could earn by doing well at school.

 

And -- I ended up with a bit of a "if I meet these conditions I don't have to have help" situation with my son; that if he was getting his work done and stuff he didn't have to have help. He was willing to try that even though *I* really didn't think it was a good or realistic decision.

 

But also ----- at a certain point, and my son was basically at it, if my son isn't invested he isn't going to get much out of it, and he will just be bitter that he has had to have extra help.

 

Also if you come to feel a certain therapist or teacher is not building a good relationship, you can ask to change, or share your concerns and recommend things that might help.

 

I would tend to find out that ----- well, my son often would actually be doing well at school.... but really, really complain to me at home.

 

So sometimes he is just complaining to share his feelings with me.

 

Sometimes he is just well-behaved at school but he is really unhappy and hiding it.

 

I have also found -- sometimes if I will ask about something, that goes a long way to my son. He will think I am not blowing him off.

 

And now he is a bit older and the last thing he wants is for me to do that. But he liked it when he was younger.

 

So maybe you can bring up at the meeting a certain thing your daughter missed that you wonder if it could be changed.

 

Sometimes things are scheduled for "non-instructional time" but then that is when kids can color or draw, read, talk quietly, or get caught up on work.

 

If she is invested in school, or any part about school, I think it is worth trying to protect or nurture that. If she is missing things she personally likes because she couldn't possibly miss reading or math block (for example) you can decide what choice you want to make. Or you can ask about options.

 

If you could do something after school instead of during school, and reduce her pull-out ------ that is something where you could ask your daughter what she would pick, if she understands she would be making a commitment to after school time if you let her reduce her pull-out. That would be pretty extreme I think ---- but if she is unhappy I think it could be an option.

 

Maybe you could do some extra dedicated social time or art time or whatever after school, instead, to make up for pull-out.

 

I think things like this can be either compromises or just "I know you don't like it but I am going to do what I can to make a gesture of making up for it."

[Lecka]

However I also had to say I couldn't do it anymore when my son's solution was to bring his work home for me to scribe for him. It just got to be ridiculous at a certain point. And for stuff that should not have been so hard for him. He ended up getting scribing at school with a very nice older man. The resource room teacher brought donuts. He liked some other boys in resource room and was allowed to have time to chat with them, so he liked that.

 

But now he doesn't get anything because he can do all typing and he is at a middle school that does Chromebooks for almost everything.