Can anyone write an IEP goal for me?

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I guess I'll call this a JAWM because I know opinions differ.

 

Ds is in a cyber school, so public school at home.

 

I'm not posting on the learning challenges board because the meeting is in 90 minutes.

 

Ds has OT on his IEP, but does not currently have an OT to write this.

 

I'd like to have a penmanship goal added to his OT section.

 

He writes much better in cursive, but still has not developed automaticity/motor memory.

 

Yes, he'll learn to type, but not in place of handwriting.

 

Help with creating a measurable penmanship goal that has him writing in cursive?

 

I'm off to google, but any help is appreciated!

[QueenCat]

DS will learn to write cursive at the level of automaticity.

 

I found simpler goals to be easier to implement......

[JanetC]

There needs to be an OT evaluation as to why he cannot write, then you can have measurable goals such as improving hand strength, a budget for trying different types of pencil grips or slant tables as an aid to writing, large muscle therapy if the problem extends into the arms or shoulders, etc. If you don't have a current eval, get the tests scheduled then reschedule the IEP.

 

Sometimes the school will prefer something like "the student shall receive 20 minutes of OT per week" without specifying what will be accomplished. Sometimes the school will prefer saying what will be accomplished without committing any person's time or money to actually accomplishing it. Make sure that both parts of the equation are in the IEP.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

All evals are done. He gets an hour a week of OT. He has poor motor planning. Drums have greatly improved his gross motor planning.

 

He's been in OT for just over 10 years. No grips needed. We have a slant board.

 

It now comes down to practice and generalizing. Give him copywork, and it looks great.

 

I didn't want to write 5 pages on history, which is why I said JAWM. Lol. All bases are covered. I want the goal in there to force whoever his new OT is to work on it. :)

[amo_mea_filiis.]

The simpler are easier to implement, but it has to be measurable with goal dates.

[Tap]

For dd10s goals I wanted them more specific because otherwise handwriting was always pushed aside for the more fun OT work.  

 

Hers says something like.... she will write in print letters in the correct direction with proper use of upper and lower case letters. Correct spacing between letters and words. Correct size of letters in relation to line size.  Correct position of letters above and below the line.  Correct position, slant and size of word on page. This goal will be achieved 90% of the time on day to day assignments.

 

DD10 is going into the 5th grade and still writes like a kindergartner.  The OT wanted to remove the goal from her sheet because can write fairly ok (not great, but readable)..... if she has zero distractions, is in the mood to write,  on the raised line OT paper, and has someone there who she can ask questions of (ie which way for the Q). At that IEP, were meeting in her teachers room and I asked the teacher for some basic classwork examples.  The OT was very surprised to see DDs writing in class, vs session.  She agreed to keep it a goal and to continue to work with her so that her handwriting standards would become more natural. 

[Crimson Wife]

I'm not in OT but are you looking for his handwriting to be faster, neater, smaller? With IEP goals it's important to have measurement metrics: [Name] will decrease the time spent copying a 50 word paragraph by 25% compared to baseline.

 

Good luck with your IEP meeting!

[mysticmomma]

DS Will develop automaticity when writing his name in cursive within 4 weeks.

 

Subsequent statements could reflect individual letters or other pieces of information such as address, parents names, etc.

[QueenCat]

The simpler are easier to implement, but it has to be measurable with goal dates.

 

Yes, I know. That was all I could come up with quickly.

[Daria]

The challenge with handwriting goals is measurability.

 

Am I correct that he copies legibly, but can't compose and write legibly at the same time because the handwriting isn't automatic?

 

How does he do with copy work where the original isn't cursive, or with dictation, or with something like a form where the answers are obvious so that there is less cognitive demand?

 

Also, can he read his own handwriting in connected contexts? Can you?

 

Sorry, just trying to figure out exactly what to target.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

So the meeting was awesome!

 

No one showed but me and the assistant sped director, who has a dyslexic kid! It actually worked better that there was no one else.

 

Since there was no OT, we wrote a vague cursive penmanship goal. I'll be sending handwriting samples for an OT to determine a descriptive baseline.

 

Barton was approved as exclusive LA (though we are keeping a writing goal under speech because of how much he struggles to express). I'll be teaching Barton, as I've been since end of last year.

 

Saxon math, hopefully 3rd grade. No specific math goal because he's just overall lower. She'll be sending me links on what's used outside of the workbook so I can let her know what I already have. He'll have a 1:1 live lesson for math until they identify other kids that would benefit from Saxon and at the same level.

 

I'm going to hop on the computer to multiquote and respond. :)

[amo_mea_filiis.]

For dd10s goals I wanted them more specific because otherwise handwriting was always pushed aside for the more fun OT work.  

 

Hers says something like.... she will write in print letters in the correct direction with proper use of upper and lower case letters. Correct spacing between letters and words. Correct size of letters in relation to line size.  Correct position of letters above and below the line.  Correct position, slant and size of word on page. This goal will be achieved 90% of the time on day to day assignments.

 

DD10 is going into the 5th grade and still writes like a kindergartner.  The OT wanted to remove the goal from her sheet because can write fairly ok (not great, but readable)..... if she has zero distractions, is in the mood to write,  on the raised line OT paper, and has someone there who she can ask questions of (ie which way for the Q). At that IEP, were meeting in her teachers room and I asked the teacher for some basic classwork examples.  The OT was very surprised to see DDs writing in class, vs session.  She agreed to keep it a goal and to continue to work with her so that her handwriting standards would become more natural. 

 

Yeah, I've had too many OTs blow it off because he can in session, for the most part. And the penmanship is amazing, when it's there!

 

I'm not in OT but are you looking for his handwriting to be faster, neater, smaller? With IEP goals it's important to have measurement metrics: [Name] will decrease the time spent copying a 50 word paragraph by 25% compared to baseline.

 

Good luck with your IEP meeting!

 

I guess it could get extremely complicated if I nitpicked every little thing. In general; faster, neater, smaller, and being able to "see" and understand line placement. 

 

The challenge with handwriting goals is measurability.

 

Am I correct that he copies legibly, but can't compose and write legibly at the same time because the handwriting isn't automatic?

 

How does he do with copy work where the original isn't cursive, or with dictation, or with something like a form where the answers are obvious so that there is less cognitive demand?

 

Also, can he read his own handwriting in connected contexts? Can you?

 

Sorry, just trying to figure out exactly what to target.

 

He can copy near perfect, but not at the moment. It should come back faster, so generally, the your "am I correct?" is correct. 

 

He was getting better at translating (print model where he wrote cursive). Dictation is iffy depending on cognitive demand. 

 

He cannot read his handwriting because of the types of errors (in print, S and G is often 8. In cursive, b often looks like l and r). I am going to add cursive reading to our Barton lessons.

 

There's a complete disconnect in his writing. He hasn't yet connected writing to having purpose. He'll sometimes write notes, like "went for run" on the whiteboard, but not much beyond that. 

 

If he had functional print, that would be fine. But he mixes reading and writing p/q, p/b/d often. Cursive at least reduces some of this.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I'm having him write his sample for baseline now. Holy friggen gorgeous! But slow, and without any real demands placed.

 

So whatever the equivilant of reading fluency is for writing; legibility with speed and increased demands.

[Crimson Wife]

I guess it could get extremely complicated if I nitpicked every little thing. In general; faster, neater, smaller, and being able to "see" and understand line placement.

 

As a mom, I sympathize with the desire to keep it simple, but in all my Communicative Disorders coursework that discussed IEP's, the professors stressed being very specific and measurable when goal-writing. So "improved articulation" would not be an ok speech goal. "[Name] will improve intelligibility by an unfamiliar listener to 90% in a 5 minute connected discourse sample" would be. I presume that OT is similar.