# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What Does IEP Stand For in Special Education?

General classroom teachers and parents of special needs students are often asked to play critical roles in the creation and implementation of an IEP, or Individualized Education Plan. An IEP formalizes the specific instructional, behavioral, and specialist services an elementary or secondary student with a recognized disability receives as part of a mandated plan. The Individualized Education Plan is implemented and administered on a yearly basis by special education teachers, generalist, and any specialists (speech, occupational therapy, etc.) necessary to reaching the IEP's stated goals and outcomes for the student.

This collection of IEP special education resources gives general education teachers, special education teachers, and parents all the IEP forms, accommodations, strategies, and advice necessary for planning and implementing an Individualized Education Plan in both the general ed classroom and specialist resource rooms.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
General classroom teachers and parents of special needs students are often asked to play critical roles in the creation and implementation of an IEP, or Individualized Education Plan. An IEP formalizes the specific instructional, behavioral, and specialist services an elementary or secondary student with a recognized disability receives as part of a mandated plan.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is an Individual Education Plan?
An Individual Education Plan (IEP) is a written document prepared for a named student. Specifies the learning goals that are to be achieved by the student over a set period of time and the teaching strategies, resources and supports necessary to achieve those goals.

The Individual Education Plan is developed through a collaborative process involving the school, parents, the student (where appropriate) and other relevant personnel or agencies. It focuses on priority learning needs.Only those areas of identified need arising from assessment should be covered. The amount of adaptation and support will vary according to the individual learning needs of each student.
An IEP:

Allows the student to progress at a level commensurate with ability

Involves collaboration between all partners

Focuses teaching strategies

Ensures records are kept

IEP Principles:
The IEP is a working document and should be useful, available and comprehensible to all those dealing directly with the student. It needs to be considered in the context of home, school and classroom.

Effective individual education plans have key characteristics.

These are:

Individualised and child-centred

Inclusive

Holistic

Collaborative

Accessible

Sources of information:
Home, school and community are important sources of information about the child with special educational needs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Individual Educational Plan (IEPs) - Stepping Stones School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Individual Educational Plan (IEPs) What is an Individual Education Plan? An Individual Education Plan (IEP) is a written document prepared for a named student.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Movement clumsiness has gained increasing recognition as an important condition of childhood; however, its diagnosis is uncertain. Approaches to assessment and treatment vary depending on theoretical assumptions about etiology and its developmental course.

Over the past century, many terms have been used to describe children with clumsy motor behavior. The wide variation in labeling has depended to a large extent on cultural or professional backgrounds. For example, medical professionals use medical terms (eg, clumsy child syndrome or minimal brain dysfunction), whereas educational professionals use educational terms (eg, poorly coordinated children, movement-skill problems, or physical awkwardness).

In addition, the various labels used have embodied assumptions about the etiology. Examples include developmental dyspraxia (which suggests underlying difficulties in motor planning), perceptual motor difficulties (which suggests problems in perceptual motor integration), minor neurologic dysfunction (MND), and sensory integrative dysfunction.

In response to the confusing and counterproductive heterogeneity of the labels, participants at an international multidisciplinary consensus meeting in 1994 agreed to use the term developmental coordination disorder (DCD), as described in theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV).[1]In 2013, the diagnostic criteria were further refined with the publication of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).[2]

The currently available data are insufficient to permit clear definition of the parameters of motor coordination difficulties in children. Various grades of severity and comorbidity seem to exist. Some children have only a relatively minor form of motor dyscoordination, whereas others have associated learning disabilities, attention deficit, and other difficulties.

In 1996, Fox and Lent reported that in contrast to the common belief that children grow out of motor coordination difficulties, such difficulties in fact tend to linger if no intervention takes place.[3] Intervention can be beneficial if initiated during the first years of life, while the brain is changing dramatically and new connections and abilities are being acquired.

Children with multiple conditions are at greatest risk for developing behavioral difficulties over time. Some evidence supports dividing DCD into subtypes on the basis of main features, such as ability to manipulate objects, speed of movement, ability to catch objects (eg, balls thrown, struck, or kicked during sports activities), or writing ability.

A discussion about including DCD, as currently defined, into the cerebral palsy category was held.[4] This inclusion would put DCD on the low end of the continuum of neuromotor disabilities, also described as minimal cerebral palsy, and result in a 20-fold increased incidence.[5]

Diagnostic criteria (DSM-5)

DSM-5 classifies DCD as a discrete motor disorder under the broader heading of neurodevelopmental disorders.[2] The specific DSM-5 criteria for DCD are as follows:

Acquisition and execution of coordinated motor skills are below what would be expected at a given chronologic age and opportunity for skill learning and use; difficulties are manifested as clumsiness (eg, dropping or bumping into objects) and as slowness and inaccuracy of performance of motor skills (eg, catching an object, using scissors, handwriting, riding a bike, or participating in sports)

The motor skills deficit significantly or persistently interferes with activities of daily living appropriate to the chronologic age (eg, self-care and self-maintenance) and impacts academic/school productivity, prevocational and vocational activities, leisure, and play

The onset of symptoms is in the early developmental period

The motor skills deficits cannot be better explained by intellectual disability or visual impairment and are not attributable to a neurologic condition affecting movement (eg, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or a degenerative disorder)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Movement clumsiness has gained increasing recognition as an important condition of childhood; however, its diagnosis is uncertain. Approaches to assessment and treatment vary depending on theoretical assumptions about etiology and its developmental course. Over the past century, many terms have been used to describe children with clumsy motor behavior.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If your child has special educational needs, it's important their needs are identified in their early years. If you're worried your child might have learning problems before they start school, you can get help from some voluntary organisations and health and education services.

Worries about your child's development

Your child learns through being with other people and exploring the world around them. Some children have more problems than most children of their age with:

communication

understanding and learning

sensory and physical development

behaviour or interacting with other people

Children with this type of learning difficulty or disability have 'special educational needs'.

Getting help from your child's nursery or playgroup

If you think your child may have a special educational need (SEN) that hasn't been identified, you should talk to the person responsible for SEN in your child's nursery, playgroup or other early years setting.

Getting help if your child isn't at nursery or playgroup

If your child doesn't go to nursery or other early years setting, you can talk to the Education Authority (EA) in your area. They have different services for children under five years old. Their early years and childcare team can help you find suitable early years and childcare provision and their Special Education Needs Team can give you advice about special educational needs.

Getting help from your doctor

You could also talk to your doctor or health visitor. Health authorities, voluntary organisations and social services work closely together to support children with special educational needs.

Help with your child's education

Your child's nursery school could help your child overcome the barriers their problems present. Your child might need extra support for some or all of their time in education. If your child is not in a nursery school, the EA can advise on suitable local places.

It's important to remember:

your child's needs will usually be met in a mainstream nursery or school, sometimes with the help of outside specialists

you should be asked about the decisions that affect your child

your views should always be taken into account

Extra help is available for your child from specialists, teachers and from voluntary organisations offering advice that is often linked to particular needs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Identifying special educational needs in children under five

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If your child has special educational needs, it’s important their needs are identified in their early years. If you’re worried your child might have learning problems before they start school, you can get help from some voluntary organisations and health and education services.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is an IEP? An Introduction to Individual Education Plans in Ontario

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is an LD? An introduction to learning disabilities