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As a parent of a child with moderate autism and a seasoned Special Education attorney, I understand the unique challenges and opportunities that come with advocating for a child's education. In this blog post, we'll explore the world of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for autism from both personal and professional perspectives. We'll address important questions such as whether having autism qualifies a child for an IEP, the different levels of autism, and how IEPs can benefit children at each level. Additionally, we'll define IEPs, autism, provide examples of autism goals in an IEP, and discuss interventions for autism in the school setting.

Does having autism qualify you for an IEP?

Yes, having autism can qualify a child for an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensures that children with disabilities, including autism, have access to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment. Autism is recognized as a qualifying disability under IDEA, which means that students with autism are entitled to an IEP if they require specialized education and related services to benefit from their education.

Reference: U.S. Department of Education - IDEA

Different IEPs for Different Kinds of Autism

Autism is a spectrum disorder, and individuals with autism can vary greatly in their abilities and needs. There are three commonly recognized levels of autism:

1. Level 1 (Mild): Children at this level may have mild social and communication difficulties. They often benefit from social skills training, speech therapy, and additional support in areas where they struggle. An IEP can help by providing individualized goals and interventions that address specific challenges.

2. Level 2 (Moderate): Children at this level have more pronounced social and communication difficulties. They may require more intensive support, such as a structured classroom environment, individualized communication strategies, and behavioral interventions. An IEP can outline these strategies and track progress.

3. Level 3 (Severe): Children at this level have significant impairments in social and communication skills and may have repetitive behaviors. They often require highly individualized and comprehensive support, including specialized instruction, occupational therapy, and behavior intervention plans. An IEP can serve as a crucial roadmap for providing the necessary services and accommodations.

IEPs are designed to meet each child's unique needs, regardless of their level of autism. They ensure that educational goals and interventions are tailored to the child's abilities and challenges, helping them reach their full potential.

Definition of an IEP

An Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a legally binding document developed for students with disabilities, including autism, in accordance with IDEA. It is a personalized plan that outlines the educational goals, services, and accommodations a child needs to succeed in school. The IEP is created through collaboration between parents, educators, and other professionals.

The key components of an IEP include:

Present Levels of Performance: A description of the child's current academic and functional abilities.

Annual Goals: Measurable objectives that the child is expected to achieve within a year.

Specialized Services: The type and frequency of services, such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, or behavioral support.

Accommodations and Modifications: Adjustments made to the curriculum or environment to support the child's learning.

Placement: Determination of the educational setting that best meets the child's needs, which could be in a general education classroom, special education classroom, or a combination of both.

Progress Monitoring: A plan for tracking and reporting the child's progress toward their goals.

IEPs are reviewed and updated annually to ensure they remain appropriate for the child's evolving needs.

Reference: Understanding the IEP Process - Understood.org

Definition of Autism

Autism, or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a range of challenges in social interaction, communication, and behavior. It is called a "spectrum" disorder because individuals with autism can vary significantly in their abilities and strengths.

Reference: Autism Speaks - What is Autism?

Examples of Autism Goals in an IEP

Setting meaningful and achievable goals is a critical aspect of an IEP. Here are some examples of goals that might be included in an IEP for a child with autism:

1. Social Communication: Improve the ability to initiate and maintain conversations with peers by using appropriate greetings and turn-taking during interactions.

2. Academic Skills: Increase reading comprehension skills by identifying main ideas and supporting details in texts at grade level.

3. Behavioral: Reduce instances of self-stimulatory behaviors (e.g., hand-flapping) by teaching alternative coping strategies for sensory regulation.

4. Speech and Language: Improve expressive language skills by using a communication device or picture exchange system to request basic needs and express preferences.

5. Functional Life Skills: Enhance daily living skills such as dressing, grooming, and preparing simple meals to promote independence.

These goals are tailored to the child's specific needs and are designed to help them make meaningful progress in their education.

Reference: Autism Society - IEP Goals and Objectives

Examples of Interventions for Autism in the School Setting

Interventions for children with autism in the school setting should be evidence-based and individualized. Here are some examples of effective interventions:

1. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA): ABA is a widely used therapy that focuses on improving behaviors by breaking them down into smaller, manageable steps and providing positive reinforcement for desired behaviors.

2. Speech and Language Therapy: This therapy helps children with autism develop communication skills, including speech, language, and social communication.

3. Occupational Therapy: Occupational therapists work on improving fine motor skills, sensory processing, and activities of daily living, helping children become more independent.

4. Social Skills Training: Group sessions can help children with autism learn and practice social skills, including how to initiate conversations, make friends, and interpret social cues.

5. Visual Supports: Visual aids, such as schedules, visual cues, and visual schedules, can help children with autism better understand routines and expectations.

6. Structured Environment: Providing a structured and predictable classroom environment can reduce anxiety and help children with autism focus on learning.

7. Assistive Technology: The use of devices or software can support communication and academic skills for students with autism.

Reference: Autism Speaks - Autism Treatments

FAQ about IEPs for Austism

Q: Can a child with autism attend a regular classroom with an IEP?

A: Yes, many children with autism attend regular classrooms with appropriate support and accommodations outlined in their IEPs. Inclusion in general education classrooms is encouraged whenever possible, as long as it meets the child's needs.

Q: Can I request changes to my child's IEP?

A: Yes, as a parent, you have the right to participate in IEP meetings and request changes to your child's IEP if you believe it is not meeting their needs. Collaboration with the school is essential in this process.

Q: Are there any alternatives to an IEP for children with autism?

A: In addition to IEPs, some children with autism may receive a 504 Plan, which provides accommodations and modifications but does not involve specialized instruction. The choice depends on the child's needs.

Conclusion

Navigating the world of IEPs for autism can be both challenging and rewarding. As a parent and Special Education attorney, I've witnessed the positive impact of a well-crafted IEP on a child's education and overall development. Remember that every child with autism is unique, and their IEP should reflect their individual strengths and challenges. By working collaboratively with educators and specialists, you can ensure that your child receives the support they need to thrive in school and beyond.

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A Guide to IEPs for Autism - One size does not fit all

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How your child with Autism can benefit from an IEP.

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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.

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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.

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Dyslexia IEP Goals: A Complete Guide and Goal Bank

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This complete guide and goal bank provides information on creating IEP goals for students with dyslexia. Learn about dyslexia and get examples of goals to use in your student’s individualized education plan.

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Teaching a child with dyspraxia can be a frustrating experience due to the wide range of symptoms they may present. However, while dyspraxia is a neurological condition that commonly causes movement and coordination issues, it does not affect intelligence. Children with dyspraxia are perfectly capable of learning alongside their peers, they may just need some extra attention and support from time to time.

Awareness is the first step and can make all of the difference in helping a child to reach his or her full potential at school.

While not as well known as other learning difficulties, dyspraxia in children is relatively common, with 6-10% of the population affected, to some degree. A child with dyspraxia may experience a number of different problems at school, including finding difficulty in handwriting written work, experiencing problems with moving a mouse, navigating a keyboard or manipulating a touch-screen, and struggling to perform some of the movements required for physical education, music, and art classes. Beyond performing tasks that require fine and gross motor skills, there may also be challenges with the planning and organizational aspects of schoolwork.

Nonetheless, parents and teachers can help students with learning difficulties by recognizing the root cause of a child's performance issues and providing appropriate support, to make it easier for the dyspraxic child to be and feel successful in the classroom. Sometimes a solution as simple as touch-typing vs. handwriting or making an audio recording instead of written notes can make all the difference in encouraging a child who is struggling. There's no reason why a child with dyspraxia should not develop strong literacy skills from an early age if he or she has the right accommodations.

What is dyspraxia?

Also known as developmental coordination disorder, dyspraxia results when a child's brain is unable to effectively coordinate physical movements with the body's muscles. Although the cause of dyspraxia is still unknown, it is thought to be genetic and is more commonly observed in boys than girls. Some researchers also cite a tendency for dyslexia and dyspraxia to present together.

There are four common types of dyspraxia. Oromotor can cause a child to have difficulty annunciating words, constructional dyspraxia is more to do with spatial relationships, ideational impacts the ability to perform coordinated movements in a sequence and ideomotor dyspraxia poses a problem for single-step tasks.

The result is a host of symptoms that range from balance and posture issues to problems with using writing tools, and even slurred speech. Dyspraxia not only affects physical abilities but can also cause poor planning and organization skills and generally make it seem like an individual is clumsy, which can lead to feelings of embarrassment and impact social skills too.

Although early symptoms may be observed in toddlers, a diagnosis is not usually made until children reach the age of 5 and their coordination difficulties are shown to be unrelated to muscle strength and not the result of other neurological conditions.

Dyspraxia at home

Dyspraxia is not something a child will grow out of, but occupational, motor and speech therapy can make a difference. In addition, simply listening to your child and helping him or her process emotions experienced over the course of the day can be helpful.

As dyspraxic individuals often struggle with sequence organization, you can help young children to improve narrative skills by talking about their day and breaking actions down into individual steps. Rehearse the order in which everyday routines, such as getting dressed and having breakfast, occur.

You might also model planning skills by keeping a family calendar, making lists on blackboards and providing other tools to support your child, such as clearly labeled folders and containers for storing toys and school assignments.

Problems at school

A child can be highly intelligent and creative but still present with classroom learning issues that hinder his or her ability to keep up with peers. Identifying learning difficulties is often the first hurdle because when it goes undiagnosed, dyspraxia can wreak havoc on a child's self-esteem and emotional well-being.

In the past, teachers were more likely to mistake symptoms of dyspraxia for acting out and label children as lazy and disruptive. Worse still, they might not have challenged the child academically. Yet as no two individuals with dyspraxia have the same set of symptoms or are affected to the same degree, it can still be hard for some students with dyspraxia to get the right diagnosis. This is particularly the case for those who are excessively fidgety, have trouble sitting up straight at their desks and/or tend to lose their homework and confuse deadlines and task specifications.

How teachers can help

Because dyspraxia often impacts writing, reading and spelling abilities, a child with dyspraxia may require more time to process new tasks. They might also experience more success when they over-learn material through repetition and a graded step-by-step approach.

Just being aware of a student's individuals learning needs can make a difference. Teachers who are sensitive to dyspraxia are less apt to criticize and reprimand classic dyspraxic behavior and more able to support a child by adapting classroom activities and teaching study strategies.

Help students with organization and planning by giving structured assignments with clear directions and remember to provide plenty of feedback and praise when it's due, to keep motivation high.

Here are a few more tips to try:

1. Pay attention to writing utensils and paper. Students with dyspraxia may find it easier to write using wide-stemmed pencils and pens, or by applying rubber grips to their writing utensils. Be aware that ballpoint pens can sometimes release an excessive amount of ink depending on how they are manipulated, so stick with felt-tip pens and keep plenty of erasers handy. You can also help a child with writing by providing graph paper to guide them in letter placement and spacing. Colorful, lined paper for students who tend to write using larger letters is also a plus.

2. Consider alternatives to activities requiring handwriting. Writing things out by hand can be very frustrating for the dyspraxic (and dyslexic) child and can cause them to struggle to keep up and follow your lesson. Set children up with note-taking buddies, allow them to use computers or provide electronic copies of material in advance to reduce note-taking strain. You may also want to provide fill in the blank or matching exercises that test comprehension without requiring lengthy written responses.

3. Teach dyspraxic children touch-typing. While handwriting is often a struggle, touch-typing is much easier for dyspraxic children and can help facilitate writing and composition skills by removing the physical tax associated with producing text. The earlier students learn, the sooner they can begin to type homework assignments and even use a computer in class to take electronic notes.

4. Adjust seating plans. It's often beneficial to place students with dyspraxia at the front of the room so they have an easier view of the board. They may also find it easier to concentrate when distanced from doors, windows, bulletins and other classroom distractions. This is an important consideration for teaching students with visual impairments as well.

5. Provide breaks in the schedule. It can make a huge difference in concentration abilities if a child with dyspraxia is given an opportunity to pause, get up from their desk, stretch and move around before continuing on with a lesson. This is also a useful technique for other students who are displaying inappropriate classroom behavior or showing signs of emotional distress and frustration with an assignment or task.

6. Give plenty of extra time. Processing time is not the same for every student and dyspraxic children can greatly benefit from having more time to understand task requirements and complete assigned work. Time in lessons is key but so is giving extended and flexible deadlines for homework and even providing high school-level students with extra time to travel from class to class.

7. Emphasize directions in step-by-step form. Going over task directions and requirements several times is crucial. Try to write your task instructions in short sentences and use check-lists for assignments with multiple parts. You may also want to demonstrate a task and read directions out loud, in addition to providing a printed version. This is helpful for all students as it clarifies the task and ensures everyone is on the same page.

8. Provide written, visual and recorded support. Bullet points and other formatting call attention to important aspects of an assignment that may otherwise go unnoticed. It's also beneficial to use images and break long chunks of text up. When reading is a challenge, it can be helpful for a child with dyspraxia to have recorded materials and books to listen to. This reduces the amount of written text required for processing and can save mental resources for responding and reacting to source material instead.

9. Keep a list of classroom rules and role-play expected behavior. Formulate a list of class rules and have all of your students contribute to it. Try using role-play to act out situations that encourage the social skills a student needs to be part of the classroom community.

10. Help with tasks that require fine motor skills. If your lesson includes using scissors, folding paper, or any other task that might cause a dyspraxic child to struggle, provide plenty of assistance and try to introduce the student to the activity beforehand, so he or she has a chance to practice and get familiar with the physical manipulations required.

Give technology a try

Children who are as young as 7 can learn to type without looking at a keyboard. This reduces the need for the coordinated fine motor skills involved in writing by hand and eliminates the distraction of forming letters.

Technology can help make success at school more attainable by providing an alternate means for producing the written text needed for assignments. It's also great for students who want to complete classroom activities without relying on pen and paper.

An online typing course like TTRS is particularly helpful for the dyspraxic child as it is broken down into measured steps, allowing every student to work through the course at his or her own pace and providing ample positive feedback and praise along the way.

Repetition is crucial and a computer course both requires and rewards the kind of over-learning that children with dyspraxia benefit from. Additionally, the multi-sensory approach combines touch with audio and visual cues to reinforce learning.
Do you have any tips for teaching students with dyspraxia? We'd love to hear about them!

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how to help a child with dyspraxia in the classroom

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Teaching a child with dyspraxia can be a frustrating experience due to the wide range of symptoms they may present. However, while dyspraxia is a neurological condition that commonly causes movement and coordination issues, it does not affect intelligence.

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Student Health And Safety: Stopping Bullying Through the IEP (Accessible Preview)

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Tips for a successful IEP meeting with school staff

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For kids to receive special education services, they need an IEP - an Individualized Education Program. If your child has been evaluated, the process of getting an IEP has already begun. But there's still a lot to learn about how the IEP process works and what your role will be.

This guide is designed to help you through every step of your IEP journey. It offers basic information, while also leading you to more detailed information and insights.

The more you know about the purpose of IEPs, the more involved you can be in getting your child the best support possible.

If you just started learning about IEPs, you'll likely hear about many things that are unfamiliar to you. And you'll probably have lots of questions. Who gets an IEP in school? What's the difference between an IEP and a 504 plan? What's the purpose of an IEP?

Having answers to your questions can help you decide if you want to pursue an IEP for your child. It can also help you advocate for your child with more confidence.

The process of getting an IEP for your child can be confusing. It's important to know what happens - and when. The first step is having an evaluation for special education. Then the school must decide whether your child qualifies for services and supports.

How will the school make that decision? What happens if the school decides your child isn't eligible?

If you've never seen an IEP before, the various documents can be hard to decipher. They cover many areas, using terms and information you'll likely have questions about. But all of those pieces - from testing results to goals for progress - add up to the best school program of instruction and supports for your child.

The information in an IEP can give you a deeper understanding of your child's strengths and challenges. And it should lay out exactly how the school plans to help your child improve and build skills.

Your child's special education program kicks off with an IEP meeting. The entire IEP team will be there. You may also hear from professionals at school who were part of the evaluation process. Some might provide services or supports for your child. And that's just the first of many IEP meetings you likely will attend over the course of your child's school years.

IEP meetings can be stressful for some parents. Knowing what happens at IEP meetings can make it easier to navigate them.

The IEP journey continues well after your child's plan is put into place. From here on, you'll play a key role in making sure the plan is working and your child is making progress. But what does that involve? What should you be looking for or asking about?

The IEP will change over time (and your role might as well) along with your child's needs. You'll also be involved in crafting a plan for transitioning out of an IEP toward the end of high school. But you'll still be your child's number-one advocate throughout the school years - and beyond.

Key takeaways

Your child needs an IEP to get special education services at school.

You play a key role throughout the IEP process.

It's important to stay on top of your child's IEP and make sure your child is making progress.

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IEPs in school: An Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a written education plan designed to meet a child's learning needs. Learn about the purpose of an IEP and the IEP process in this guide.