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Supporting Autistic Kids in NYC Education System. Nov 6th | 12:30pm 

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Supporting Autistic Kids in NYC Education System. Nov 6th | 12:30pm 

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Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Supporting Children on the Autism Spectrum in the NYC Education System. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

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Please join us for an informational webinar presented by the
Education Law Unit of Legal Services NYC.
You will learn about the Special Education services available
for children on the autism spectrum in the Department of
Education and how to advocate for your children’s
educational rights. Opportunity for questions and answers.
No individual advice will be given.
Please note: English language only for this event.

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Hi all, testing out this new way of organizing our resources and to ensure that families who might not be able to attend the meetings still benefit from all the incredible information people have to share

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How does this site work for you as a tool to gather information  

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Hosted by Diana Botet and Karisma Casillia

Hybrid with participants on Zoom

5-6 parents in person with Mr Dickerson in attendance and Renee Lalla (PTA President) joining on zoom.

Started with introductions - a little information on what brought us to the meeting.

Discussed ways that the school community has helped us feel welcome and what more can be done.

Karisma presented the suggestion basket for parents to write down what they would like to see.

Diana explained what OPWDD was and how it gives her a lot of peace of mind.

Yoko discussed how we can try to capture parents journeys and the information they have acquired to help families at our school.

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How can we help?

I want help with behaviors , learning , and everyday skills

We are Understood.
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Discover what's possible when you're understood.

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Helpful guidance from Understood

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Are you wondering why your child is struggling?

We're here to help if you're feeling overwhelmed. Take N.O.T.E. (Notice. Observe. Talk. Engage.) is a simple step-by-step tool that can help you figure out if the struggles you're seeing might be signs of a learning and thinking difference.

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Understood - For Learning and Thinking Differences

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Understood.org is the resource that helps the 70 million people with learning and thinking differences anticipate the challenges, barriers, or opportunities in life and confidently reach their potential.

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Welcome to INCLUDEnyc, helping young people with disabilities, their families, and professionals.

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All students with disabilities who require special education services have Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The IEP contains information about your child's interests, strengths, needs, goals, and educational program. It is a legal document that describes how the DOE will provide your child:

A Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)

In the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE).

The IEP in NYCSA

If your child attends a DOE school, you can view information about their IEP by visiting the IEP tab of your NYC Schools Account (NYCSA). Here you will find a summary of IEP recommendations, along with information about where and when your child is receiving recommended special education programs and related services. For more information about NYCSA, visit NYC Schools Account. For guidance on creating an account, visit the NYCSA Account Set Up Guide for Parents.

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The Beyond Access Series is a part of the New York City Department of Education’s Division of Specialized Instruction and Student Support. The series supports families of students with disabilities by providing sessions on topics around special education. For more information about the New York Department of Education please visit https://www.schools.nyc.gov/ For more information about special education in New York City please visit https://www.schools.nyc.gov/specialeducation If your child attends a school a DOE school in New York City and you have questions, you can reach out to specialeducation@schools.nyc.gov or by calling 311

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Children each learn and develop at their own pace, and reading is no different from other skill building. It's common for kids to find reading challenging at one point or another. But if learning to read becomes an ongoing struggle that leaves a child falling behind their peers, it's possible that they have a learning disorder known as dyslexia.

Dyslexia is most commonly associated with trouble learning to read. It affects a child's ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds in language. Kids with dyslexia have a hard time decoding new words, or breaking them down into manageable chunks they can then sound out. This causes difficulty with reading, writing and spelling. They may compensate by memorizing words, but they'll have trouble recognizing new words and may be slow in retrieving even familiar ones.

Dyslexia is not a reflection of a child's intelligence - in fact it's defined as a gap between a student's ability and achievement. Some youngsters with dyslexia are able to keep up with their peers with extra effort at least for the first few grades. But by the third grade or so, when they need to be able to read quickly and fluently in order to keep up with their work, they run into trouble.

With help and strategies for compensating for their weakness in decoding, students with dyslexia can learn to read and thrive academically. But dyslexia is not something one grows out of.

How common is dyslexia?

It is estimated that as many as one in five kids has dyslexia, and that 80 to 90 percent of kids with learning disorders have it. Sally Shaywitz, MD, co-director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, notes that many children go undiagnosed as struggles in school are incorrectly attributed to intelligence, level of effort or environmental factors.

Although experts used to say that dyslexia occurred more often in boys than in girls, current research indicates that it affects boys and girls equally.

A young person with dyslexia may:

Struggle with learning even simple rhymes

Have a speech delay

Have trouble following directions

Repeat or omit short words such as and, the, but

Find it difficult to tell left from right

In school, children with dyslexia are likely to:

Have difficulty sounding out new words

Lack fluency compared to other children their age

Reverse letters and numbers when reading (read saw as was, for example)

Find it difficult to take notes and copy down words from the board

Struggle with rhyming, associating sounds with letters, and sequencing and ordering sounds

Stumble and have difficulty spelling even common words; frequently they will spell them phonetically (hrbr instead of harbor)

Avoid being called on to read out loud in front of classmates

Become tired or frustrated from reading

Dyslexia affects children outside of school as well. Kids with dyslexia may also:

Find it difficult to decode logos and signs

Struggle when trying to learn the rules to games

Have difficulty keeping track of multi-step directions

Struggle with getting the hang of telling time

Find it especially challenging to learn another language

Become incredibly frustrated, which can effect their mood and emotional stability

Social and emotional impacts of dyslexia

Dyslexia affects a lot more than reading - it can also impact a child socially. "A dyslexic person who has word-finding difficulties can have trouble with their expressive language," says Scott Bezsylko, the executive director of Winston Preparatory School, which specializes in teaching kids with learning disorders. "That has a social impact, in addition to your difficulties with reading and writing, that make you feel not so good about yourself."

Kids with dyslexia - particularly those who have yet to be diagnosed - often suffer from low self-esteem because they worry that there is something wrong with them, and are often accused of not trying hard enough to learn to read. "A lot of our work with dyslexic kids is to help them rediscover that they are smart and capable," notes Beszylko, "because they've stopped believing in themselves."

How is dyslexia diagnosed?

If your child isn't meeting expectations for reading, as parents you can ask the school district to perform an evaluation and share the results with you. The evaluation will test your child's intellectual capacity and reading skills, to see if there is an achievement gap. It should also rule out other potential causes like environmental factors or hearing impairment.

The school should then make recommendations on how they can support your child and maximize her learning.

If you are unhappy with the quality of the evaluation, you can also secure a private evaluation by a psychologist, a neuropsychologist, a reading specialist, a speech and language therapist, an educational evaluator or a school psychologist. This external evaluation can also be used to advocate for your child and get the accommodations and services she might need.

When should a child be evaluated?

Dyslexia can begin to reveal itself at a young age, and there are preschool evaluations that look at the child's awareness of the sounds that make up words, and ability at word retrieval. However, Matthew Cruger, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist at the Child Mind Institute, suggests waiting until kids are at least six years old and have had some formal instruction in reading to seek out a formal evaluation.

But Dr. Shaywitz notes that as soon as a gap between intelligence and reading skills is apparent - and evidence shows it can be seen in first grade - it's a good idea to get help. Schools sometimes encourage parents to wait until the third grade to see if their child truly needs an intervention, but Dr. Shaywitz argues that the earlier intervention is important not only to help kids catch up but to boost their fragile self-image, which is damaged by continuing struggle in school and comparisons with peers.

How to help kids with dyslexia

A dyslexia diagnosis does not mean your child will never learn to read. Dr. Cruger says there are a number of programs that can help, which might include these features:

Multi-sensory instruction in decoding skills

Repetition and review of skills

Intensity of intervention - that is, more than being pulled out of class once a week for extra help

Small group or individual instruction

Teaching decoding skills

Drilling sight words

Teaching comprehension strategies, to help kids derive meaning from what they're reading

Reading programs that been shown to help kids with dyslexia include:

Dr. Cruger points out that traditional tutoring may actually be counter-productive for a child with dyslexia, particularly if it is not a positive experience. "If the child hates the experience of reading help, it's not helpful," Dr. Cruger notes. "And it's not treating the source of the problem, the decoding weakness."

Instead, Dr. Cruger emphasizes that one of the most important ways to help kids with dyslexia is to make them more comfortable reading. This can be done in part by celebrating even small victories and accomplishments, while focusing less on correcting their errors.

Accommodations for kids with dyslexia

Kids with demonstrated dyslexia are eligible for accommodations in school. "Dyslexia robs a person of time," Dr. Shaywitz explains, "and accommodations give the time back to her." Accommodations may include:

Extra time on tests

A quiet space to work

The option to record lectures

The option to give verbal, rather than written, answers (when appropriate)

Elimination of oral reading in class

Exemption from foreign language learning

Other ways to support a child with dyslexia

One of the best ways to support a child with dyslexia - or any child who is struggling - is to encourage those activities that they like and feel good at, whether it is music, joining a sports team or anything else that helps build her confidence.

To help reinforce that dyslexia is not a marker of intelligence, it can also be helpful to talk about successful people - like Whoopi Goldberg and Steven Spielberg - who have also been diagnosed with dyslexia.

Other things that may help your child with dyslexia include:

Listening to audio books as an alternative to reading

Typing on a computer or tablet instead of writing

Apps that can make learning fun by turning decoding into a game

Using a ruler to help kids read in a straight line, which can help keep them focused

Emotional support

Dyslexia can result in frustration, embarrassment, avoidance and low self-esteem as a result of difficulties performing tasks that seem to come naturally to others. Demystifying the learning disorder with your child can help him develop the tools - and resilience - necessary to manage it, both in school and in social circumstances. Some things you can do to help include:

Discuss the specific challenges that result from dyslexia: "You know how you have a hard time reading signs or copying notes from the board? That's dyslexia."

Acknowledge their effort and celebrate hard work, even if there are still mistakes: "I know how difficult that reading homework was. I am so proud of how hard you tried."

Help them recognize their strengths: "You showed such great sportsmanship and teamwork in the soccer game the other night, and that was a great goal you scored!"

Combat negative self-talk: If your child starts saying things like, "I'm just stupid," don't ignore it. Instead, check out these ideas for helping kids who are too hard on themselves.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does dyslexia work?

How common is dyslexia?

What helps students with dyslexia?

What are the signs of dyslexia?

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Understanding Dyslexia - Child Mind Institute

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Find out how to recognize dyslexia, the most common learning disability. The Child Mind Institute on how to help kids who have trouble learning to read.

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Nov 17th - Beyond Access (Focus and Big Emotions)

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Nov 17th - Beyond Access (Focus and Big Emotions)

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Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Helping Students Stay Focused and Manage Big Emotions . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

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Learn how to recognize signs of attention and emotional regulation challenges in students and discover practical strategies for families and educators to create supportive environments that foster focus, self-regulation, and collaboration.

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Hello,

Here's a very quick overview of my story. This child straight away was always a bit more sensitive than his older brother had been. We were humbled in the first year how many of the things we had been able to do with our first just didn't seem to work to soothe and get him to sleep.

At age 2 his speech was still not well developed so the pediatrician had made a recommendation for EI (early intervention) screening. A couple of people came over and evaluated him but since we spoke mainly English to him I think a lot of his delays were chalked up to having minimal english exposure. At his 3yr old well visit the pediatrician asked if we were still concerned and I said that he still did not make full sentences so she recommended a developmental pediatrician. Things didn't seem too bad so we put it off for a while and eventually we signed up for an appointment with a Dev Ped (Dr Vizarra Villongco with NYP which used to be on Degraw and 4th ave)

https://doctors.nyp.org/rica-vizarra-villongco-md/newyork-presbyterian-medical-group-brooklyn-multispecialty

While we were waiting for the appointment the people at EI had spoken to the people at CPSE and they reached out to me and asked if we were still concerned (this level of proactivity was surprising to me). I said that we were and they offered to evaluate but with a french speaking neuropsych. The appointment for this was in April 2018 and actually came before the Dev Ped. We went to the office in Queens where we did a parent interview, a kid observation and then a family conference. Leo was very reluctant to participate throughout the session. The doctor....TBC

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Rica Vizarra-Villongco, MD at NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Group Brooklyn - Multispecialty: Pediatrics | NewYork-Presbyterian Doctor in Brooklyn, NY

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Rica Vizarra-Villongco, MD at 263 7th Avenue in Brooklyn, NY is a NewYork-Presbyterian provider specializing in and Pediatrics. Contact to request or schedule an appointment today!

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Through My Eyes: Real stories. Free tools.

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Step into the world of kids with ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia. Gain new perspectives and access free tools to support them.