Don Peek - Caring Makes the Difference

Special Needs Topics with Don Peek

 

This post is authored by Don Peek, a former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs The School Funding Center, a company that provides grant information and grant-writing services to schools. To learn more, or to subscribe to the School Funding Center Grant Database, go to schoolfundingcenter.com

Caring Makes the Difference

I have a lot of experience dealing with parents in a school setting.  I spent 20 years as an educator in public schools.  Seven of those years I served as an assistant high school principal in two different school districts.  I think many parents are somewhat suspicious of assistant principals because their children are often in trouble when an assistant principal calls.   They also tend to be a little bit suspicious of the special education programs in which their children are enrolled.  They often don’t have a clear understanding of how a special education program even works.

Because I was very involved in the special education programs at the two high schools where I served, I learned a lot about working with parents in general and parents of special education students in particular.  Here’s basically what I learned.

If parents trust you, I mean really trust you to make the very best decisions you can concerning their children, you can do almost anything and those parents will support you 100%. On the other hand, if you don’t have that trust, if they are constantly suspicious that you don’t like their children, or that you’re simply not concerned with their well-being, you couldn’t give their children a hard look without getting into a conflict with them.

When I told my dad I had decided to teach school, he gave me some advice.  “Just remember,” he said, “teachers deal with the single most prized possession of any parent, their children.  Always remember that when you’re making decisions.”  That advice is even more important when you are dealing with students who have disabilities.  Parents are going to be that much more protective, and that’s totally understandable.

There is no course in college that teaches you to care about each of your students.  That has to come from the heart, and it’s very, very difficult to fake.  When you genuinely care about each student, you have to make decisions that are best for the child in the long run.  That’s not even easy for parents to do with their own children, and yet as educators we have to remember constantly to make those long-term decisions with special education students every day.

For instance, it is easy to give learning disabled students practice sheets that occupy them for hours at a time but do very little to challenge them.  Bring out the sheets that are harder, the ones the student really needs to work through, and you have a battle on your hands --- often day after day after day.  It’s not always easy to do the right thing when an easier solution is so readily available.  You can have some quiet time and the student isn’t complaining.  The student is also not learning, certainly not progressing. 

The same is true in dealing with bad behavior.  Some students tend to disrupt the class on a daily basis, even on an hourly basis.  Do you do the right thing for the child and consistently use those disruptions as teachable moments, or do you take the easy way out and let the child get away with behavior that will both teach that child the wrong lesson and give inconsistent signals to the other students in the class?

If you genuinely care about your students, not just while they are in your classroom, but care about their futures as a whole, you will consistently teach them what is right.  You will teach them the next skill in the sequence rather than repeating things they can already do well.  You will teach them how to behave in a classroom and how to get along with the other students in ways that will literally shape their future behavior and their future lives as a whole.

It was very hard to care for every student I faced as an assistant principal.  Many had entrenched behavior patterns before I ever had the opportunity to work with them.  I did the best I could.  I cared as much as I could and tried to help shape their futures in a positive way.

I just hope that as you work with disabled students, either as a parent or a teacher, you will genuinely care about their well-being.  You will take every opportunity to teach your students and your children, not the easy way, but the right way.  I can guarantee you that it’s well worth the time and effort.

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Grant Info:

Grant Name:  Dreyfus Foundation Educational Grants

Funded By:  The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.

Description:  Giving on a national basis for museums, cultural, performing, and visual arts programs, schools, hospitals, educational and skills training projects, and programs for youth, seniors, and people who are handicapped.

Program Areas:  After-School, Arts, At-Risk/Character, Disabilities, General Education, Math, Reading, Science/Environment, Social Studies, Special Education

Recipients:  Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other

Proposal Deadline:  3/10/13

Average Amount:  $1,500.00 - $20,000.00

Telephone:  202-337-3300

Email:  [email protected]

Website:  http://www.mvdreyfusfoundation.org

Availability:  All States

The team at Achievement Products asked our consultant, Occupational Therapist Scott Russo, to provide some activity suggestions for incorporating some of our favorite items into daily classroom activities or curriculum.

Scott has provided some really great and creative ways to use items (that may have been originally designed for typically developing children), in special needs environments.

Today we will look at the Squeeze and Feed Frogs.

Introduction:

Squeeze and Feed Frogs are rounded, pliable frog faces that open their mouths when squeezed to “gobble” foam bugs. The resistance provided when squeezed is excellent for the development of hand and grip strength, and manipulation of the small bugs assists with finger dexterity and in-hand manipulation skills. The set comes with both a number die and a color die for ease of grading the activity to children of various ages. The dice also provide the opportunity for social play as Squeeze and Feed Frogs can be used as a game.  The bugs and the frogs are both visually appealing which increases the motivational component of the game. 

 

Activity ideas:

 

·        The simplest activity is to have the child squeeze the frog and place the bugs inside the mouth with their other hand. Have the child place his/her thumb on one side of the frog’s mouth with the other four fingers on the opposite side forming a cupping of the palm when squeezing. To increase the challenge, have the child try to pick up the bugs using only the frog and not their other hand.

 

·        Play a game using the die. For younger children, use the color die and have them race to get as many of the colors as they can into the frog’s mouth. For school-aged children, have them use the number die for number recognition.  To increase the challenge, have the child use both dice and see if they can pick up the correct of number of the correct color.

 

·        Develop social skills. Have the child use the frogs for conversations. Have the child make the frog talk by squeezing and releasing the mouth.  In a small group with two children, or a simple 1:1 adult/child situation, the frogs can have a conversation with each other.

 

·        To develop bilateral integration skills, use one frog to pick up a bug and have it feed the bug to other frog.

 

For more information about the Squeeze and Feed Frogs and other great items please visit http://www.achievement-products.com.

Don Peek: A Few Misconceptions about Special Education

This post is authored by Don Peek, a former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs The School Funding Center, a company that provides grant information and grant-writing services to schools. To learn more, or to subscribe to the School Funding Center Grant Database, go to schoolfundingcenter

 

 

A Few Misconceptions about Special Education

Special education and the services available through special education are often misunderstood by parents and other community members.  It is not that unusual even for educators who are not a part of the special education system to have limited knowledge about how special education provides evaluations and services to those students who qualify.

One common misconception is that some students can’t receive certain special education services from a public school because the school is small and unable to provide such things as speech or occupational therapy.  In reality, all special education programs are heavily subsidized by federal funding.  If either a school’s diagnostician or an outside evaluator determines that a child qualifies for a special education service, then the school district, regardless of its size or financial condition, is obligated to provide that service.  If the school cannot provide the service, then it must contract to have that service provided by a licensed individual or an outside agency.

Another misconception is that once an IEP (Individualized Educational Program) is signed by all parties, it cannot be changed until the next annual IEP meeting.  That is simply not true.  Parents can request an IEP meeting at any time, and it must be held within 30 days of their request.  If changes are agreed upon, an amendment is simply added to the IEP.

It is often believed that the school has the final decision as to whether a child is eligible to receive special education services.  Actually, parents have the right to disagree with the school’s eligibility assessment and can ask for an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) at the school’s expense.  If there is a disagreement after the IEE between the school and the parents, the parents then have the right to a due process hearing where an impartial hearing officer will make the determination as to eligibility.

Many people have the idea that special education services are restricted to special education classrooms.   A number of parents of special education students were special education students themselves when they went to school.  It is possible that their programs consisted mainly of going to special education classrooms for instruction in the various subject areas.  Today, that simply is not the case in most schools.  Special education requires educating students in the least restrictive environment.  That means that disabled children should be educated in the regular classroom along with the general population of students as much as possible.  To do less is to violate special education policy.

It is often believed that special education is extremely costly and is a constant drain on the regular budgets of most schools.  That simply is not the case.  While sports programs, art, band, and other programs for the general population are totally funded by the regular school budget, the special education program is largely subsidized by the federal government.  It is true that taxpayers are still paying for these services through the federal taxes that they pay, but a very small amount of the money for special education is actually coming out of a school district’s regular budget.

Providing appropriate special education services for all of the students who qualify is a complex and expensive task.  There is little wonder that a host of misconceptions surrounding special education have sprung up over the years as it has grown and improved its services.

 

Grant Name:  LEGO Children’s Fund Grants

Funded By:  LEGO Children’s Fund

Description:  The LEGO Children's Fund will provide quarterly grants for programs, either in part or in total, with a special interest paid to collaborative efforts and in providing matching funds to leverage new dollars into the receiving organization. We will give priority consideration to programs that both meet our goals and are supported in volunteer time and effort by our employees.

Program Areas:  After-School, At-Risk/Character, General Education, Health/PE, Math, Reading, Science/Environment, Social Studies, Special Education, Technology

Recipients:  Public School, Private School, Other

Proposal Deadline:  1/15/13

Average Amount:  $500.00 - $5,000.00

Email:  [email protected]

Website:  http://www.legochildrensfund.org/Guidelines.html

Availability:  All States

 

 

Activity Guide - Toppletree

The team at Achievement Products asked our consultant, Occupational Therapist Scott Russo, to provide some activity suggestions for incorporating some of our favorite items into daily classroom activities or curriculum.

Scott has provided some really great and creative ways to use items (that may have been originally designed for typically developing children), in special needs environments.

Today we will look at the Toppletree.

Introduction:

 

Toppletree is a fun and challenging fine motor game. Starting from the base, players try to build a branch of the tree with four consecutive color pieces without toppling the tree. The game requires fine motor precision as the child must use muscle coordination to grade his placement of the pieces without toppling the tree.  This game also assists the child in the development of planning and reasoning skills as they must be able to see how to get to their piece in the correct order while not compromising the tree’s balance.

Activity ideas:

• Use the tree as a simple construction toy. Rather than following the actual game rules, allow the child to simply build the tree and see how big they can make it without toppling it over.

• In a small group, each player selects a color and must build their branches using only that color. Taking turns, they must find a way to connect four consecutive pieces of the tree with their color.

• Develop color identification skills. Specify which color piece you want placed at any time and have the child place it. Increase the challenge by telling the child which color you want placed on another color (ie. “Place a blue piece on a yellow piece”). 

 

• Using the idea above, develop social skills by having one child be the leader, calling out to the other children where they want different color pieces placed.

 

For more information about the Toppletree and other great items please visit http://www.achievement-products.com.