Hiatus Interrupted

Okay, so it has been a long time since I posted. Holla if you missed me! Turns out, things have been kinda topsy turvy, as life is wont to be sometimes. I suppose the event that took me away from bloggyville the longest involved my grandmother passing away. She was 89, had vascular dementia, and lived in a nursing home. I like to think more about other parts of her life than her last 8 years because she was a really fabulous lady.

It is great to have someone of upstanding character in one's lineage. Mind you, I have plenty of unsavory examples also in my lineage, but those can be for another post! My grandmother was a woman who served and gave a lot in her life. She was adventurous and even drove three of us grandchildren on a trip to Washington D.C., Jamestown, and to see the Biltmore-- all by herself. It was important to her that we see all that and know our nation's history. She was successful in those goals and in giving her grandchildren a trip we will never forget.

So many things could paint a picture of her, but one big thing stands out in my mind. She gave parties at her home for teenagers who had special needs. Her only connection was that a good friend's daughter had an intellectual disability, and my grandmother wanted her to have a good time, like all other teens do. I knew this was an unusual act of service when I was growing up, but not until I had my own child with special needs did I realize what a huge gift she gave her friend. Our kids SO need social opportunities.

I am grateful for her example of acceptance, giving, and serving. I suppose her life is a challenge to me to pick up that baton and follow in her determined way.

Who's Thinking About Next School Year?

I am!! In browsing around, I found some excellent material online that I wish I had found much earlier! Such good info about IEP meetings, involving the student and self-advocacy. Wow! I will be asking my son this last set of questions, for sure.

What Exactly Does Self-Advocacy Mean?

It means taking the responsibility for communicating one’s needs and desires in a straightforward manner to others. It is a set of skills that includes:

§ Speaking up for yourself

§ Communicating your strengths, needs and wishes

§ Being able to listen to the opinions of others, even when their opinions differ from yours

§ Having a sense of self-respect

§ Taking responsibility for yourself

§ Knowing your rights

§ Knowing where to get help or who to go to with a question

One of the best places to start teaching your child about self-advocacy is in his or her Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. Including your son or daughter in the IEP meeting provides him or her with an opportunity to learn and practice important life skills. Some advantages your child may gain by being involved in the IEP process include:

§ Learning about the impact of his or her disability

§ Practicing goal setting

§ Building teamwork skills

§ Developing an ability to speak up for himself or herself

§ Participating in a process of resolving differences

§ Gaining an understanding of his or her strengths and needs

§ Learning how to ask for and accept help from others.

Even very young children can contribute to their IEP meetings. If you feel your child is too young to participate in the entire meeting, you may choose to include him or her just in the opening of the meeting. This helps your child to know the IEP team members better and to start to be more comfortable in a child to display at the meeting. You can also receive your child’s input before you attend the IEP meeting. Ask your child if there is anything he or she would like to share at the meeting or to have you share. It can also be very beneficial to ask each team member to state one positive trait or skill your child has as you begin the meeting. Be sure to include your child in this sharing of positives. After the IEP meeting, sit down with your child and explain the goals and services or answer any questions your child may have.

As your child becomes older, the ways in which he or she can participate in his or her IEP meetings greatly increases. It is important to discuss the meeting process with your child beforehand. Role-playing being in an IEP meeting with your child can be a great teaching tool and may help your child to feel less anxious about participating.

Some Questions You May Want to Discuss with Your Son or Daughter Prior to the IEP

Meeting Are:

What do you want to learn or work on this year?

What are your special concerns for the school year?

How do you learn the best?

What do you need to be successful?

What would make learning easier for you?

What do you wish your teacher and other school staff would understand about you?

Discuss with your child how to handle the situation if something negative or difficult to hear is said about him or her in the meeting. Determine at what point, if any, you would stop the meeting and have your child leave. If the meeting is likely to be too stressful or negative, have your child only attend part of it and determine the agenda ahead of time with the team. Be sure to include your child’s input on the agenda. If your child chooses not to attend a meeting, ask if he or she would be willing to share ideas or opinions in writing or on tape to provide to the team.

Get more of this good stuff here.

Self Determination

This topic is brand new to me, but it has been a popular one for the last few years, I am told. It is very important to middle and high school students with disabilities, and it is one my son will soon become familiar with -- as soon as I can fully explain it! Here it is explained somewhat by a person with a disability:

"What people need to realize is that self-determination can be different things to different people. All people should have the opportunity to be self-determining, based on what that means for them. They might need some guidance, they might need some help, but that doesn't mean they ought to be shut out of opportunities to have their life. Everybody needs some support at one time or another, I don't care who you are. What's important is to focus on what you can do, what you are good at and like to do. When you are getting supported, you have to take the initiative to tell other people what you want, what you need, and the supports you will need to live the way you want."
(I found this quote here.)

A more in-depth description is this:

"The concept of self-determination has become important in the field of special education and disability services over recent years. This emphasis has come about as a result of several factors, including a changing view of disability, legislation, research findings and advances in teaching technology. Self-determination is highly important to the career development and transition process and it needs to be encouraged throughout the lifespan. It is important for all students, with and without disabilities, including those students with the most severe disabilities. Self-determination instruction can be provided within an inclusive framework and is important for educators as well as students. Family participation is important to the development of self-determination. The Division on Career Development and Transition of the Council for Exceptional Children supports and affirms approaches rooted in self-determination for development and delivery of effective educational programs."

(I found that one here.)

It looks like we need to help our older kids with special needs figure out a plan for what they want in life and how to get there. There are some assessments that they can be given at home or school that will definitely be eye-openers for them and for us. Check our this website for all kinds of opportunities for assessment regarding goals and plans.

If you are familiar with Self-Determination, please do tell! There is always something new to learn.

Possible Result of Inclusion?

I would certainly hope that auditing a college class would be an option for anyone with a disability. The fact that classmates stood up for this young lady thrills me!! Go, students! I wonder if many of them had the privilege of being in classes with kids with disabilities while in elementary, middle or high school. Perhaps they just knew it was the right thing to do.

Now all we need is some "people first" language in the title of this article, and we'll be set! (It would put the person first by wording it "Classmates of student with Down syndrome protest withdrawal".) But the actions in this story speak louder than words!

Classmates of Down syndrome student protest withdrawal

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Posted: 2:35 PM November 18, 2010

About 20 students demonstrated today at Ashland's Southern Oregon University to protest an administrative decision to withdraw a student with Down syndrome.

Twenty-year-old Eliza Schaaf, a graduate of Ashland High School, was auditing a ceramics class as a way to share the college experience with her friends from high school, her parents said.

She had completed two-thirds of the class when she received a letter Nov. 8 notifying her she would be withdrawn from the class because she was not qualified to meet academic standards and disrupted the class. The letter also said the family would be given a full refund of tuition and fees.

All 19 students in Schaaf's class have signed a petition stating that Schaaf did not disrupt their learning in the class and was a welcome presence.

Mollie Mustoe, one of Schaaf's classmates who spearheaded the petition, said administrators didn't consult students before making the decision.

Student organizers gathered about 40 more signatures today from students who oppose the decision to remove Schaaf from class.

SOU's Student Senate voted unanimously Tuesday on a resolution asking the administration to allow Schaaf to remain on campus and to give Schaaf due process.

"The fact that it was unanimous is overwhelming for us," said Eliza's father, Ron Schaaf. "It's so gratifying to know other people believe in Eliza, other than her parents. We hope this will lead to a good conclusion."

— Paris Achen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want to go to the article yourself, click here.

An Outstanding Advocate

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to hear a dynamic speaker at a conference. He had more energy than anyone I had seen in a long time. Just watching his animated presentation was highly entertaining, and then he mentioned his ADD in passing, which I figured was part of his package! His positive approach in advocating for all people with disabilities (or "possibilities", as he likes to say) to be employed was contagious. His premise is that there is no one who can't be employed, and he illustrated with an unbelievable story.

As a former special ed teacher, he was accustomed to looking for each student's strengths. He needed to find a job for a nonambulatory, nonverbal guy. His strength or ability? Blinking. That is literally all he could do. He studied this guy's likes and dislikes, and found that he loved loud, noisy places. Patrick, the speaker, found him a job in a busy copying center, where with a switch, powered by a blink, he could run copiers and collate! Imagine that. This man actually had to lie on the floor because of his disabilities, but he thoroughly enjoyed running his copier with his switch. Amazing.

Patrick Schwarz, the speaker, has books to his credit and has very unique ideas for the inclusive classroom. He also described several brilliant ways of helping kids transition to the next school. (That was my favorite part, since he took a kid who hated change to his new high school several times. He played basketball there with him with no one around, made sure he bought him a drink from the machine, and slowly introduced him to staff and classrooms. Voila! It was a beautifully smooth transition.)

One controversial idea he had was to always reward with the student's (or person's) passion. He was so emphatic on this topic. He told all about a noncompliant student who loved whales. They could get him to do nothing until Patrick discovered this love. Every positive behavior was then rewarded with a whale stamp or a chance to work the whale puzzle, and he blossomed into a very cooperative, hard working student. People I talked to wondered, though, if that would just further an obsession that might need to be extinguished or was inappropriate. I say if the behavior is undesirable enough, bring on the reward. What do you say?

You can check out Patrick Schwarz's website here.