DH is fuming and I need information about the IEP that we have just been given for my DS who is in Yr 2

[chattysue]

At school pick up time my DS told me that I needed to see the teacher, my DS stayed with my DH and I approached the teacher. Then in front of everyone the teacher handed me a completed IEP for my son, she signed it and told me they would review it termly.
The teacher had mentionned that she wanted to do an IEP for my son at parents evening back in October.
My DH is fuming that we have had no involvement in the IEP and feels that it is not necessary for the reason that they have written.
Can anyone share with me how the process of an IEP works?
Thank you! CS

Kardashianw. I have spent this morning reading up on best practice for IEP's in primary schools and the emphasis seems to be very much on partnership with parents.
DS's IEP hasn't been written by the SENCO - it has been written by his class teacher. I believe that she is acting in DS's best interest and after a nights sleep we can see that it makes no sense to dwell on the 'mechanics' of the IEP and concentrate instead on how it will help DS.
Thank you for your advice - it's good to know we aren't alone!!

atiredmum...that's an interesting point that you make - is there that much difference between the need to wear glasses or a hearing aid?
So you could say that another child could have an IEP because he wears glasses and needs to sit at the front to see just as much as DS's IEP says because he has a hearing aid he needs to sit at the front where he can hear!
This point is really how my DH feels. Interesting!

Sorry chattysue want written by senco but his class teacher but the seance, class teacher and I had all signed it. It was CT who wrote it though x

wasn't ooops!

I think it boils down to what the points on the IEP are, they should be specific and measurable. For any child with a heating impairment ( and it's not the same as glasses as hearing aids have their limits - distance, background noise, honing in on who should be talking etc). For a child with HI ( no matter how bright) I would expect every teacher to be aware of the need to ensure that the acoustic environment is as good as it can be. That means sitting near the front, allowing lipreading if they use this through seeing the teachers face, reduction of background noise including softening of hard surfaces and curtains and carpets where possible light sources behind the teacher etc. In addition all children with hearing issues struggle with overhearing / peer group learning if classrooms are noisy. If the IEP if focused on this then I see no reason to take issue. Depending on the level of loss you could also consider FM systems to help, so maybe the class teacher is laying the foundations for getting some additional equipment funded. With our DD's deafness we were in the Senco's office on day 1 making sure school was as easy for her as possible, regardless that she is hitting all of her educational milestones. However, discussion between senco, CT and parents is key to getting the best for your child regardless of the issues they have.

Yes, IEPs are normally written by class teachers.

What we don't know is how bad his hearing is - and how much it's corrected with a hearing aid.

If his hearing is 100% fine when he's wearing a hearing aid, ie he doesn't need to sit near the teacher or facing the teacher, then it's comparable with glasses.

If however even with an aid he still needs to be watching the teacher, seated in a particular place, have help with phonics lessons, excused from very noisy lessons, or any other accommodation then it's not comparable to wearing glasses.

Hatchypop are you trying to imply that hearing impairment is far more important that any other impairment as thats how I am reading your post and making out visual impairment isn't as strong as hearing.
My ds couldn't read board or form letters etc without glasses he didn't know he was short sighted he thought this was the norm till he got checked.
I think any impairment is important to a child as it can affect them in many and different ways!

I think what Hatchypop is saying is that once a child is prescribed glasses that should correct the problem in the class but having a hearing aid can have other implications in the classroom that teachers need to consider.

I wasn't trying to play top trumps with sen frankly that's just daft. I think all I was trying to say and clearly not very well is that unlike some visual impairments which can be corrected through glasses, hearing aids do not provide hearing that is as good as natural hearing. Wish I hadn't bothered now.

I knew what you meant.

Glasses can often lead to almost perfect 'correction' which need no additional support or compensation.

Hearing aids improve the situation but also create new and different challenges which have to be accounted for.

Both have a different impact educationally. Obviously physcologically and emotionally they both have an impact which may have a secondary impact on learning of course.

Well I also know a child who tried glasses to correct her vision and it didn't, so again with hearing,visual, speech etc things may work and some things may not!

Yes, and in that case that child should be on the SEN register for her vision.

In my DSs SEN notes it states he has to be sat directly in front of the whiteboard, and that he can't copy off it so needs things printed out ( which he can then copy - its much easier to copy something which is next to you rather than on a whiteboard)

His vision problems can't be corrected by glasses.

That is the point of the SEN register. It details all the problems a child has, and what needs to be one about it.

Kardashianw we aren't saying that a child with a vision problem that hasn't been corrected by glasses shouldn't be on the SEN register.
What people are saying is that a child with glasses that has successfully corrected the problem doesn't need to be on the SEN register, just as a child with a hearing aid that corrects the difficulty doesn't need to be on the SEN register but sometimes hearing aids can be effected by things like sound systems, wi-fi and even by the materials used to construct the school so staff need to be aware and make appropriate adjustments.

Ok

I'll add a bit on the HI vs VI.

For most people who wear glasses / contact lenses (50% of adults) their sight with glasses is very close to normal sight. The problem with most people's eyes is the shape of the eyeball and a lense (from glasses) in front means that the light hitting the back of the eye is the same as for someone with a normally shaped eye ball.

If a VI is caused by something like nerve damage, a brain tumour, missing eye ball, damaged retina etc etc then glasses may improve vision but will not correct it.

A hearing aid is not the same as glasses, it doesn't change the signal reaching the ear, it just amplifies it and it also amplifies everythng else. So if you have normal hearing you can filter out certain sounds such as, if you are in a noisy cafe, you can still have a conversation with someone next to you, but if you wear a hearing aid all the other conversations are amplified making it harder to hear.

Additionally HI is not usually caused by the signal (sound) hitting the wrong place or not being focussed - if it is, it is the kind of temporary deafness you get with an infection or a cold.

So the ability to hear is dependent on the workings of the inner ear and the nerves/brain. The inner ear is much more complex than an eyeball in terms of engineering.

In short, for most people who wear glasses their sight is corrected to normal, for most people using a hearing aid their hearing is not corrected to normal or near normal.

MNetters, I just wanted to thank you all for your advice and comments on this subject. Merry Christmas to you all! CS