SMART IEP Literacy Targets

[IndigoBell]

I have an IEP meeting, for my DS in Year 5, tomorrow. Academically his biggest problem is his writing / spelling and handwriting.
(His dx is Aspergers and Dyspraxia)

He is on NC Level 5 books in the reading scheme, yet working at NC Level 2 in his writing.

He hates writing and finds it physically hard, so he is allowed to use a computer for longer pieces of work. However he still has to do some handwriting during school.

His problems are just about everything. Handwriting, spelling, punctuation, layout...
His work is worse than his younger brothers who is in Year 2. There are words missing from every sentance, syllables missing from every word, random capital letters, no full stops. His typed work is better than his written work, but still a level 2.

Any ideas what you would put in his IEP?

For handwriting I'd like school to use handwriting without tears or speed up every day with him ( we are doing OT for his handwriting with him every day at home)

But for actually writing paragraphs what would you put in his IEP?

I think we'll have to ignore his spelling, as it hasn't made our top 3 most important things....

Bump (am lurking as my ds is similar)

How about speech recognition software for now? It would eliminate the issues with spelling and help him to use complete words. They can concentrate on teaching sentence structure and basic rules for written work. His fine motor writing skills will continue to improve with OT. 3 targets, all achievable, and a more confident boy. Plus it'll mean his written work in other subjects reflects his thoughts better.

Another bump.

Yet another one here with the same problems. (Ds1 age 8 just going into year 4). He scores top in every spelling quiz though, but doesn't seem able to apply this to his work and his actual work sounds very similar to your ds.

I am never very happy with the literacy targets in his IEP, but at a loss to know what to suggest as an alternative.

We have just been referred to an OT, but haven't had the first appointment through as yet.

Thanks everyone. Interesting that so many kids are like mine. Is it an Aspergers thing? I don't think many people on the main board get me.

mariagoretti he is confident. Over confident and thinks he's brilliant. He refuses to do extra work with me at home, and I can't strongly suggest it without saying it's because you're not doing well enough at school :)

It's so hard to quantify and measure writing and make SMART targets.

He has made absolutely no progress in 2 years (level 2b at end of Y2 and now level 2a) - but he's only been at this school for one term.

I'll post back with what they suggest :)

His new school is absolutely fabulous (after his prev one was absolutely dire). They know he'll be out on Tues (at the OT) and so they've scheduled the fire drill for when he's out - because fire drills really upset him. Isn't that wonderful of them?

They're also quite happy to arrange alternative swimming arrangements for him as he refuses to put his face in the water. So hopefully they will have some idea of what to put in the IEP.

(I'm just used to his old school where I had to spoon feed them every line.)

I think problems with handwriting and presentation etc are very common in children with Aspergers. Ds's paediatrician says he sees a lot of fine motor problems with ASD.

My ds is alos over-confident about a lot of things and comes across as arrogant. Whatever you are trying to teach him he always says 'I can do that already - I don't need to learn it' etc. It can be a just tad frustrating.

That does sound like a lovely school. My ds starts swimming Monday after next and I am dreading it. He is really keen to go, after us spending a looong time working with him to get over his problems with having water on/in his face, but I have lots of reservations about him suddenly panicking, not being able to cope in the large echoey environment and not being able to self-manage the whole getting changed without losing his pants etc.

I would be really interested to hear what your school suggest for targets. We are currently without a SENCO while they recruit a new one, so we're having to keep even closer tabs on things ourselves.

I answered on your thread in Education as I was reading there first! But the stuff I put about the targets still applies

My DS does have AS and has trouble with actual handwriting, his fine motor skills are fairly poor and being left handed doesn't help. His spelling is almost perfect though as is his sentence construction which we put down to his incessant reading as he seems to learn from seeing it written down by others.

New school sounds good though and fairly switched on. Bet they have loads of ideas for the IEP and for strategies to help with literacy skills. Good luck for tomorrow.

Meeting with SENCO went well.

We have agreed that he won't go swimming. They agree with us, it's just not worth putting him under any more stress.

They will put him on a handwriting intervention and a reading comprehension intervention (because of his asd he can't do questions like 'why was Alice sad?' or 'How can you tell Alice was sad?')

And will get back with an IEP for us to review soon.

They also said that he scored 100% on his non verbal reasoning test - and no one else has ever done this!!!!!!!

So they agree with us that he is performing well below his potential. And they are going to do everything they can to help him.

Finally a good school. After 6 years of a bad one :(

Sounds good IndigoBell. You must be so pleased that you have found a good school. It really does make all the difference.

Its really good news that they have assessed his potential, looked at what he is capable of achieving rather than what he has achieved in the past and are going to do everything possible to help him.

You've cheered me up, hearing about a good school. Hadn't realised your ds manages to ignore the negatives so effectively. I know over confidence is not generally helpful but maybe I can look forward to occasional bouts in future! ds was crying tonight saying he keeps getting told off and the new teacher thought his drawing was rubbish . His art is really good for his age.

I don't think he even misbehaved as such (he's not angelic, but usually stores it up to start with). The poor kid doesn't understand complex verbal instructions, really can't keep silent and genuinely can't sit still. FFS with ADHD & probable asd, what else do they expect?

Mariagoretti - go and talk to his new teacher. Today. It's not on for a kid to be crying at home about something a teacher did at school.

My biggest regret now is not pulling my kids out of the old school years ago. But I had no idea it was so bad. They kept on saying it was my kid. That DS was naughty etc.

DS has been at his new school 1 term and he is now a totally different kid. The other school thought he was naughty and average. This school thinks he has ASD and is very clever.

So I just wish I had read all the signs that were there years ago. And what you are saying sounds like a red hot alarm bell. Takcle it now!

(For the not sitting still he needs a move and sit cushion and fidget toys)

thanks Indigobell. I may give it a few days & see if i still feel concerned, partly cos i'm scared of teachers myself but also cos not reading social signals may mean he overreacted to a minor comment.

That link is brilliant! Thanks a lot Starlight.

His IEP is being written at the moment. If it comes back any good I'll post it here as an example of a good one :) (She says hopefully)