Statement objectives IEP

[claw2]

Ds has just received his first IEP after receiving his statement and its pretty rubbish. So is his statement and school are only following this, however I was hoping it would at least be SMART.

Statement objectives are

Manage high levels of anxiety

To use language to express his feelings and thoughts and communicate his needs to others

to increase his self help and independence

to build his fine and gross motor skills

to foster his social interaction and general communication skills and his ability to learn as part of a group

An example.........................

Target 1 English

Ds will become more able to accept 'constructive criticism' of his creative writing.

Resources - Lots of praise and reassurance that not everything has to be correct.

Target 2 writing

To begin to write in a cursive style

Resources- Regular practice

There is no mention of who, what or how often. There is no mention of how it will be monitored or how success will be measured.

Now do I try and get school to improve on the IEP? to make it more detailed?

or

Do I just focus on annual review in a few months and try and improve the statement?

That's good Claw. The thing is, it's very possible that they simply didn't put much thought into the IEP and consider it just paperwork and that they will respond to your Ds as and when it occurs to them. It's not good practice but it is fairly normal an approach for many settings.

Also, most parents don't pay too much attention to IEPs so schools are not held account or 'policed' for their competence here. It won't be the well thought out process it ought to be. Some random person that works with your Ds was asked to write it and the SENCO signed it off in an evening full of the things whilst her DH tries to get her to commit to a stressful weekend visit to her in-laws.

That's true Star. The reoccurring theme I am getting from the school, is everything they do is more about compliance, as oppose to how they are going to support ds to enable him to do the things they want him to achieve.

That 'theme' has been paramount since ds started school full stop and it doesn't have the desired effect. It has the opposite and really effects ds's self esteem. Ds desperately wants to comply, that's the problem, its his inability to be able to get it 'right' or do what is asked of him and failing, that causes him to self harm.

Hopefully this school will take my comments on board and realise im not just a fussy, nit picker!

Great news, I went parents evening last night, class teacher thanked me for my input on IEP, told me he is rubbish at writing at writing them and could I please go and write all his IEP's for him!

Old IEP has been scraped and everything I changed in IEP is to be included!

That IS good news.

I hope you told him of a great IEP-writing company StarClaw, at just £20 per IEP.

You know what though. It's not great that he's rubbish at, well, his job. But it must be such a relief not to have to deal with idiots who get it wrong and deny they have stuff to learn.

Well done claw - parent-power!!

Mind you, it might be his job, but at least the teacher had the decency to admit that he's not great at it. Not like the teachers at my son's old school who had as one of his IEPs "remember to wear his glasses"!!!!

Lol@ IEP writing company!

My case was helped when he emailed me yesterday asking me to take ds for an eye test as he couldn't read from the IWB. I kindly pointed him in the direct of ds's dx of eye disorder and photophobia and reports stating ds cannot read from IWB's and what should be done!

Its a relief, that as least he is hands up, I don't know what im supposed to be doing. Which is exactly why ds needs a concise statement, so he does know, which he is also in agreement with!

A big phew on my part, at last a school I can work with!

Claw - DS1 has interventions on his IEP for anxiety. No need for back up by CAMHS or any other formal investigations. This includes SALT - social skills and 'mindfulness' training, OT and phsyio - Alert programme. There is also a step by step plan to eventually get him talking to the onsite counsellor.

This approach might mean you can get SALT and OT provision without having to first get DS to participate with formal assessments or needing an official, external stamp of approval. Instead of going back to arguing about the cause of anxiety, focus on 'treating' manifest anxiety, regardless of cause.

One thing that I have found out is that SALT and OT interventions are really aimed at younger children. At 12 the aim is to help DS1 cope with what are expected to be life-long issues.

Thanks Keep, it is fast becoming obvious (although its taken me years!) to realise that maybe ds's self harming is going to be a life long issue and his way of dealing with stress.

Even with a statement and all the support in the world, I cant take away all stresses for ds.

Helping ds to cope with his self injury, is something I am struggling with at the minute. Im coping, he isn't. His body is smothered in cuts again, you literally cannot see the skin on his legs for cuts and he has started on his upper body now.

Most nights he is getting very distressed and upset by the fact he has all these cuts and the fact he scratches and causes them. Which then causes him to scratch/pick at them even more. Its a vicious circle and I cant break it at the moment.

I have antibiotic/steroid cream to put on the worse cuts to try and stop them from becoming infected. I am using distraction ie x-box to keep his hands busy. We have tried a stress ball, some sensory lights and bubbles for his room.

CAMHS are not much help, they just tell me I have been dealing with it for a long time, I know what to do, just keep doing what I do.