By Tricia Van Susteren
On September 5, 1988, my son Joey was born 8 weeks early. My first glimpse of him lasted less than 30 seconds. He was blue and silent and was whisked off to be resuscitated. We were naïve at the time he was attempting to make his arrival. The excitement of the impending birth of our first born overshadowed the implications of a way too early arrival. Little by little we began to learn new terminology — apnea, bradicardia, intraventricular hemorrhaging, mild spastic diplegia, and lastly, cerebral palsy. Thus began our new journey of hills and valleys, tears and heartache, laughter and celebrations, and questions with no clear answers.
Because education is a major part of a child's life one of my major concerns was how would Joey do in the schools he was to attend? Would we put him in a school for children with special needs or try mainstreaming him in a public school? How would he be perceived by other students? Would the teachers be sympathetic, and, most of all, would he be given the opportunity and tools to be able to be successful in school and consequently, in life?
For preschool, we placed Joey in a school for kids with special needs where he was extremely successful and happy. After preschool, we made the difficult decision to mainstream him in the public school system.
As anything in life, the public school system is not perfect. While Joey journeyed through the public school setting, I experienced it as a parent. Now that I am a middle school teacher in Texas, I am experiencing how things function on the educational side. As a parent of a special needs child and now, as a teacher, the main thing I would like to emphasize is this: don't assume the teacher knows everything about your child.
As a parent, I assumed that the teachers knew what Joey's diagnosis was and knew how to best deal with it. I should have realized this was not the case when during an Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARD), one of Joey's teachers asked me what his diagnosis was. I naturally and wrongfully assumed it was because she hadn't received his Individualized Education Plans (IEP) or just had not read them.
Now, as a teacher, I have had an eye-opening realization. I have learned that due to confidentiality laws, the IEPs don't list the student's diagnosis and most teachers are not experienced, trained nor educated about any of the special needs diagnoses. So as a parent and a teacher, and with some input from my son Joey, I would like to impart some recommendations that I feel will help your child become more successful in school.
- Make a folder with information on your child for each teacher to give to them at the beginning of the new school year. IEPs are often not given to the teacher until 2 weeks after school begins and as stated before, the IEPs lack helpful information about the student's diagnosis. Needless to say, this can make things frustrating for the student and for the teacher. The folder should contain a brief description of the student's special need(s) with a list of things that you feel would help your child be more successful in school.
- Try to meet with your child's teachers before or soon after school starts to educate them about your child. As a teacher, I feel it would be very beneficial to make a face-to-face connection with the parent(s) and would be extremely effective to hear helpful advice about your child. The teachers can then ask any questions they may have. Also, depending on his/her age, have your child attend the meeting if possible. They can talk about their concerns and maybe give additional suggestions to the teacher. My son Joey began to attend his ARDs when he was in middle school and it was extremely useful to hear his side of things.
- Be sure to communicate with your child's teachers at least once every 1 – 2 months whether it be by e-mail or a short meeting. This way you can voice any concerns about your child and the teachers can ask any questions they may have and make any suggestions or modifications we feel could be added to his/her IEPs. For example, this school year I had a special needs student in my class that was very bright and could verbalize excellent answers to any questions. When it came to writing, he had a great deal of difficulty writing down his thoughts so I had him dictate to me what he wanted to say. This modification worked out great and alleviated a great deal of his frustration. I then suggested to his parents and our Special Education Coordinator that his modifications allow him to dictate or tape-record his responses. I also shared this strategy with several of his other teachers and they began to use it with much success. Later in his next ARD, this modification was added to his IEPs.
- Request that most of your child's teachers attend the ARDs or request a copy of evaluations all of your child's teachers have written. Usually before an ARD, the diagnostician or the special education director will ask each of your child's teachers for an up-to-date evaluation on your child's progress. Most of the time, I wasn't given this in Joey's ARDs nor was I told what each of his teachers evaluations were.
- With regard to middle school and high school, request that your child be placed in the smaller classes if possible. Most schools will have either a co-teacher or support facilitator in the classrooms that have special needs students so the smaller the amount of students in a classroom will ensure that all students get more assistance from a teacher. Unfortunately this year (2008-2009), my co-taught class had too many students in it (32). It was very frustrating for me to give the one-on-one attention I wanted to give to the special needs students because of the large class size.
- Have your child attend any after school tutorials if necessary. This way they will receive more one-on-one attention. Another reason for this is that in the middle school setting some students get embarrassed in the classroom if they are receiving a lot of one-on-one attention from the teacher. They sometimes feel singled out. If they attend tutorials then some of this pressure will be alleviated because they will not have their peers around and may feel more comfortable verbalizing their concerns and difficulties to their teachers.
- Lastly, and most importantly, teach your child to become an advocate for themselves. This is a life strategy that a wonderful high school Special Education Liaison taught Joey. Advocating for himself gave Joey more independence and empowerment in and out of school.
I am proud to say that Joey is now a sophomore majoring in Journalism and Political Science at the University of North Texas. No, the road to college wasn't an easy one and yes, he does still have some difficulties and challenges, but he has grown into an independent and responsible young man. If there is one word of wisdom I can impart to you it would be this: given the right tools, love, independence, and support, a child with special needs can succeed in school and in life.
For more information, contact Trisha Van Susteren or Will Hull at (202) 973-7106.
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